Every year in early October, Halloween props, decorations, and costumes begin to fill the entrance ways and isles of malls, departments stores, and even grocery stores. Advertisements for haunted houses, costume parties, and other Halloween events begin popping up all around us. As we are reminded once again of the Halloween season, the debate about Halloween festivities starts brewing. Is Halloween an evil tradition based on satanism and witchcraft or is it just a time to have some harmless fun with family and friends? The debate rages on.

Halloween is celebrated every year on the night of October 31st. Many people love Halloween time and enjoy dressing up as their favorite character, taking their children trick-or-treating, eating candy, and going to costume parties and think it is just good clean fun. However, others think of Halloween as an evil ritual based on satanic practices and should be avoided at all costs. This brings up an interesting discussion with many heated and passionate arguments on both sides of the issue.

Good Clean Fun

If you are like many people, you have fond memories of Halloween as you were growing up. You remember picking out the costume of your favorite cartoon super hero or your mother making a cool ghost outfit made of a simple white sheet with some holes cut out for the eyes. With a little plastic jack-o-lantern or paper sack, you frolicked about the neighborhood with your friends going door to door quoting the famous phrase “trick or treat”. You were excited to see what kind of candy or other treat you would get. Sometimes you would eat some of the candy while you wandered the neighborhood even though your parents told you to save it until you got home where they could ration your consumption (while they picked through some of the “good stuff” for themselves). You remember costume parties, hayrides, and visiting the local make-shift haunted house or haunted woods. You watched favorite Halloween television specials and just had a lot of fun with your friends and have special memories of this spooky holiday.

Evil Ritual

While many people find no harm in having fun at Halloween, there are also many that avoid any activity or get together that has anything to do with Halloween. Many believe that the origins of Halloween are based on satanistic rituals and witchcraft and any celebration or participation in Halloween activities is condoning satanism, witchcraft, and other evil based traditions.

Conflicting Beliefs

There are conflicting beliefs on the history of Halloween. One belief is that it originated as a Celtic pagan festival originally named Samhain in Ireland where Celtic priests (known as Druids) performed rituals by offering sacrifices or crops, animals, and supposedly even humans to appease the gods. This was done to ensure the sun would return after the winter season and the evil spirits would be frightened away. Another belief is that much of the information about the origins of Halloween are based on myths, inaccuracies, and other fiction and that no historical evidences link Halloween to satanism or witchcraft.

So, is Halloween an evil ritual? Is it good clean fun? Is it what we make of it now regardless of it’s origins? Should we totally avoid it at all costs? Should we celebrate it as a time of plentiful harvest? What is your opinion? The debate rages on…

To post your opinion or read other points of view about the origins of Halloween [http://computerhalloween.com/Articles/sid-12/Origins_of_Halloween], visit Computer Halloween, a popular site about homemade Halloween decorations [http://computerhalloween.com/Articles/sid-11/Homemade_Halloween_Decorations] and controlling your Halloween displays with a computer.