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Vatican warns parents on Halloween
L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, ran an article Thursday with the headline "Halloween's dangerous messages," ANSA, the Italian news agency, reported.
''Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian,'' the Rev. Joan Maria Canals, a liturgical expert, told the newspaper.
Canals, a member of a Spanish commission on church ritual, urged parents to "try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.''
The holiday is believed to have its origins in Celtic festivals marking the beginning of the dark half of the year. The Irish believed that on Samhain, as their festival was called, the boundary between the living world and the world of spirits became thin. The holiday is now celebrated on the eve of the Christian feast of All Saints.
Halloween was not a traditional festival in most of southern Europe but has become increasingly popular. More than 1 million pumpkins are sold in Italy now for the holiday, and costume-makers report they are almost as busy at the end of October as they are for Carnival, the traditional festivity before Lent begins.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
This news arrived on: 10/30/2009
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Posted Comments:
11-01-2009 19:51
J. C. wrote:
Halloween
Just as Christmas has become a secular holiday as well as a religious one, Halloween has become a secular holiday for kids to dress up in costume, go door-to-door for candy, and even collect money for UNICEF. The origins of the holiday are not really important anymore; just like Santa and the reindeer have nothing to do with Christmas and bunnies have nothing to do with Easter.
11-01-2009 01:10
j47cats wrote:
Halloween
I'm confussed. I was always told Halloween was the celebration for the eve of All Saints day and was a religious feast. And now the Vatican says it is anti-christian.
I think I preferr my old teachings.
I think I preferr my old teachings.
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