its a harmless bit of fun for children. Im 25 and i use to do it when i was a kid. Where do they come up with these things.

He is a killjoy!

I used to celebrate halloween as a kid, it had no long term effects on me.

The whole point of Halloween is to scare the hell out of each other and have a laugh. A lot of the stuff for sale isn't even that expensive. People like this guy should get a life and enjoy it a bit

It is not a bit of fun. However, I can see why some people think this way. Maybe highlighting the reasons for the stand against Halloween might be a goods starting point. If some of the people that subscribe to the 'Killjoy' theory saw the results of the dark side of their children then perhaps they may change their attitude.

This is ridiculous!

Halloween is all about scaring each other! The Bishops statements of the "evil" of the occult bely the fact that alot of the notoriety gained by occult practises originates purely from them being contrary to church doctrine.

Move out of the dark ages Rev Gillett!

I never understoof the idea of making Halloween out to be evil.

Just because a child puts on a devil costume does not mean the kid thinks (s)he is a devil. Just because a kid put on a ghost costume does not mean the kid thinks (s)he is dead.

It's entertainment. No one takes it seriously anymore. This isn't 1490.

Thank you Jack Chick.

This guy IS a killjoy. He doesn't even know that "Haloween" originated in Western Europe? That just shoots his credibility right out the window.

In the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

Folklore tells that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of people who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

In Closing: Judeo-Christian idiology throughout the history have done everything down to blood-shed in attempts to assimilate everyone into their belif system. I think this display is sick and dissrespectful to the Pegan and Heathens who created these festivals. The idea of forcing these children to dress up like princesses and fairies is rediculous.

There is a reason why the most popular children's books often had scary/dark elements to them - i.e. Grimm's Fairy Tales, Where the Wild Things Are, etc. We humans LIKE a bit of a safe thrill and chill, and Halloween has long been popular for exactly that reason. I have no problem with offering a variety of options, but to condemn an entire segment simply because a few kids find some of it too convincingly scary, is idiotic. You can't bubble-wrap the world and everything in it, and expect to raise productive, well-balanced adults. Offer it ALL up, and let the kids decide how they want to dress...you'll soon discover what sells, and what doesn't. Retailers offer what is most-wanted and requested by the consumer, and that's exactly how it needs to continue.

All kids enjoy dressing up at halloween and attending fancy dress parties, or going trick or treating, without any `lasting damage`. It`s christian opinion if anything that creates any fear through preaching irrational beliefs, and without any credible scientific proof, should not be allowed to do so!

My (ironic) response is: lighten up! First of all, kids love it; they spend most of their time being (in their minds) helpless victims, so it's fun to be the fierce monster and probably GOOD for them! Secondly, take back the Christian aspects of the holiday? I thought we Americans were the idiots, folks. Halloween was one of the old redneck pagan holidays celebrated LONG before the Christians landed on your islands. The historical Christian aspects of your holiday are identical to the modern heathen aspects, to remember the honored dead. Hold a memorial then if you want to be Christian about it...but leave the rest of us alone. We want to have fun. You, sir, are in denial if you think you are not a killjoy.

I think everyone is entitled to their own beliefs & traditions aslong as they don't harm others, especially around October 31st.
It does have to be said that trick or treat as we know it today is a tradition passed down from America.
There are many ways of marking the time of Year & for anyone wanting to take a look at what else is [re]presented by that time of year running a google or wikipedia search for
Samhain might help.

Certainly a date in the calendar worth celebrating for everybody!

I have celebrated this holiday for many many years, and I have yet to kill anyone, sacrifice animals, or commit my soul to the devil.

The crazy drunken/psychotropic orgies are real though, and great fun!

Enough of this War Against Halloween, Bishop. You have your holiday, let me have mine.

*sigh* I see that fundamental Christian idiocy has crossed the pond.

The origin of Halloween is, of course, the celebration of Samhain (pronounced SOW-en), or "Summers End". It is the last of the Harvest Festivals, when things were packed down for the long cold Winter. It is at this time of the year that the Veil to the "other side" is thinnest, and so when it is easiest to communicate with the dead and possibly for them to visit. So in a way it IS scarey, but needn't be.

As a child, the local churches held trick or treating events. The local priest would lead groups of kids if their parents were not available. The rule was simple, if the porch light was on, the family was willing to greet trick or treaters. If the porchlight was off, they did not wish to be disturbed and you went to a house with a porchlight shining. Halloween is a time for kids and their older counter parts to have a little fun. Dressing in "scary" costumes does not mean that the individual will join a satanic cult or become a practitioner of the "dark arts". Every single person that I went trick or treating with grew up to become responsible adults. I believe that the Rt. Rev Gillett has his knickers in a bunch over nothing yet it has not dimmed his sales pitch.

Thank goodness someone admits that Halloween is a Christian invention. For far to long people have tried to blame it on the Pagans. [Grin]

Halloween as we know it complete with Trick of Treat was first pushed by the Boy Scouts in the USA in the 1930 as a way to overcome a tendency for vandalism that had developed over the years since it was first introduced in the 1800s.

There is nothing wrong with the idea that kids could be dressed up as more positive things than serial killers. Even when I was a kid back in the 1950s not everyone dressed up as something scary, positive and neutral things were represented as well.

Samhain (pronounced 'sow'inn') is a very important date in the Pagan calendar for it marks the Feast of the Dead when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. Many Pagans also celebrate it as the old Celtic New Year.

Later, when the festival was adopted by Christians, they celebrated it as All Hallows Eve, followed by All Saints Day, though it still retained elements of remembering and honouring the dead.

To most modern Pagans, while death is still the central theme of the festival this does not mean it is a morbid event. For Pagans, death is not a thing to be feared. Old age is valued for its wisdom and dying is accepted as a part of life as necessary and welcome as birth.

Loved ones who have recently died are remembered and their spirits often invited to join the living in the celebratory feast.

I think the church, having run out of rational things to whine about, have decided to stick their protuberant nose into something minor and harmless.
Kids have been dressing up as witches, skeletons and ghosts for the last 100 years and no spiritual harm has come of it.
It's another example of higher authorities trying to regulate everyone's life, for their so-called good.

Last time I checked people dressed up as scary creatures to blend in with the hoards of ghouls which supposedly walked the earth that night. That way they'd avoid being noticed and coming to a grisly end.. You're not going to have too much luck with that if you're dressed in a day-glo pink wig, are you? This fella needs to lighten up and get a grip...

You can tell by the number of yanks that have commented on here that Halloween ( Trick or Treat,thats all it is ) is NOT A UK traddition, only since the influx of cheap yank movies have kids cottoned on to a way to fleece and annoy people in their own homes.... ban 'trick or treat' ... if individuals want to dress their kids up .. keep them away from other peoples property.

Like stealing Easter and X-mas from us Pagans wasn't enough. now they want Halloween to. Even though it is the commercialised version of Samhain, They should keep there hands of it!

This is a no brainer really. Holloween is actually from the celebration of 'hallowed eve' or a celebration on the eve of the day of the dead. If you are not Christian you will think I'm a nut, but Halloween was established in order to secularize the world. We (as Christians) are called to remember the Saints that have lived, died and been reborn into eternal life through the blood of Christ at Calvary - Halloween is specifically to take the significance out of All Saints Day, therefore, it is an abomination created in the spirit of antichrist to celebrate the culture of death now most prominent in the world. A true Christian should never celebrate Halloween - instead we should give thanks and offer supplication and prayer and give thanks for the Saints on All Saints Day November 1st.

May God bless him that hath ears to hear and eyes to see.