The Sensuous Curmudgeon, in 2008, put up a response to AiG's Ken Ham's wailing "preaching to the choir" sermons about what's coming every year on Oct.31st— Halloween. The holiday regarded by Ham as
"… indicative of the [sic] prevailing godless worldview— a celebration in which children are encouraged to beg from their neighbors, while playing with traditions that date back to the most dangerous pagan occult practices."
Well let me see what Answers.com really say about Halloween traditions children are "encouraged" to play with according to Ham,
Samhain. The Celts of modern-day Ireland and the UK two and a half millennia ago braced themselves for winter with this festival, which is pronounced "sowen," literally means "summer's end" and falls on November 1. It heralds the beginning of the dark, cold half of the year. (Its counterpart was Beltane, which kicked off the warm, light half of the year on May 1.) The harvest was gathered in to protect against the wintry blast of the faeries' breath, and Samhain was an occasion for thanksgiving, sacrifices, divination and prayers. In each home the hearth-fire was extinguished the night before and relit on Samhain from the central bonfires of the priestly Druids.
Pomona. She is the Roman goddess of fruit trees and the symbol of abundance. There was a festival dedicated to her worship at the end of autumn, around the time of the big harvest. When the Romans arrived in Britain, in the first century, they melded their customs with those of the Celts whom they conquered.
Feralia. This is the ancient Roman festival of the dead, which was held on February 21 with prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the deceased. The customs of this day were also blended by the Romans with those of Samhain. Feralia was superseded in the Christian Church by All Saints Day, also known as All Hallow's Day or Hallowmas, observed on May 13. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III changed the date to November 1 (though it is still marked in springtime, on the Sunday after Pentecost, by the Eastern Orthodox Church). All Saint's Day was followed by All Soul's Day, established by Saint Odilo of Cluny on November 2 to remember the souls awaiting release from Purgatory. Halloween is a contraction for "Hallow's even" the evening of All Hallow's Day, i.e., October 31.
So it's like a combination of both Christian and the so-called "prevailing godless worldview" that make up Halloween. Thus, Ham is only half-right and especially half-wrong when he claims,
"Many parents who encourage their children to go trick-or-treating may not realize the occult background to this practice and simply see the activity as harmless fun. This may unwittingly lay their children open to all sorts of evil influence."
Like what? Gloating over the candy they got, or setting grounds for getting a stomach ache when they ate too much candy? No, Ham they're really not being opened to all sorts of evil influence. If they are, then you are indeed adding to it by dictating to Christians on how they must deal with Halloween your way. According to you, the one of the ways to deal with Halloween is to proselytize, giving out tracts containing more than just enough to poison the minds of children with stupid lies, direct distortion, paranoia, outright slander, and heavy duty indoctrination into believing that evolution is the source of all evils and that this world is thousands of years old and dinosaurs once lived with humans other than birds. Other ways is for parents to not allow their children to take part in any Halloween celebrations whether at school or in the neighborhood. Just shield your children from all sorts of Halloween fun so you can dish out your own brand of Halloween celebrations in form of forcing children to feel the sting of abuse whether sexual or physical. And it doesn't happen only on Halloween, it happens every single day for a helpless child to undergo a long, painful Halloween that will subsequently ends in either death for the victim and either life imprisonment or death row for the abuser (i.e. Andrea Yates) or ends in the authorities coming over to rescue the child, imprison the abuser and put an end the child's long Halloween one and for all (i.e. Dave Peltzer)
Answers in Genesis adding to the child's long Halloween with howling sermons and handing out religious tracts filled with proselytism, hate, lies, and intellectual abuse— now that's scary.
