If you do not celebrate Halloween, why not?

Its because I live in a small island in the Mediterranean and if I walked around dressed as a pirate and asking for candy door to door I would be carted off to a mental institution.

I can’t fit into my Princess Leia costume anymore.

I “celebrate it” by buying and giving out candy. When my kids were little, I helped them make costumes and go trick or treating. I think it’s a fun holiday for children, but I think it’s gotten way too hyped up and commercialized in recent years.

Maybe I’m just a Halloween Grinch!

Over here in England it doesn’t seem to be as popular as it is in the States and is often only “celebrated” by kids trick or treating at a few doors in their neighbourhoods. Quite simply I wasn’t raised to celebrate it and don’t know enough about the history of halloween to have a reason to celebrate it.

As a child beccause my church didn’t believe in practicing it. Now that I’m older because it holds no appeal, seems kind of stupid to me.

I think it’s stupid. Not because of some religion type thing, but I don’t really see a point in it, you go around dressed in costumes to get free candy from neighbors you don’t really know. Wow it’s so fun!~

Growing up in a Jewish home, we just didn’t celebrate it. Plus, we didn’t have much money, so it wouldn’t have been in our budget to buy candy to give away to strangers.

Besides, Jews have their own holiday to play dress-up: Purim.

@Marina That was cute, but off topic. But really cute.

@drdoombot Yeah, but purim is in the spring, and this way you have twice the fun!

And dreidels taste like crap; nothing beats trick-or-treating for the good candy.

More reason to dislike religion!

I love Halloween.

Jews don’t celebrate Halloween? My best friend is such a bad jew.

@casheroo The History of Halloween

Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.

All Hallows Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.

Not Jewish at all.

Maybe not all Jews celebrate it, but I never heard any prohibitions about it and we and all my Jewish friends certainly always celebrated it. Despite its derivation, I think we can consider it a totally non-religious holiday at this point.

@janbb Agreed. (Although we were not encouraged to participate in Halloween when I was young (you were but a glint in a penguin’s eye back then); we were simply told that come purim, we’ dhave all the candy and treats we “missed out” on Halloween.

We then went from door to door (of our Jewish friends’ homes, of course; no-one other then the Jews celebrated “Halloween” in March, right? and did the Purim “trick or treat”.You?

@NewZen “Glint in a penguin’s eye” When did you meet my Dad?

Purim was not a big deal where I grew up, although when my sons were growing up, there were Purim Carnivals and suchlike. Halloween was the biggie for costumes and noshing.

<<<Can nosh with the best of ‘em. What’s your fave Purimnosh?

Dreidels taste like plastic.

And rasberry Hamantoshen are the shiznet.

Wow, I had no idea that Halloween had any connection to Christianity. I thought it was purely pagan! I knew all about All Saint’s Day, but I didn’t know it had anything to do with All Hallows Eve. You learn something new every day! I’m from a very jewish area, but they all celebrated Halloween along with the gentiles. :)

I still celebrate it, but I’m only 22 so a lot of my friends still have Halloween parties where we’re expected to dress up. Even the lab that I work in has a Halloween party at my PI’s house, which is really awesome because they live in a house that is several hundred years old, and does Halloween really well.

There are people that don’t celebrate Halloween? Say it ain’t so! And for those of you who think Halloween is stupid, well shame on you. I hope Santa misses your house this Giftmas and Nackles shows up instead. =)

@Psychedelic_Zebra Haha :P

@NewZen Not to be difficult, but how is my answer to your question “off topic”? You asked why I don’t celebrate Halloween, and I told you. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Perhaps you should added no humor to your details. Questioners can ask, but cannot control answers! I’ve seen several of your NewZen threads that try, though.

Frankly, I thought the comments about Purim were off topic!

@drdoombot Jews aren’t supposed to celebrate halloween? I never knew this. When I was younger we didn’t have a lot of money so my sister and I would go out to trick or treat and half way through the night fill up my moms candy bowl with the candy we didn’t like from our trick or treat bags for my mom to give out the rest of the night. Then we would go out and finish going around te neighborhood. This way my mom only bought half the candy she needed.

I was never allowed to as a child for religious reasons. My mother was convinced about the devil worship and razors in my apples and stuff. (who really gives out apples on Halloween?) I do now to make up for lost times, I suppose. I just love dressing like an idiot, even if I don’t go anywhere or do anything. I’ve tried doing this on other days of the year but usually it doesn’t work out unless I’m making a video or something. I personally love Halloween. I love everything being ‘spooky’ (whatever that means) and watching all the old scary movies (especially B movies) and wearing masks and wigs and whatnot.
(off topic but I had to throw that in there)

@Clair, funny how that razor blades in apples and needles in Snickers bars urban legend got around. I used to hear the same story when I was a child, and I’m damn near fifty. My mom was religious, but she never equated halloween with Satan.

@Psychedelic_Zebra I was never allowed to read Harry Potter, wear an excessive amount of black, no dark finger nail polish, no fake tattoos were allowed, no piercings besides the ears, no emo looking hairstyles, I mean NOTHING. Ev.er.y.thing. was associated with Satan. Now I have 3 piercings and 3 tattoos and I stick out like a sore thumb in the Bible Belt. I’m not a goth or anything, just sort of artsy and different. She hated my “hippy” phase too…...sigh, guess you can’t ever please Mommy Dearest :P

@Marina—My comment of being off topic was off topic. But truthfully, is that really why you don’t celebrate Halloween? Can’t you find another costume? Plus, the Purim is connected to Halloween if you read the rest of the question – it is the Jewish Halloween, and thus exactly the answer to the question. I won’t go into what I’ve written in other threads, unless you want to be specific about something, and we can take that into PM. I think you were mistaken on this one, Marina.

:-)

@Clair Gah! Just reading that makes me want to go all goth just to bother your mother lol.

@casheroo me and you both! :P

@JLeslie read @Clair.‘s

@NewZen not sure what about @Clair answer you are pointing out? Was his mother Jewish? I never knew we weren’t supposed to celebrate Halloween. I think of that as a Jehovah Witness thing. Shows my ignorance.

@JLeslie Maybe it’s because I was raised in an Orthodox community?

We didn’t celebrate any non-Jewish holidays, except for Thanksgiving, which has sort of been co-opted as a Jewish holiday in my area.

I’ve heard of non-Orthodox Jews celebrating Christmas too, which just strikes me as very strange.

@drdoombot RIGHT, THANKS!

@JLeslie As I said above, I think the proportion of Jews who don’t celebrate Halloween is quite small; I even know Orthodox Jews who celebrate it. And Thanksgiving is really an American holiday completely. Chirstmas is a whole other discussion and not germaine to this thread.

I’m not American.
There is “Walpurgisnacht” in Germany, which is basically an excuse to imitate Americans and make some money if you’re selling witches’ costumes. I often sang on that night when I was singing professionally, but it’s got more of a “Wyrd Sisters” feel to it than the pumpkin-faced American celebration. And there’s no kids going around tricking or treating.

I personally don’t celebrate it though. I don’t see the point.

Jews celebrating Christmas? Yes, that is strange. I have Muslim friends who sometimes decorate a tree, but I think that’s more of a civil tradition for them, not meant religiously.

After I was diagnosed with diabetes (at age 39) and found out I couldn’t eat all the candy that I would spend hours walking around to collect, that put a damper on the entire Halloween and trick-or-treat sensation.

@drdoombot I can see how in an orthdodox community they might not bother with Halloween. It’s weird to me also when Jews celebrate Christmas. I celebrate it with friends and my husbands family, but I don’t have a tree in my home. Having said that I was looking forward to having Christmas when I was engaged to my husband (because as a kid I always wanted a tree) and then my husband, then fiance, went and converted.

this is somewhat off topic but I thought you all might get a kick outta this: http://www.smbc-theater.com/?id=173

I never really got into it, my elementary Had this fair type thing that I dressed up for, but after that I just kinda stopped doing the dress up thing and enjoyed all the nightmare before Christmas clothes that would suddenly pop up.

I just got to old I guess. But it is fun to see little kids in their costumes. Makes me nostalgic.

because it represents a pagan holiday which is against christians. It represents satan