http://www.halloweenchoice.org/

 

 

 

October 2008 update

 

 

The Church of England is currently mounting a crusade (apparently being spearheaded by the Manchester Diocese) to make Halloween celebrations unpopular, leading to an expected eventual ban on this ancient holiday.

 

The latest 2008 CofE attack on Halloween in effect incites hatred towards UK Pagans. This potentially unlawful action is being seen by Pagans as a malicious fundamentalist effort against our traditional and sacred 'Samhain' festival.

 

Inciting religious hate is not an option under UK law for the CofE.

 

PAN has been in correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office to complain about this insult to Paganism. Lambeth Palace has in fact replied several times to Pat Regan (PAN founder) with a guarded apology for any offence caused to Pagans. However, we have not been impressed with the apparent inability for them to halt this hate campaign against Pagans. Lambeth Palace has suggested that Dr Williams has had no part in this campaign and that it is solely a Manchester Diocese initiative, based on combating consumerism. This lamb excuse  is however NOT good enough - it will NOT wash!. The CofE are, we believe, in violation of religious hate laws and must be held accountable for their unwarranted actions.

 

PAN demands for this socially - destructive evangelical crusade to be halted immediately and that a proper apology be issued by the Church to all UK Pagans. The CofE can of course correct this religious hatred by stopping the campaign completely. Alternatively, they can correct it by leaving the campaign intact and  including proper disclaimers about Paganism in their offensive literature.

 

It's time this religious intolerance was eradicated now!

 

Visit this informative site for more info on the real reasons behind the CofE crusade against minorities now:

 

http://halloweenchoiceorg.bravehost.com 

 

 

Checkout the facts below for reference on the Pagan perspective regarding this avoidable issue:

 

(1) Halloween is traditionally one of the oldest British religious festivals celebrated in Scotland particularly up to and beyond 1870s. It is not an American invention.

 

(2) Trick or Treat is not an American invention - the games, fun and harum scarum at Halloween are all typically British being listed in Robert Burns 1875 poem Halloween for all to see. It is part of our traditional culture.

 

(3) There is absolutely no medical evidence to suggest that dressing up or the wearing of masks is psychologically damaging to children or in any way harmful. The allegation is false. Children have been happily celebrating Halloween for hundreds of years without harm.

 

(4) Halloween is a genuine Celtic festival and was celebrated in Britain long before it was Christianised. The early Christians invented All Saints Day on November 2 to try to replace Halloween but failed because the people enjoyed Halloween so much.

 

(5) Attacks on Halloween by religious bigots are now outlawed under the Religious Hatred laws and Pagans are demanding that the Church of England stops those amongst its members who feel they have to insult the ceremonies and rites of other religions. Can you imagine the outcry if they had accused Moslems of abusing their children by making them fast during Ramadan?

 

(6) Everyone to his own, Pagans see the modern Christmas as an appallingly materialistic travesty of ancient religious ideals, yet we don't go around demanding that Christmas decorations and outdoor illuminations are banned.

 

(7) Saman's Vigil  is the Anglicised interpretation of the Celtic festival 'Samhain' pronounced 'Zoween' or 'Sowin'. It is also termed Festival of Light or Fire. The Vigil of Saman, or Samhain, occurs on October 31st and was observed for at least a thousand years before Britain was Christianised.

 

(8) Samhain was the Celts' most important festival because it was marked as their New Year's Day.

 

(9) Saman is the Celtic lord of Death and Rebirth. Samhain is the mysterious, late season festival for remembering our beloved ancestors and renewing fire for the harsh cold months of winter. It's basis is intimately linked with 'LOVE' and the natural cycle and not any type of evil, as troublemaking evangelists would have us believe.

 

(10) Christian fundamentalist activists always rush in to claim that Halloween is not a British tradition and should not be followed in the U.K.. This falsehood relies upon igniting  'anti-American' sentiment within insular British minds, because the truth of the matter is that Halloween is NOT an American importation, it is an entirely British tradition, which was actually exported to the U.S.A. by European immigrants. Such fundamentally - inspired racism, against our American cousins, should not be tolerated in a modern UK society.

 

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The CofE are guilty of double standards - when it comes to concern for children

 

The Church of England is campaigning to get major retailers to stop stocking Halloween Joke masks and costumes. They insist that dressing up can somehow cause irreparable long-term psychological damage! Does this also apply to their Nativity Plays?, After all I once saw a person dressed up as virtually naked man hanging on a cross with blood running down his head from thorns piercing his scalp and with a gaping gash in his abdomen dripping blood whilst having nails hammered through his hands and feet into a wooden cross. We certainly wouldn't want children to see something like that would we? Anyone with any common sense knows that the only irreparable damage Halloween causes is to the future of killjoys in the Church of England because ordinary folk are sick to the eye-teeth of listening to these harbingers of doom trying to stop children having fun and enjoying themselves.

 

http://halloweenchoiceorg.bravehost.com 

 

 

PAN founder Pat Regan recalls:

 

"As a small child I was taken to a church by my mother. Images of the Stations of the Cross were so graphically sadistic and bloody that I would faint on a regular basis and have to be carried outside onto the lawn to recover. Such blatant images haunted me for many years and I would ask - how many other youngsters were also affected by this obscene spectacle via scenes of religious agony and death? In light of this the latest church efforts against Halloween fun give evidence that clear double standards are alive and well today in that belief system. The Christian Easter torture exhibition is furthermore displayed to innocent children as being a REAL event. Alternatively, Halloween they are told, is only FANTASY. Consequently, will we now see the Church banning their own representations (many of which are in fact historically erroneous) of a man suffering death in a most heinous fashion on a wooden cross, or is this a satisfactory image for little children to glare at? The situation habitually drummed up by the Church at Halloween (which now includes inciting potential religious hate) is therefore hypocritical, ridiculous and wholly untenable. I would sincerely hope that all parents, supermarket managers and everyone else would be able to be through this ludicrous fiasco once and for all.

 

 

 

NB. It is indeed vitally important for all parents to understand the hidden missionary agenda behind the CofE's latest campaign.

 

We invite the  media to follow up this story because it affects us 'all' and is a question of human rights, liberty and dignity in this country.

 

Contact PAN:

 

pagansuk@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

See also:

 

http://www.saff.ukhq.co.uk/hallowe.htm

 

http://www.saff.ukhq.co.uk/haloween.htm

 

http://www.patregan.freeuk.com/halloween08.htm

 

http://www.patregan.freeuk.com/pan_warning.htm

 

 

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