Halloween - celebrate it or not?

As you may have noticed, I live in SE Europe, where Halloween is not a tradition. In the past decade there have been tries, mostly by night bars and event managers, to make it a tradition, which have faced a strong resistant of the Roman Catholic community (and the majority of people in this area are Roman Catholics). 


I decided to write this post, after reading a discussion on Facebook - the author of (in my opinion) a very high-quality blog, published the photo above and in this way made it very clear to her fans that she does not celebrate Halloween because it is in the contrary to the Christian traditions and therefore, does not want to publish materials related to the aforementioned day. The entire debate can be seen here. (it is not in English)

Source: http://www.facebook.com/Zlatna.djeca

 

However, I think her blog is brilliant, it is definitely one of the better ones from the Croatian-speaking area. I often visit it, I intend to do it in the future as well- she is an experienced teacher who loves her job and selflessly shares free, printable worksheets and other educational materials.

The reason for this post is the author's explanation of the above photo (I have translated it for my English speaking readers): "Dear friends, the All Saints Day is coming soon, Christians (and many others) find it to be a very serious day with a deep message, and it has nothing to do with the Halloween. This site finds our religion, culture and tradition to be very important, and Halloween is in the contrary to it, so I kindly ask my fans not to send any materials associated with "Halloween," because I will not publish them! However, I'll gladly publish any material related the All Saints and All Souls Day! "
 As I have written, I have nothing against the author of the blog, but what bothers me is the exclusivity and close-minded attitude, not only in Christian but also in other religions, the intolerance to the new, which for me are all incompatible with the spirit of our modern time.

I understood the author's argument (you can see it in the comments on the above link) that "she is her own boss on her blog", so she is the only one who decides what (not) to publish - after all, the most of us  started writing a blog for similar reasons, without proofreaders, editors and censors. I am also aware of the cultural aspect, it is clear why any religion does not want to adopt new practices, since by assimilating the religion would be actually gone, but I still find that such a tough and close-minded attitude is incompatible with the spirit of today's global world.

I will not carve the pumpkin on 31st October, because I don't know how, nor will I in any special way  mark the day, since it has never been a tradition in my family, nor my country, but I definitely intend to talk to my children (who I am trying to raise in a spirit of tolerance towards others)  about All Hallow's Eve, as the ancient Celtic tradition that is today a tradition in the Anglo-Saxon world and unfortunately commercialized, as well as all other holidays throughout the world. And we even may do some worksheet related to the Halloween topic. 

Happy Halloween to all of you who are celebrating it!

P.S. If you wish, take some time and look at the awesome linky party I am participating in.