The day of tricks, treats, and all things ghoulish known as Halloween is upon us on Tuesday of this week. While Halloween, as practiced by many Americans, has little spiritual or religious significance apart from the use of supernatural imagery, it’s religious and specifically non-Jewish origins cannot be denied, having grown out of the pagan Celtic Samhain, the Irish All Hallows Eve and the Catholic All-Saints Day.
With such a pedigree, I think a Jew’s participation in Halloween activities is questionable at best. The emphasis of Judaism is on life, not death, and we certainly have a number or days and occasions during the year where we remember those who are no longer with us physically. The folks over at the Orthodox Union seem to agree, and have posted some thoughts as part of a series called “Wicca, Torah, and Truth,” which looks at Wicca, witchcraft, and the modern Jew.
What do you think? Do you plan to party like a pumpkin, or is this just another Tuesday night? Post your thoughts, and let us hear what’s in that Yiddeshe kop of yours.
4 Comments:
I have a hard time with Halloween. On one hand, its roots are pagan and goyisha. It deals with idolotry and demonology and many things not so semitically cool.
On the other, it is not really what it used to be. Kids dont go around and wonder who they will sacrifice up next. Its about dressing up, candy, and parties.
What is even more remarkable is how all of America, it seems, opens their doors to their neighbors, distributes candy and treats, and embraces one hell of a communal bonding holiday secular experience.
Just some thoughts, more to come.
It's up to each individual....
....but I think, ya'll need to chill. If not for the "historians" that pop up every time this year, no one would reflect on the day's origins.
....by the way, Purim has a lot of pagan parallels. Esther sounds a lot like Ishtar, and back in the Persian empire, people used to put on pageants and dress up in the fashion that we do on Purim.
...Halloween is pure fun for most people who like a day of spooks every once in a while to connect to the dark side.
...There's always going to be some segment of the Jewish population that wants as little socialization/fraternizing with the non-Jewish population as possible. However, for most Jews, like me, that's impossible if not undesirable.
All I have to say is "Jewitchery.com." I wonder what they did for Halloween?
Hi. I'm a liberal observant Jew, and thank G-d I'm in Jerusalem right now where Halloween was a complete non-issue. I completely forgot about it until I saw it on here.
But I wanted to address veridian's allegation that "Purim has a lot of pagan parallels."
Um... well since the story actually took place and obviously it shook the whole region at that time, it's very very likely that numerous cultures would have internalized the story into their own cultural tradition in different ways. Yes, in fact there are other cultural narratives from that time that sound extremely similar to our story of Purim... and to automatically assume that Jews took Purim from a pagan culture (rather than hypothesizing that the event has been passed down through different cultural lenses) is kind of, well, unscientific, to say the least.
As far as Purim being compared to Halloween, any cursory reading into the meaning of dressing up on Purim and other Purim-related activities will reveal that the entire focus of Purim is to reveal the Oneness of G-d. As for Halloween and other pagan holidays, not so much.
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