Talk:Halloween

Catholic halloween?

The article (as currently semi-protected) states that "In the Roman Catholic Church, Halloween is viewed as having a Christian connection", with a reference to a US Catholic publication. This contrasts with my experience in Italy, where, for example, the local archbishop regularly tends to criticise the decadent "Anglo-Saxons", whom he holds responsible for what he—like others in the Vatican—considers to be secular interference, if not worse. Maybe US Catholics are more conciliatory, given the overwhelming popularity of Halloween in their country?--MistyMorn (talk) 23:00, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like some wording to account for US Catholic views and also those from Italy (using both cites) may solve this. Do you want to take a stab at it? If not, I can. Best, ROBERTMFROMLI | ^TK/_CN 23:44, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Yes, though as a complete layman [and one who'd prefer not to get involved in the actual editing - thank you for your understanding, btw], I would have thought that the official Vatican line would perhaps be the one to cite first. The difference in the viewpoints seems quite marked. Although the 2009 papal story cited above understandably seems to be the one mainly reported in English-language media, in recent years Italian cardinals have been reacting to the increasing popularity of halloween in the country by strongly condemning it. For instance, and this is just one example of many, I see that this year the archbishop/cardinal of Bologna has called a farmers' pumpkin-cutting stall set up in a central town square "an ugly surrender to rampant relativism". In Vatican parlance, that means bad. Cheers--MistyMorn (talk) 01:40, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

I have now actually made the edit, using the Telegraph link cited above as the supporting ref. I've also attenuated a claim made in the previous sentence, which seemed to me misleading.--MistyMorn (talk) 20:37, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanksgiving is...?

Why is Thanksgiving celebrated?Why is it so important that we celebrate Pilgrims? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.140.147.245 (talk) 20:45, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Connection to pogroms

There is some rather poor history associated with Halloween in Europe. Specifically, "mischief night" was tied to rousting the non-Christians (i.e., Jews, Romany, "witches") from a village to "purify" the town ahead of All Saints' Day. The disguises enabled this to be done with anonymity. (The Ku Klux Klan practiced similar tactics.) I don't have the inclination to find citations on this: family tales from "the old country" suffice for me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.237.181.93 (talk) 01:15, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Around the world

Source 55 was a proven publicity stunt and is unreliable. Here is one of the sources that proves the publicity stunt. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3060601.htm Also stated in the opening paragraph is "a yearly holiday observed around the world" while in this section it is stated "Halloween is not celebrated in all countries and regions of the world." Which is it? I would suggest it's the latter since I feel the former is hyperbole. Perhaps the opening paragraph could be reworded. sourcechecker58.107.224.31 (talk) 03:41, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Default meaning?

Regarding the resistance of one editor (O'Dea) to my change of "commonly" to "widely", I do not know what "default meaning" is supposed to mean (I do not think it is an established linguistic term). Seriously... I had some concerns about ambivalence (possible alternative readings based on unintentional shades of meaning) in the wording of the sentence in question at the start of the Pre-Christian Origins paragraph. I carefully rephrased it to avoid any suspicion of cultural/religious bias and to try to improve stylistic flow from the preceding section on Etymology. I was surprised to find my edit rejected out of hand and reverted. However, I accepted the resistance and made a small edit by changing "commonly" to "widely" to avoid any impression that the theory being propounded might be of non-academic (popular, common) origin. That edit was again reverted on the grounds that "commonly" means the same thing as "widely" (and this time I reverted, leaving a query as comment). If that is so, what is this editor defending by reverting "commonly" to "widely"? Please note that I do not like edit warring and do not intend to get involved. I am quite prepared to leave this issue. I am just somewhat surprised by the hostility shown to my relatively minor good-faith language edits which were not intended to alter the intended meaning of the sentence. Regards, MistyMorn (talk) 10:38, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

"falling on the last day of autumn": Samhain comes on October 31, but the last day of autumn is the winter solstice, roughly December 21.