Friday 22 October 2004

As reported by Julia (SummerSkye):

 I really think the world has gone crazy!!!!    Listen to this:   story in the local paper here  The Bend Bulletin - this morning:   (this story is from Seattle area)

PARENTS TO PROTEST AFTER SCHOOL DISTRICT CANCELS HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARADES:    Decision made to save instruction time and avoid offending WICCANS
(Can we possible even believe that Halloween parties are cancelled because of fear of offending Wiccans??!   Ridiculous!)    Read on:

"Puyallup School District officials decided to cancel festivities to stop losing instructional time and to avoid offending believers in the Wiccan religion, a spokeswoman said.  Wiccans who have met with school officials have NOT asked for cancellation of Halloween events, she said.  They are entitled to protection like other religions under district rules.   "But some of them have expressed displeasure with images of witches being offensive: pointy noses, ugly faces, harmers of children, evil and flying on broomsticks, and if that offends them we don't want to be offensive to anyone",  she said.   At the Maplewood school, witch costumes are already prohibited.  Karen Harmes,  a mother of two say the children typically bring their costumes in a paper bag to wear only at day's end.  Many schools in Puyallup and elsewhere have already changed to seasonal "harvest festivals",  she added.     Tonya Reynolds another parent organizing the protest,  states that "This has been a really fun social thing,  for kids and parents, it comes down to everyone being so concerned about being politically correct that the minority rules our society and our rights have been taken away!"      The Wiccan religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.  Wiccans try to reconnect with the life force of nature on earth and throughout the Universe.    A Wiccan high priestess in Olympia, Washington (Church of the Sacred Spiral) states:       "From my own perspective and most of the Wiccans I know,  we enjoy and encourage people to celebrate the Halloween holiday!    Some Wiccans may differ on personal opinions only about whether witch costumes offend them.   Dressing up in costumes is fine with me,  if you want to dress your children up as a little witch , that is fun, not offensive to me she told the AP.   She also said that the costumes may be reminders to others of the times when witches were persecuted,  in the middle ages in Europe,  and then in the U.S.  and this can be used to teach the need for respect for other's religions."         October 31st - Halloween - is observed as Samhain (pronounced SOW-ween)  by Wiccans and some Pagans. It grew out of beliefs of the ancient Celts who considered the day to be the eve of the New Year,  and a night when the barriers of the living and the dead were uncertain,  allowing ancestors to walk in this realm of our world.    The Celts marked the day with a feast to welcome their departed kin to the here and now.

OK,  what do you make of that????   I have heard it ALL now!  I do confess that I get offended when I hear others saying things like "She's such a WITCH!"  and things like that.   Certainly there are those images of witches as the scourge of the earth.   I agree to that extent.   Wicca wants to change perceptions.    But this is the most ridiculous thing.   I suppose that if people are worried about offending Wiccans,   this validates that Wicca has arrived in the mainstream and is out of the closet for many.
         I have ONLY heard of Halloween cancellations in terms of CHRISTIANS who do not want to promote scary images,  or feel it's against the Bible to have Halloween and talk of ghosts,  witches etc.... The hard core Christians are the ones who denounce that,  saying it promotes the "Occult"  ,  these Christians are fear-driven in everything they do,  everything that does not follow their own narrow minded beliefs is a threat to them.   These are the same ones who ban Harry Potter books,  because kids might get ideas about Magick,  and Wizards and they are afraid it does not promote, Jesus,  God and the Bible and is against Christianity.
        Let's hope that these parents of the schools do not now BLAME the Wiccans for cancelling Halloween.    I mean,   how ironic is that?????