How does the Christian church feel about Halloween? Impact on children
The American Halloween holiday is gaining popularity in the post-Soviet space - shops are filled with black and yellow decor and paraphernalia, educational institutions hold concerts and parties for students. And what does Orthodoxy say about Halloween?
Despite the indignation of the leaders of the educational and cultural sector, there is no official ban on its holding. But many people categorically do not want to accept and support this celebration.
Halloween: a history of origin
Does Orthodoxy give any opinion about Halloween? Of course, but before you get acquainted with it, you should know the history of this festival. Initially, Halloween was part of Celtic paganism, only then it was called Samhain and was not really a holiday.
Celtic holiday Samhain
Samhain was the countdown day of the new year, but it was not a good holiday like today. Celts and druids believed that on this day the door opens between the world of people and the world of spirits and the latter can safely visit the former. At the same time, the road was open for people to the world of spirits, but unlike those, people never came back.
How does it relate to non-church holidays:
Therefore, Samhain was a day of evil, because it was not good ghosts that wandered on the street, but real monsters. They were filled with anger and sought to harm the person as much as possible. But they could be "appeased" - to make a sacrifice. Some evidence suggests that the Celts sometimes even sacrificed their own children.
Druids on this day lit a fire on the mountain, which was supposed to protect the human world from spirits. Throughout the country no one should be lighting the hearth, and only in the morning did the druids distribute embers from the fire so that people could light the hearth. This tradition is intertwined with another pagan holiday, Beltane. People were afraid of death, which the spirits brought, therefore, they strictly observed both festivals.
The first who showed people the sinfulness of these rituals was Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It was he who preached Christ throughout Ireland (namely, Ireland was the country of the Celts) and spoke openly about the sin that fell on people after sacrificing spirits. It was thanks to Saint Patrick that the Celts were freed from superstition and paganism, as well as from all the terrible traditions that accompanied them.
The Celtic religion is not just a beautiful story and belief in living trees, as they paint today in films and cartoons. This is a terrible, bloody paganism that poisoned people and prevented them from accepting the true Savior - Jesus Christ and the One Lord. The whole story of Samhain or modern Halloween is based on Celtic paganism and terrible traditions.
Important! St. Patrick suggested celebrating All Saints' Day on November 1 instead of fear of spirits, which was later approved by the Catholic Church and that today is closer for an Orthodox Christian than Halloween.
Saint Patrick
Attributes
The most obvious and important accessory of this festival is the pumpkin lamp - "Jack's lamp". It is a large pumpkin, from which the entire interior has been removed, a frightening muzzle is carved out and a lamp is placed so that when it is lit, the pumpkin becomes a "head" with a frightening expression on its face.
What is the meaning of Jack Lantern? In a world guide from 1977, you can find such a description of this lantern - a harmless pumpkin with a lantern, in fact, is an ancient symbol of the soul that was cursed.
There are three versions of the appearance of such a strange attribute:
- it was a symbol of the end of the harvest;
- was a way to scare away an evil spirit (therefore, it is imperative to draw an evil face);
- the last legend tells about the drunkard Jack, who made a deal with the devil. God did not forgive such an act and doomed him to eternal wanderings on earth.
Equally important, and for some the main reason for the celebration, is the tradition of going home and begging for sweets, saying Trick-or-Treat is a sweetness or a joke. Its true essence is a ritual of sacrifice to evil forces. Celtic beliefs said that on this day spirits roam the earth, and so that they do not harm, they need to put a treat on the threshold of the house - a sacrifice, usually some kind of animal. Otherwise, the spirits will play a cruel joke - they will harm the house.
About evil forces:
Apart from these two main attributes, the entire Halloween is filled with symbols and attributes of death, evil and the occult.
Halloween, or the so-called "Pumpkin Festival"
Orthodoxy and Halloween
The Russian Orthodox Church has a clear opinion - it does not bless Christians to participate in the Halloween holiday. Moreover, not only not to participate, but also not to support those who conduct it. There are several reasons for this:
- The origin of this holiday, its manner and essence are strictly pagan and incompatible with the principles and foundations of the Christian faith.
- Halloween is a blasphemous mockery of All Saints Day.
- Dressing people in costumes of sorcerers and monsters is unacceptable for a believer, since it contradicts Scripture and church canons.
- The attributes of the holiday are unacceptable for an Orthodox person, since it is completely opposite to Christian values and replaces them: magic, witchcraft, evil spirits, pagan rituals, sacrifice, evil pranks. The explicit association of Halloween with paganism makes it impossible for a true Christian to take part in this.
- Halloween acts as a weapon for demonizing the consciousness of children and youth, it promotes the fashion for the attributes of death and witchcraft, exalts cruelty and neutralizes mercy and goodness.
The last item on this list is especially important, since the child's mind is extremely vulnerable to information coming from outside. Children don't just dress up as evil characters, they identify with them, and this causes them a much closer bond than an adult. That is why, it would seem, funny dressing causes serious destruction of children's consciousness.
Attention! Active participation in such events leads to serious mental and personal impairment.
Bible against halloween
Any believer should correlate all movements in the world with the Bible, since this is God's word and informs people of the Lord's opinion regarding all events.
What does she say about Halloween? The apostle Paul said:
"Refrain from all kinds of Evil ...".
Darkness in the Bible personifies the devil and all the demonic powers that oppose the Lord, who is the Light.
Darkness is a symbol of everything worldly and pagan, all opponents of the Lord, all who do not believe in Him. Darkness is sin, godlessness, a Christian needs to run away from it. After reading the story of the celebration of Halloween, hasn't it become obvious to a Christian that they shouldn't communicate with it? The Christian is the son of Christ, he does not belong to darkness (Eph. 5: 4-13).
Satan uses all the tools, the brightest, most colorful things, to draw a Christian away from the truth, from God. A holiday with lantern pumpkins and scary costumes is one of Satan's tools. Don't young people want to have fun rather than going to the temple or reading God's Word? The human mind is very quickly carried away and its perception is dulled, it quickly clings to sin and completely loses its connection with the Lord.
Young people should understand that it is impossible to stand on two chairs at the same time - it is impossible to love the Lord and walk the streets in the costumes of monsters. Christians Should Bring Light and Love to the World, but is it possible to do this by participating in the processions of witches and mummies?
The Apostle John writes that it is impossible to love the world and God at the same time. Therefore, one should withdraw from everything worldly.
Is it possible to celebrate Halloween. Priest Igor Silchenkov
Orthodox Russians about Halloween
I enter the round dance, laughing, and yet I feel uneasy with them:
what if someone will like the executioner's mask - and he will not take it off
Vl. Vysotsky
A "holiday" is approaching, imported to Russia in the early 2000s from the United States - Halloween. The Americans adopted it from the ancient Celts, who, according to their pagan calendar, marked the beginning of the new year on November 1. In the Celtic tradition, it was believed that on Halloween night dark forces dominate the earth, and in order for them not to harm, they must be humored in every possible way. This is where the custom of roaming in the night of Halloween, dressed in costumes of ghosts, witches and other evil spirits, originates in the pagan world.
This "holiday" has recently been spreading in Russia, the culture-forming religion of which is Orthodoxy. Alas, today's Russians, who even call themselves believers, often do not even know what Orthodoxy knows about the world order.
In addition to the material world, which we can see, touch and study, there is a spiritual world that is not perceived by our senses. And yet, it is absolutely real. With God - the Creator of the material and spiritual worlds - each person can enter into personal communication. If, of course, he wants it, he comes to the Church of Christ, begins to participate in the Sacraments, mystically connecting man with God. It is much easier to establish contact with the dark forces of the spiritual world. It is enough to call them, even as a joke. It is God who needs a conscious appeal of man to Him, God loves us and expects reciprocal love. Demons appear at the first call, because their goal is to deceive and destroy a person.
Modern man does not believe in the existence of demons (even among those who consider themselves Orthodox, about half consider them to be an invention). This is what they are trying to achieve. It is beneficial for the evil power that people do not believe in it - in the darkness of unbelief it is easier to do their dark deeds. And games like Halloween free the hands of the devil's forces.
The "classic" Halloween celebration usually takes place in the form of a masquerade, whose heroes come from the world of the occult and magic. Particularly popular are the outfits of witches, magicians, sorcerers, vampires, dead, werewolves, ghosts, mermaids, fairies, elves, ghouls, ghouls, etc. Parties are accompanied by ominous, graveyard music, howling of wolves, hooting of owls and other frightening sounds. Fortune-telling, witchcraft, pagan rituals of sacrifice to evil spirits, practical jokes of a dubious nature are welcome. Popular hanging posters depicting Dracula, witches, vampires and demonic paraphernalia (aspen stake, black rosary, etc.). Even the cheerful custom of placing pumpkins everywhere with terrible faces carved on them carries an infernal meaning: the pumpkin symbolizes the severed head, the sacrifice offered to the devil. It is better to keep silent about the names of dishes served at such sabbats, they are, to put it mildly, unappetizing.
Halloween is especially attractive for children and teenagers. The childhood dream of being smeared with soot and scaring someone has become incredibly accessible! The child is no longer afraid of evil! Skeletons, vampires, bloody zombies no longer evoke a natural feeling of rejection. On this "comic holiday" a person is given a "rare opportunity" to feel like a demon, to act like a demon ... Playing in a demonic attitude, like any game for a child, involves trying on the image of a hero. Children copy the human sacrifices of Satanists, scoff at human suffering and death - and this cannot pass without a trace either for their mental state or for personal development.
In Orthodoxy, it is clearly understood that such actions are demoniacal - that is, dark essences of the spiritual world - demons - invisibly participate in them. Vivid imagery, occult rituals, "crowd effect" provide the strongest emotional impact on all participants. In this case, there is a substitution and distortion of universal human ideas about good and evil, beauty and ugliness, truth and falsehood. In other words, there is a real demonization of consciousness, a person falls under demonic influence.
And it doesn't matter at all whether a person deliberately enters the field of dark mysticism, or just mindlessly having fun. Dark, satanic meanings were originally embedded in the eventual canvas of such merrymaking. Demons are guaranteed to poke fun at those who try to flirt with them.
What children play today greatly influences what they will do in the future. Did holidays like Halloween give rise to the so-called "school shooting", for example? This is already a special term that has appeared, which denotes the massacres of students, carried out, most often, by the students themselves. People are being shot at by adolescents whom no one has introduced to the elementary rules of spiritual safety (and how many adults know them nowadays?), But the world of dark spirituality was opened to them. So, from 2000 to 2013, such crimes were committed 125 times in the USA and Canada, 27 times in the rest of the world, and 1 time in Russia. Until one time. Do we need to "catch up with America"?
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
If someone around you is planning to celebrate Halloween, let them read this leaflet.
If they are going to celebrate at the school where your children study, bring to the consciousness of the teachers that they are thereby renouncing Orthodoxy and surrendering themselves into the hands of Satan. And it's not a joke. Our deeds can be either "for God" or "against God." There is no middle, "neutral" way.
What does light have to do with darkness?
What is the agreement between Christ and Beliar? "
(2 Cor. 6: 14-15)
As you know, this vile holiday, imposed on us by the West, is approaching. I would like to warn all Orthodox Christians not to be drawn into this obscurantism by accident. After all, Halloween was banned by the Orthodox Church back in the days of the Russian Empire. For a long time, the holiday was banned, as it has a pagan origin. The worst thing is that after the collapse of the USSR, this holiday is now more and more actively cultivated in Russia. Undoubtedly, such a tendency testifies to the ever-increasing propaganda of Satanism everywhere. Let's see where the roots of this "holiday" come from.
"P raznik Halloween" dates back to the Celtic ritual festival of Samhain, adopted by the Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) who migrated to Britain after the 6th century AD. Halloween has become one of the main folk festivals in British Ireland. In the 19th century, waves of Irish emigration brought the holiday to the United States, where it has been celebrated since 1846. In the United States, the holiday has become especially popular thanks to the gay community. In the 1970s, San Francisco became a popular drag show in the city's gay neighborhoods. They donned colorful theatrical costumes and paraded down the streets of the district. Over time, such events began to be held everywhere, with the participation of children or adolescents. The costume tradition was stylized to match the existing images of monsters and characters of children's horror stories.
X Halloween has a very rich paraphernalia, interest in which is actively exploited by modern companies producing goods for children (costumes, masks, sweets, jewelry, etc.). The desire of various companies (mainly American) to increase their profitability is largely due to the spread of Halloween outside the United States, since the market for Halloween goods in this country is already oversaturated.
One of the main attributes of the "holiday" is the "Jack lamp" in the form of a head carved from a pumpkin with lighting. Cornices, balconies and entrances of houses are usually decorated with artificial spider webs, spiders, bats, witches, owls, cats, witch brooms, etc.
Halloween costumes are also based on the themes of witchcraft and its imagery in cinema and literature. Children, dressed in costumes and masks, go to beg for sweets from the homeowners, while uttering the traditional phrase "Trick or Treat!" - "candies or life!". Particularly popular are the outfits of witches, magicians, sorcerers, vampires, the dead, werewolves, ghosts, mermaids, fairies, elves, various nocturnal animals (cat, bat, wolf, etc.). Parties, carnivals are held, accompanied by ominous, graveyard music, howling wolves , owl hooting and other sounds recorded in audio or video format. Popular posters and spread out books depicting Dracula, witches, vampires and their symbols (aspen stake, black rosary, etc.).
It turns out that a new era of hellish propaganda has begun. Social occult propaganda! If earlier only a small part of society could touch the secrets of magic, now the doorknob to the world of demons is made low enough that even a child, without much effort, could open it.
Cultism begins with candy, colorful fancy dress, orange lights, and "harmless" Caspers dangling helplessly in the trees. The childhood dream of being smeared with soot and scaring someone has become incredibly accessible! The child is no longer afraid of evil! Cemeteries, skeletons, bloody zombies no longer cause a natural feeling of rejection. Everything that has been perceived for years as a fiend of hell is now fun. It turns out that evil can be good and even necessary. This is called releasing adrenaline into the bloodstream. Have you noticed that children love to play hide and seek and at the same time scare each other with shouts? Most of the rides offer health risks. You will be thrown headfirst, twisted, lowered from steep hills, taken through a dark cave with mysterious rustles and sudden cries of Egyptian mummies, you will be attacked by the cemetery dead. Screaming, screeching are so natural at the same time, because it is for such a "pleasure" that you paid!
And only growing up, we understand that Santa Claus does not exist, and Kashchei the Immortal is not so immortal. The teenager is getting bored! The search for such adrenaline is even more intensified, and here, like a magic wand, comes the "good holiday" of Halloween. It brings a slight nostalgia for childhood and at the same time makes it possible to spend this time in a completely childish way.
The Russian Orthodox Church does not bless its children to participate in the pagan holiday Halloween in any form for a number of reasons:
1. The origin, form and essence of this "holiday of death" are pagan and are incompatible with faith in the Risen Christ - the Conqueror of hell and death. Its origins date back to the beliefs of the ancient Celts, who believed that on that night the door to the other world was opened and the inhabitants of hell penetrated the earth. Glorifying the pagan god Samhain (Lord of Death), the ancient Celts brought him sacrifices, hoping that the "coaxed" Samhain would allow the souls of the dead to visit their homes on that day. This is where the custom of wandering on Halloween night, dressed in costumes of ghosts, witches and all kinds of other spirits, symbolizing communication with the afterlife and evil spirits, originates in the pagan world.
2. Halloween is a blasphemous mockery of All Saints' Day and of the saints themselves: on the day when the saints are remembered, Christians wear the costumes of demons, which, according to church canons, is a grave sin.
3. In addition, the very celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 is unacceptable for Orthodox Christians, for the Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints Day not on November 1 (on this day, the memory of all saints has been celebrated in the Western Church since 835), but on Sunday following the feast of Pentecost, that is, at the beginning of summer.
4. All the symbolism of this holiday is unacceptable for an Orthodox Christian, because it is a substitution of Christian values and ideas with anti-Christian ones: fortune-telling, witchcraft, the personification of death and evil spirits, pagan rituals of sacrifice to evil spirits, the custom of displaying a pumpkin with a terrible face carved on it, serving as an image dead, as well as pranks of a dubious nature. The association between wild "rites" of Halloween and Satanist cults is so obvious that even in the United States itself, many consider Halloween a holiday of Satanists.
5. Halloween is a means of dehumanization and demonization of children's consciousness, introducing a fashion for paraphernalia and clothing depicting death, destruction, disharmony, poeticizing cruelty. Playing in a demonic attitude, like any game for a child, is associated with trying on the image of a hero. Children copy the human sacrifices of Satanists, scoff at human suffering and death - this cannot pass without a trace either for their mental state or for personal development. Removal of the taboo and internal censorship, natural for the human and especially vulnerable child's psyche, on mocking the death and suffering of a person, on using the blood of victims even in a playful form as a treat, acts of vandalism, etc., leads to serious mental and personal disorders of the child.
At the same time, all the beliefs that Halloween and similar holidays, despite their obvious pagan origins and idolatrous essence, are harmless, innocent and of little importance, thereby undermines traditional spiritual foundations. If, for any reason, an Orthodox Christian has been drawn into the sacrilegious rites of this holiday, he needs to bring sincere repentance before God in confession.
The officially registered American Church of Satan has openly proclaimed Halloween as its main holiday. For them, the purpose of the celebration, which ends with the most important black mass of the year, is to demonstrate their worship and devotion to the devil. In addition to Satanists, it was also chosen as their main holiday by those who in our days deliberately betray themselves to the service of evil - sorcerers, witches, all-different restorers of ancient pagan cults. Halloween night for them is the time of one of the four main covens.
Despite all this, Halloween is slowly starting to become a national holiday. (Why is that?) Sociologists consider the acceptance of such holidays by society as the most alarming sign of our time. In their opinion, the celebration of Halloween and similar events speaks of a cultural crisis. People simply stop distinguishing between good and evil.
The T radiations of this holiday, represented by harmless fun, are in fact ancient rites of imitation of the dead, sacrifices to spirits directly related to Satan. On this "comic holiday" you have a "rare opportunity" to feel like a demon, to act like a demon ...
Isn't that an interesting prospect?
For believers, such words sound like betrayal. This is a betrayal of God, a betrayal of one's own culture. There are actions that cannot be done even playfully. For example, playing hostage-taking terrorists ... Also playing Halloween with the obligatory sacrifice to demons is a spiritual betrayal. Remember why children are forbidden to play with matches - you can start a fire, with electricity - because it can shock you, with a knife - so as not to accidentally cut yourself.
On the territory of some schools in Russia, Halloween is officially prohibited, on the territory of others it is calmly celebrated. The Orthodox Church and Muslims are sharply opposed to this; in Krasnodar, on the occasion of Halloween, a special “Orthodox patrol” has even been created, but this does not make the action less popular. What is the reason for this state of affairs?
The debate about what kind of holiday this is - Halloween - and whether Russia should adopt this Western tradition has been going on for several years, at least since the beginning of the 2000s, or even earlier. Representatives of traditional Russian religions, primarily the Russian Orthodox Church and the Islamic ummah, are categorically opposed. But, despite this, Halloween continues to be celebrated, if not everywhere and officially, then within the framework of private and commercial initiatives, rather widely.
Happy Halloween, Orthodox!
"You have vampire fangs with Swarovski crystals or a fashionable mobile phone - what is the difference, by and large?"
This year, All Saints' Day has unexpectedly become the subject of a near-political agenda. The Governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, said that in principle there should not be any Halloween-related events in the schools of the peninsula. He ordered the Ministry of Education of the republic to monitor the fulfillment of his demand. “Experts - teachers, psychologists - express well-founded fears that playing with images of evil can be dangerous for a fragile child’s psyche,” he said.
The journalists subsequently addressed a question on this matter to the press secretary of the Russian president. Dmitry Peskov announced that this topic is not discussed in the Kremlin at all, since "there are a lot of other issues on the agenda." “In general, this is not really our holiday, and, apparently, there is no formal celebration of this kind in any schools,” he said.
Formally, Peskov is not entirely accurate. Events related to the holiday are also held in some schools, for example, on Sakhalin " within the framework of acquaintance with the traditions of English-speaking countries". This formulation of church representatives usually does not reassure.
One of the first public statements on the theme of the holiday was the remark of Vsevolod Chaplin's father in 2003: “When, as if in jest, they turn to evil force, glorify it, flirt with it, this affects the fate of a person, because it teaches him to think about admissibility evil, about the normality of sin, about the fact that evil spirits are something pleasant, funny, or at least harmless. "
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And last year, Father Dimitri Smirnov, among others, spoke sharply about Halloween: “People put on masks of demons, all sorts of antics, disgusting behavior - it's more like all sorts of horror films than a holiday of all saints. This is a completely emasculated European tradition. We have a completely different tradition in Russia. Even when in some regions of Russia there were mummers - at Christmas, it wore sweeter uniforms, and then the Church always said that any clowning on the solemn and holy day when Christ came to earth is completely unacceptable. "
In the same monologue, the father of the archpriest asks a rhetorical question: why then in Russia, along with Halloween, glorify the Indian god Ganesha? And how he looked into the water - the question was not rhetorical. In 2015, the "Indian Holi Festival of Colors" was held in a number of regions of the country as a resonant event in religious circles. This event has a very clear Hindu and religious context, and it also talks about the fight between deities and demons. In general, some attempts at cultural infiltration take place not only from the West, but also from the East.
On the eve of this Halloween, a number of theologians have also expressed themselves quite definitely. And not only the Orthodox. For example, Ruslan Khazrat Farkhutdinov, imam-khatyb of the White Mosque of Tatarstan, said: “The child needs to explain the meaning of this holiday. Any adequate person who distinguishes white from black understands that there is no benefit from this holiday. If children need miracles, then it is better to look for them in Christianity and Islam. Jesus Christ and Mohammed performed many miracles. They were prophets, and the Lord rewarded them with the gift of performing miracles. And there is nothing wonderful about Halloween, the hideous Satanic holiday. On the contrary, it depresses the child's psyche. Now there is the implantation of someone else's ideology, close in spirit to the very shaitan - Satan. But it is necessary to explain to the children that one should not look for miracles in Satanism - they must be looked for in traditional religions. "
The cleric of the Tatarstan Metropolitanate, Priest Sergiy Karpukhin echoes the words of the imam: “The Russian peoples have their own culture and their own religious traditions, so for us Halloween is not a holiday. Halloween is being planted from the outside, from the West. The Russian Orthodox Church clearly says that this holiday is pagan and demonic, therefore Christians should not celebrate it. We must observe our traditions, including religious ones. "I agree with these theses and the notorious deputy of St. Petersburg Sachs Vitaly Milonov, who figured out how to replace the celebration of Halloween in Russia. According to him, “if in the same park named after Babushkin you call the diasporas - Chechen, Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Evenks - and say:“ Guys, let's do this - come and make a festival of your cuisines ”, do you know how many people will come with pleasure? And with children, and without children, and pensioners. "
Not all Orthodox Christians, however, are ready to fight the Western tradition in such a peaceful way. For example, in Krasnodar, Orthodox public figures and activists are planning "to conduct several raids on clubs where Halloween will be celebrated." This was stated in the media by the leader of the "Orthodox Union" Roman Plyuta, explaining that "in the event of any excesses, the patrol members plan to make remarks to violators of public morality." “In case of open disregard for the rules of public conduct, activists intend to file complaints with law enforcement agencies - the police and the prosecutor’s office,” he said. In general, a good thing, but why only on this holiday? We would introduce an "Orthodox public patrol" every Friday night. Would have taught the morality of vacationers.
In this context, the initiative with the "sent Halloween", which will take place in Khabarovsk, looks much more positive. The event is being held by Orthodox youth from the Kurs-Vostok movement. The program includes a prayer service and pumpkin pie with a lecture on the essence of the holiday of All Saints Day.
The cult of consumption
In general, if you walk through the media field, a rather strange picture emerges. None of the federal speakers say anything good about the notorious holiday. Either bad or nothing. But many people continue to celebrate it. Like Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day, like the same Holi holiday already mentioned above. Why is this so?Many theologians talk about some kind of "imposition from the West." But who are these "intruders" and how can a holiday be imposed in general? You can impose hard work, which, due to the very fact of the imposition, will be carried out under pressure and purely formally. With Halloween, the problem is rather that it is colorful, noisy and, of course, stupid, like most carnivals - this is their task. Carnival action is a rest for the mind. And at the same time, of course, it is not imposed, but promoted commercially.
In Europe and the USA, any holiday, be it Halloween or Christmas, is, first of all, a commercial project that, within the framework of some ritual conventions of a single cult of consumption, increases the voluntary spending of the population and, accordingly, the profit of various structures. From a pumpkin shop to a Christmas tree decorations factory - depending on the holiday.
As for the schools, this amateur celebration is partly due to the fact that you need to load the reports on extracurricular activities with something. The Sakhalin pedagogue identified this residual (since the 90s) tendency with textbook clarity: “we are familiar with traditions”. In practice, we add.
However, given the media resonance, it seems that in the next couple of years, Halloween will leave schools and other educational institutions, remaining in clubs, bars and pubs, and even then not all of them. In principle, this is probably correct. Prohibiting people from spending time in this way, if it does not violate the law, means stimulating mass interest. Commercially warmed up anyway.
But to recommend not to participate - why not? There is freedom of speech in the country. The freedom of holidays, even the most exotic ones, also applies to this. From a religious and, even more desperately, moral point of view, speaking in the case of Halloween should rather not be about Satanism or the occult. There are also citizens who approach the issue of this holiday and call it, as a rule, Samhain, but this is a separate story, which is more likely in the competence of sectologists, law enforcement officers and psychiatrists (depending on the "hardcore" ceremonies conducted by especially ideological citizens ).
In the case of Halloween, it is rather about the eclecticism of postmodernism in the framework of stimulating the thirst for consumption. This consumer cult is therefore so easily and penetrates everywhere and everywhere that it can mimic a variety of forms, remaining basically a simple, maximally material and based on simple things (such as a thirst for status and success) action. You have vampire fangs with Swarovski crystals or a fashionable mobile phone - what is the difference, by and large?
- Father Pavel, very soon a part of our population will rush to nightclubs, take to the streets to celebrate the “holiday” under the name. All Orthodox Christians already know that this is bad, so I would like to talk about something else: how to behave in a situation when some of your relatives and friends start to go crazy?
- As a parish priest, I have repeatedly heard questions from the parents of children and adolescents who, in one way or another, are drawn into all this at school; sometimes even such an initiative comes from the school administration, from the teachers. The celebration is especially typical for private educational institutions. And although people of completely different views on life, of different confessions study in schools, this, nevertheless, is completely ignored. When I was in school, we also had masquerade balls, carnivals, and parents had to help their child make some kind of costume so that he would be in it at the New Year's or another ball. But now special costume parties are being arranged with the donning of masks of vampires, zombies, witches, all kinds of evil spirits, and, of course, children who do not yet have spiritual experience do not really understand what is happening. Moreover, they perceive everything with confidence, since it comes from a teacher - an adult, authoritative person.
How to act in this case? First of all, it seems to me, it is necessary, first of all, to understand what is being imposed on us in general. Probably, many from various sources know that it has purely pagan roots, although it is formally called the evening on the eve of All Saints' Day. In fact, this is a purely pagan holiday of sacrifice to the Celtic god of death during the Samhain holiday. People serving the prince of darkness put on masks of all kinds of monsters, depicting the dead who returned to their homes if God was satisfied. Gradually, this pagan holiday actually replaced and supplanted the memory of the holiday of All Saints, celebrated by the Western Church on this day, and there was no other connection between them, except for the calendar. So Halloween has nothing to do with Christianity and is a pagan holiday. And for every Christian, even formal participation in paganism, in pagan rituals, is a betrayal of Christ.
A Christian should always feel responsible for what is happening around him, and first of all - for his own actions. And as stated in the Holy Scriptures, a person will give an answer at the Last Judgment not only for an act, but even for every idle word. Even more so for the action associated with a pagan cult.
I recall the lives of the martyrs for the faith, who were offered to formally (this is known from the minutes) to renounce the cross. They were told: “Remain Christians, worship Christ, pray to Him. You don't even need to pronounce any renunciation, just put the incense on the altar to Zeus or Artemis ... By this you will testify your reconciliation with paganism and law-abidingness to our pagan laws ... " what is direct participation in a pagan cult.
Here - the same thing: they are trying to draw us into an action completely alien to us in culture and ideology, alien both in our nationality and in religion. We, Orthodox Christians, cannot participate in pagan rituals. It is known that this "holiday" came from the Irish and Celtic cults and is widespread in English-speaking countries, but why do we need it?
Why is he so popular in America? When there is a certain phenomenon of mass madness, madness, one should always ask the question: who benefits from it? It is very easy to find out because there are real numbers. Every year, Halloween-themed rides and shows generate between $ 300 million and $ 500 million in revenue, in the US alone. But in other English-speaking countries, this holiday is also very common. In 2006 alone, revenues from the sale of costumes, vampire masks, werewolves and other evil spirits in the same United States amounted to about $ 5 million. It is clear that Halloween, in addition to a completely godless, occult, dark basis, also has a purely commercial component, like. This is a kind of marketing ploy that is necessary for a certain group of people in order to sell more goods and entertainment.
I would like to emphasize once again that in any case, even formal participation in paganism was always very much and was tantamount to betrayal of faith.
- But in some schools, Orthodox children may also insist on participating in Halloween - along with all other classmates. What should Orthodox parents do to protect their children from this?
- I think that this holiday is not obligatory for everyone, it has nothing to do with the education system. Therefore, one can simply evade participation in it under some pretext or speak directly with teachers. In times not so distant, many courageous believers went even to the fact that they did not agree to the entry of their children into the pioneers. Why? Because there it was necessary to take an oath “to live, study and fight, as the great Lenin bequeathed, as the Communist Party teaches,” to kiss the red banner, that is, to also go through a kind of pagan initiation rites. Some accepted it, tied a pioneer tie, some persistent people did not. Everything depended on the degree of faith and personal courage. But now everything is much simpler: we are free in our choice. In the current wicked time, when the world is deeply aggressive spirituality and morality, our task is all the time in our children to educate firmness and fortitude, to show that a Christian is a person who cannot behave like everyone else, live like everyone else, even if there is no there is no condemnation of his actions. As the Monk Barsanuphius of Optina said: "Try to live as God commands, and not as everyone lives, because the world lies in evil." The world lies in evil - this is just about our time.
Each time has its own challenges. The Soviet period, for example, had some kind of morality, decency, but it made its own challenges - communist, atheistic, and the task of the parents was to show the children why teachers - who seem to be people who are authoritative, respected - sometimes tell a lie and they do not always need to be obeyed. I remember when I was in school, we had an atheist's corner until the end of the 1980s. For some unknown reason, he was placed in a chemistry room, there were collected some atheistic books and brochures. Now is a time of calm, a time about which one can say in the words of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov: "It's hard in training - easy in battle", a time when we must learn to resist these challenges and get used to the fact that our faith should not be hidden under any pretext that we shouldn't be ashamed of it. On the contrary, now we must educate children in the fact that it is completely natural - going, for example, in a cafe, to pray before eating; passing by the temple, cross to the church. This is what I try to teach my children. If someone laughs at us for this, then it is not an inferiority complex that brings up in us, but the ability to resist, build up armor, train willpower. Conversely, when a person goes with the flow, he is weak. He who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big things, and whoever is not faithful in small things will show weakness in another situation.
And maybe some other holiday, much worse, will be offered. We do not know what awaits us in the future, “what the coming day prepares for us,” although it is still known that world history should end in great persecutions against Christians and. Maybe we will not live to see this, maybe our children or grandchildren will live to see this. And our task is to educate the soldiers of Christ, and not weak-willed squabbers who will be tolerant to any infection.
- What are the words to explain to a child that Halloween is not just fun? And how to instill in him the understanding that this is a tradition alien to us?
- On the Internet, in other sources, very much, about his pagan, occult roots - in our time, information is very accessible. But if we want to prohibit something to a child, undoubtedly, we must justify our prohibition. From a child, just shouting, coercion will not achieve anything. We must talk to him as with a person, as with an adult - reasonably, reasonedly. Therefore, it is necessary to collect more information and have a conversation with the child. I have an acquaintance dad - one might say, an ascetic of family education: he has not only his own children, but also adopted children, a very large family. So, after dinner, he regularly conducts in the evenings conversations with his entire large family: about the dangers of foul language, smoking, drinking wine, etc. - and this is bearing fruit. Thus, he delivers such preemptive strikes, because he knows that children will still face this. Moreover, this must be done if you already see some similar manifestations in your children. So you need to talk with children, and, of course, tell them about your holidays, about your traditions.
Now we see how one ideology, which had its own holidays, collapsed, and people needed some other pseudo-celebrations, because “the soul wants a holiday,” as the main character of the film V. Shukshin said. But this character, like a modern person cut off from spiritual roots, did not know what a real holiday was, what a genuine one was. And the desire for a holiday, joy, something bright, some experiences, emotions is an ordinary human desire. And even more so the child's soul craves for it. Childhood impressions of the holidays are remembered all my life. Remember, in I. Shmelev, in his famous books "The Lord's Summer" and "Praying Mantis", the most joyful, memorable childhood memories are precisely the holidays?
We, the Orthodox, are happy people: we have no shortage of holidays. You just need to take care of the organization of the celebrations. For example, to cooperate with other parents and during the holidays to organize Christmas and Easter holidays for the children in the parish, with a performance, a concert, and the distribution of gifts. To release the birds after the service. Every year in our church parish children always help on Great Saturday during the consecration of Easter cakes, sing the kontakion of the holiday and walk with the priest, collecting donations in a basket - eggs and Easter cakes. And of course, the child should feel the holiday atmosphere at home. If children find it interesting and joyful at home with their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, they will not want to run away to some dubious school parties.
When a person enters adulthood, what is mostly left of childhood? Something so bright, positive. The bad is forgotten - the good remains. And God forbid that our children have a memory of the night Easter procession of the cross, of the celebration, of how they went with their parents on a trip, for example, along the Golden Ring, which shrines they visited, how they bathed in the springs. This should remain in the child's memory, and not ugly ugly masks and some kind of rage.
It seems to me that in any normal person all these madness do not cause any other feelings than disgust. Although, of course, some people have a craving for all sorts of horrors, the infernal world. And what does this lead to, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol described very well in his story "Viy": Khoma Brut showed curiosity, looked at Viy, although he had an inner voice not to look - and thereby opened the door to the unclean force that broke through the protective his barrier ... We know what happened next. Each person, of course, has a certain craving for the unknown, but this attraction is completely unhealthy and unsafe.
- And what examples to give, explaining why you can't put on the guise of witches, vampires, ghouls and just evil spirits?
- Sometimes we are told that, of course, there are Satanists, there are occultists who really believe in all this, exercise in this, serve Satan and are quite consciously real admirers of evil spirits, but - this is just a kind of show ... America does not believe in evil either. But there, in my opinion, most likely they don't think about anything at all: it's just that a very powerful advertisement is triggered, a very powerful propaganda for Halloween. But they are nevertheless connected by their roots with this holiday, unlike us. We also have some rudiments of paganism in Russia: fortune-telling at Christmas time, burning Shrovetide, dancing on Ivan Kupala - and this, too, must be fought.
So, someone may say that all this is frivolous, pretend, and it makes no difference whether to wear a vampire costume or, say, a Cheburashka costume at a matinee. However, the difference is big. Let's not forget that for a child, play and reality are always a little intertwined. For example, it is much easier for a child to get hooked on a computer game than for an adult, who is mentally stronger, and for him, virtual game reality and ordinary reality always have a clear boundary. And for a child, this line is very blurred, so even indirect participation in pagan rituals can seriously affect him.
I had to talk with creative people, with actors who are engaged in acting. Pretending is putting on some kind of disguise, a mask in order to further portray something, the presentation of some kind of image. And even for these people, this does not pass without a trace. These people, in general, are unhappy in their own way, because, on the one hand, they are very sensitive, they are drawn to faith, it is even easier for them, perhaps, to come to faith, to God, than people of some technical specialties, more down to earth - but it is much more difficult for them to lead a spiritual life, because in order to enter some kind of image, especially if a person is a professional actor, they need reincarnation, and not formal entry. One woman, who used to be an actress, told me that now she has moved away from this, took up other activities because the necessary reincarnations, getting used to the image, working on the role very much interfered with her spiritual life. For example, if a person plays a hero-lover, he himself sometimes needs to experience the same passionate emotions, falling in love, which he is going to play. Some actors just become addicted to love. It is no coincidence that actors and actresses have a very, very rare creation of a full-fledged family, relationships for life, because they constantly fall in love with one, then another, then a third and can no longer live without it. It happens that they flirt: playing lovers on stage, on the same set, they often become lovers in life.
So even on the nervous system of an adult, with an already developed psyche, on his mental and spiritual, first of all, his health, acting is very strongly influenced. He already becomes a kind of bearer of the image that he embodies, especially the dark one. And very many religious actors refuse when they are asked to play evil spirits; among actors is also very widespread, for example, a prejudice towards scenes where you have to play your own death: there is an opinion that this could end badly.
I repeat: a person is responsible before God for every idle word - not only for idle action.
Nothing goes unnoticed. Any person who has watched a horror movie is also impressed by what he saw for a long time, he is then haunted by these images, they appear in dreams. The effect is to tickle a person's nerves and seriously affect his mind, his subconscious.
And personal participation in paganism, occultism, even just a formal one, without any kind of faith, cannot be in vain. People open the gates to these very entities, which they portray, in which children try to play, putting on the guises of demons, vampires and other evil spirits.
Interest in the infernal, demonic theme does not go unnoticed. Several horror films have been banned in China as schoolchildren have begun to copy the behavior of their characters. In Russia, a group of teenagers, after watching films about vampires, lured a girl into the forest, killed her and drank her blood.
So our task as parents, as educators is by all means to monitor what our children are watching, with whom they communicate, what games they play and what holidays they celebrate.
