Has anyone else noticed that the "keep Christ in Christmas" folks....

[Elspeth]

I kind of like the idea behind All Soul's Day. A day to celebrate average people.

I think Purgatory is an interesting concept, but I particularly like your comparison to the DMV, where I have to go spend my morning and my money on Friday. They've come a long way over the past decade (although we call them the Secretary of State, here), but one computer malfunction and the whole system can crash for hours. I'll bring a book-maybe I'll bring Dante's Divine Comedy!

That seems appropriate. You can figure out which circle of hell will contain the DMV in the afterlife as you wait for divine intervention to get you to the window.

[Elspeth]

School Officials: No Halloween Celebrations In Phoenixville District This Year


PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (CBS) – Halloween is a little more than one week away, but students at Schuylkill Elementary School aren’t planning their classroom costumes.

That’s because there won’t be a Halloween celebration here, or at the other two elementary schools in the Phoenixville School District.

District officials sent a letter home to parents on Monday, reminding them of the decision they said was sent out in the “Welcome Back” letter in August.

Superintendent Alan Fegley said there were a number of factors considered when making the decision, including that the elementary schools were all doing different celebrations and the school wanted to keep them consistent, that costume safety was becoming a real concern, and that students who couldn’t afford costumes were feeling left out.

District officials told Eyewitness News that the absentee rate more than doubled — from 4% to 9% — on Halloween.

THAT explains it. Schools can't afford a double absentee rate, even for a single day. Federal dollars are lost when kids are absent. --E

The kids may not be celebrating Halloween, but that doesn’t mean they’re having just a normal day at school. Fegley says they will have a fall festival, complete with parties for the kids.

Alison Cirone is helping plan her daughter’s second grade fall party. “I know we were told no scarecrows, no witches, no ghosts,” said Cirone.

Cirone is in charge of snacks and paper products.

“There were quite a few parents that were upset, and others were neutral,” said Cirone. “But I think some of us just wonder, there’s no more birthday celebrations, so if there’s not Halloween, what could there possibly be next that we won’t be celebrating in school?”

Donna Sisti’s children used to go to one of the public elementary schools. “It’s a fun activity for the kids that they look forward to every year. I don’t see why it should change.”

Eyewitness News talked to several parents off-camera who said they didn’t mind the decision.

In Monday’s letter, the superintendent also said, “We understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. We hope you will realize it was made with the best interests of ALL our students in mind.”

[FlaGator]

You know, those people who get theys panties in a knot over "Happy Holidays".... are now sporting signs on they houses and churches that say, 'Happy Harvest" or "Harvest Festival Oct. 31 for the entire fambly"?

I say Keep All Hallows (and fairytale princesses, and astronauts, and vampires, and grim reapers and zombies....) in Halloween.

Your bigotry is showing...

[Novaheart]

Your bigotry is showing...

Because I am speaking specifically of two white fundamentalist churches?

fifth avenue baptist church of saint petersburg

faith fellowship of saint petersburg

[Wibbins]

I grew up Catholic, and we always had the day after Halloween off (Nov. 1, All Saints Day) and were expected to go to church. November 2 was all Souls Day, and though church was not required when I was a kid, the church still celebrated it as a day when you prayed for all the people who weren't saints--that is, all the regular Janes and Joes who had died (like everyone!) who were waiting around in Purgatory until the right amount of time had passed when they could enter heaven. Purgatory was supposed to be a pretty dismal place, so we were told to pray for all those souls, and our prayers could cut off the time our loved ones would have to serve in this celestial DMV office.

Wow, catholicism doesn't seem very Christian to me, purgatory, sainthood, confessional, mary etc.

[Elspeth]

Wow, catholicism doesn't seem very Christian to me, purgatory, sainthood, confessional, mary etc.

We were the original.

[m00]

Wait... American Christmas is a Christian Holiday? What do colored lights, christmas trees, gift-wrapped presents, egg-nog, oversized stockings, laurel wreaths, and a fat man in red suit riding a sleigh powered by flying magic reindeer who drops presents down your chimney and can manipulate time have to do with the birth of Jesus?

We're not talking about Ramadan or Yom Kippur here.

[AmPat]

We were the original.

Not so.

[Hawkgirl]

Wait... American Christmas is a Christian Holiday? What do colored lights, christmas trees, gift-wrapped presents, egg-nog, oversized stockings, laurel wreaths, and a fat man in red suit riding a sleigh powered by flying magic reindeer who drops presents down your chimney and can manipulate time have to do with the birth of Jesus?

They all have Christian significance.

[JB]

Wow, catholicism doesn't seem very Christian to me, purgatory, sainthood, confessional, mary etc.

Catholics are the highest order of Christians.

Protestants, Lutherans, Methodists are just Catholic-lite. That is, they're Catholics that couldn't hack it any more so they had to invent something easier.