ABC News reports on a Washington State school district that has banned Halloween celebrations this year, in part because
"Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches." Now it's great that the school district wants to teach the kids to be respectful of different beliefs, etc... but in this case their decision seems a bit confused because witches are not, in fact, real. A real witch, historically speaking, would be someone who possesses supernatural powers. The Wiccans call themselves witches, but I'll go out on a limb and wager that they don't possess any supernatural powers. Therefore, they aren't real witches, in the historical sense of the word. So there really should be no need to worry about hurting their feelings during Halloween.
Comments
This site has a great rundown of the dozen-plus different meanings of the term "witch." http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_pott1.htm#de
It's about time someone took a sensitive position on mine and others' feelings. Thank you, Puyallup School District. May your actions stand to inspire such enlightenment in others.
"...A DUCK"
'Tis a crying shame. A leprechaun's curse on the lot of ye!
Witches (as in capable of casting spells) don't exist. People who call themselves witches do. Saying that you can cast spells or fly doesn't make it true even if all your friends say the same thing. The burden of proof lies with "witches" to prove that their powers are real since they are making the more extreme claim.
No witch I have ever met (admittedly few) has been able to provide the slightest evidence of real powers. They are generally more akin to astrologers in that, if they even deign to use their "powers" at all, they give vague generalizations of their power and take credit for everything that's ever happened.
I suppose I'm gonna get cursed for this one. Oh dear me.
"Wiccan religion" is based not so much on an individual's supernatural powers as it is on inherent mystical powers of nature. In that regard, it's little different from most instituted religions: its adherents come to their conclusions about the universe through faith, rather than evidence--an understandable thing to do, since faith offers answers where evidence leaves only unknowns. Calling the Moon divine is no more a leap of faith than calling Jesus the Messiah, Moses the God's shepherd to the Jews, or Muhammad the mouthpiece of Allah. The difference between Wicca and the "Big 3" lies only in institution. The latter have played defining roles in the development of Western civilization, and are thus regarded among seculars as part of the culture. Wicca is a newcomer (witchcraft goes back a long way, but previously it was a practice, not a religion); it remains extra-curricular.
So if you're a person of faith, whatever faith yours may be, be thankful that people are looking out for your sensibilities. If you're atheist, agnostic, or just more humorous than sanctimonious--break out that warty-Jesus mask and have a grand ol' time!
Witches DO have power!
They have the uncanny ability to immediately convince people they meet that, believing they are witches, they really shouldn't be allowed out on their own.
I say, let the kids have fun...it's a good excuse to let them go nuts. After all, they only have adulthood to look forward to. And I think we can all agree, it wasn't as much fun as we thought it would be.
Great website, by the way.
On All Hallow's Eve, the Celts observed Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). It was the largest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that during the time of Samhain, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living. The Celtic folk would leave out gifts of food and drink for the dead souls. On All Souls Day, November 2, people would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes", made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggar would receive, the more prayers they promised to say for the dead relatives of the donors. ` The practice of trick-or-treating began when people who were "souling" began to dress like the dead souls, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice became known as "mumming". So to this day, witches, ghosts and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite costumes for Halloween. The practice of carving pumpkins probably comes from Irish folklore.
A man named Jack, a notorious drunkard and trickster, had a trick gone awry with the devil. So when he died he was denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead the devil gave him a single ember inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way through the cold darkness. Originally, the Irish people used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns". But when the immigrants came to America and actually brought the traditions of Halloween to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the jack-o-lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with a candle. Deals with the devil harvest holidays, and dead souls have little relationship to today's Halloween customs. Halloween of the late twentieth century has become a festival of fun when children and adults can enjoy trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins and dressing in costumes. Happy Haunting!!
Prove those to me then you can prove that "witches have no powers".
you all deserve to be kicked in the behind
the day of all hallows eve should be celebrated as they like
this is the time for children to bring happinedd to themselves... if they were real believers in the wiccan religion they would understand the steretypical image of witches like when some one talks about a christian person they think they are all goody goody. Let the children roam free thinking what they like about us. Its a reminder of our religion, the freedom to talk, speach, love, belive and to be free. Protesting about little kids in witches costumes with warts is fine, its halloween, if you cant except the image that has been brought upon you, kindly leave our religion
Blessings.
it hurts a lot.people think witches can use their powers for personal gain......we cant
I don't think the word 'powers' is appropriate. Magic(k) is the use of natural energy to achive change. Anybody can do that, it's no 'power', it's a skill you can learn.
Anthropological: In most ancient cultures theres a distinction between the shaman and the witch. A shaman practices magic for the benefit of the community and in a religious context. A witch practices magic for personal gain or revenge.
Medevil: A person(usually a woman but not always) who makes a pact with Satan in return for power. They worship Satan, preform sacrafice and other crimes in his name and in return he gives them certain powers(shape shifting, the ability to summon storms, and the ability to make there enemies sick for example).
Neo pagan: A practicioner of magic for good or ill. More specificly typicaly associated with the modern religion of Wicca which tends to borrow from multiple pagan religions(ie some worship pan, others isis, others diana) and modern occult practices(one of the founders of wicca was a man named Gardner who was in fact a student of Aleister Crowley probably the most infamous magician of the 20th Century).
See Next Post.
Magic has also always served a basic purpose. It gives people power over there enviroment and forces outside of there controll. Whether its the ability to command the spirits of rain and the harvest that tribesman used, or the sense of empowerment voodoo rituals gave the slaves in the new world(want a real interesting study on what one person can do with just belief try reading up on Marie Laveou some time), or modern witches who use it to manipulate luck. It gives us a sense of controll. ALso for that matter magical practices have had much to do with the advance of science. Chemistry owes a great debt to alchemy, and astronomy owes much to astrology. Yet thats hardly all. Dr John Dee, Paracelsus, Pythagoras, Francis Bacon all of these men have two things in common. THey are all important figures in the history of science and math and they were all magicians of one sort or another.
To briefly return to my original point though witches are as real as christians. They preform magical rituals and some worship gods(its a mistake to believe that all witches are wiccan or even that all wiccans are witches I've met both non witch wiccans and non wiccan witches). WHether magic exists or not people practice rituals considered magical(some of which are centuries old) just as people worship Jesus whether he was God or not.
SO BEAT THAT FAKERS