Reply to Halloween is already The Thing. We don’t need ‘Boo baskets,’ trunk or treat, other dumb stuff

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I agree, OP, because of the meaning and historical celebrations of Halloween and Christmas.

Samhain is supposed to be the only time in the year when this world and the spirit world are closest, and on that night, spirits can walk the earth - humans historically feared them, as they could play dangerous tricks, and kidnap or kill. This fear became strongest as the Pagan festival was subsumed by the Catholic Church into a sort of evil prelude to All Hallow's Day (All Saints' Day) on November 1st. The Catholic Church has a long history of erasing various pre-Church celebrations around the world by deliberately placing its feast days at around the same time as the ancient feast days.

So there is no other moment when All Hallow's Eve can be celebrated. 
Same for Christmas: setting up the tree was done on Dec 24th, otherwise the needles would fall. Lighting the candles on the tree was done in the evening of the 24th for a short period of time, and obviously supervised. The caroling was historically done on Christmas Eve, a time when people were resting at home before the feast instead of doing backbreaking work. Presents were on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, depending on cultures.

It's perfectly fine if people want to extend the celebrations and parties to cover the entire fall and half of winter! But it's a bit ridiculous and in my opinion, dilutes the special cultural and historical significance of the exact dates (I'm not commenting from a religious perspective, of course).

[/quote]

You're talking about the Christmas season, which is 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6 (or Three Kings Day, depending). Some families put their tree up on Christmas Eve and leave it up for the Christmas season. But before Christmas is the four weeks of Advent, preparing for the arrival of the Christ Child, and there are many activities in church and at home (advent wreaths, advent calendars, carol singing, Christmas pageant, putting candles in the window) that take place during that month. Yes, Christmas is just one day, but traditionally activities before Christmas start on December 1, or include gift giving on other days such as St Lucie Day (December 13). [/quote]

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