Christians for Paganism

When I took my children to a “Pumpkin Patch” to pick out a pumpkin or two for Halloween, we went to a farm with pumpkins in the field. They had hay rides and cider for sale. They had a blue grass band.

Great fun, and American capitalism at its best.

But these days, the “Pumpkin Patches” that I see around here, here in the Bible Belt, are all run by churches.

It is a fundraising event for them.

Now, from what I remember, Halloween is a pagan holiday tradition that goes back to the Dark Ages in pre-Christian Scotland where it was originally called Samhain. Druids thought that during this period the boundary that separated the living and the dead somehow thinned, and it was possible to pass back and forth between life and afterlife.

And from what I recall on the origin of the Christian holiday, All Saints Day, it was essentially established to hijack Halloween from the pagans. Witness the fact that it is called Halloween now, All Hallows Eve.

And now Christian churches are hosting Halloween in conducting fundraisers, ironic in that you don’t hear of churches selling Christmas trees or Easter supplies.

I guess having Christian Pumpkin Patches is yet another attempt to hijack a pagan holiday, as if it hasn’t been hijacked already. Or maybe it is another attempt to capitalize on capitalism.