Will you be celebrating Halloween?

lobster

As someone who never leaves home without a skull and fresh supply of blood, I will be celebrating Halloween or its Pagan equivalent dharma style. Will you?

Oh and yes I really do carry a skull and fresh blood ( my own ) :zombie:

TheEccentric

Nope, used to when I was younger though.

federica

As with all events which have public popularity, it's become overblown, over-commercialised and over-done.
I hope you're all thinking about Easter. Our H/O is currently planning next year's spring promotions.....

Grrrrr!!

Jainarayan

TheEccentric said:

Nope, used to when I was younger though.

This.

MaryAnne

For many many years I celebrated Halloween as the Harvest/Pagan holiday it really is ... not in the costumes and trick or treat kind of way. But since I'm Buddhist and no longer Pagan for these last few years, no real 'celebrating' planned. But this is my favorite time of year.

matthewmartin

Maybe I'll dress the baby as a monk. He has the right hair style already.

DaftChris

I'm going to a Samhain circle with some pagan friends to celebrate the harvest season.

That counts, right?

Vastmind

matthewmartin said:

Maybe I'll dress the baby as a monk. He has the right hair style already.

bookworm

I would if i was invited to a halloween party

NomaDBuddha

lobster said:

As someone who never leaves home without a skull and fresh supply of blood, I will be celebrating Halloween or its Pagan equivalent dharma style. Will you?

Oh and yes I really do carry a skull and fresh blood ( my own ) :zombie:

I won't celebrate Halloween. First, because I don't need a special day to get drunk; second, because I'm not used to this celebration...being Romanian, I grew up with more traditional celebrations, and Halloween wasn't among them. Third, because I hate every imported celebration. Every imported celebration ( Halloween, St. Valentine's Day for example ) is just a big profit making machine that uses the average Joe's consumer mentality as it's resource. Fourth, because during this period of the year I have to start learning for laboratory tests and so on.

Oh, and...about the costume. I bet that if I dress more 'office' I'll scare all the people that know me.

Jeffrey

We will have decorations including a cat with arched back (figurine). And then we have blackberry who is another all black cat (real) with white whiskers. My mom will make a display of her dolls in costume in the window so the children going door to door for candy can see them. I will be avoiding 'trick or treaters', but I will eat candy!

how

We have less kids coming to the door every year but suffer from our fear of running out of offerings to the gods of commerce & dentistry.

Our penance is the consumption of all that remains.

Jeffrey

exactly @how

lobster

Thanks guys, my family were so impressed with my efforts to celebrate Halloween, see image, that they expressed their opinions by: removing the skeleton, eating the chocolate coins for the trick or treaters, throwing the skeleton at me and demanding the permanent removal of the skull . . . hopefully I will not be decapitated . . .

They clearly do not realise they are dealing with a highly developed dharmaist . . . :pirate:

zenmyste

Why would i not be celebrating halloween?? I love it!

I cant wait to buy our pumpkins, carv awesome designs, then we take kids trick or treating, eat lots of chocolate and cake, then im off to a fancy dress party! We do it every year, cant wait !

ZenBadger

I won't be celebrating Halloween but being a Pagan these days I will be out celebrating Samhain with my friends. There will be a circle ceremony, toasts to the ancestors, a bonfire and cakes washed down with mead, ale and good strong tea for the teetotallers.

MaryAnne

My own personal Samhain/Halloween traditions aside, does anyone feel somewhat bothered at all by the overall 'direction' Halloween has been taken when it comes to outdoor decorations and some costumes?

As I said before, since I was a teen, Halloween was "Samhain" for me, but that didn't stop me from noticing that all around me, in all sorts of neighborhoods, outdoor decorations and displays (over the years) was evolving from cartoonish ghosts and goblins, white sheet 'ghosts' hanging from trees, styrofoam grave stones, black cats and 'scary' jack-o-lanters around the yard - to pretty realistic scenes of murder and suicide complete with pools of blood and screaming voice tracks?

I think it says something about our collective mindset as to what we can find "amusing" and acceptable for display..... This trend that started (in my area) about 15 yrs ago, really turned me off even more about the way too many Americans "celebrate" Halloween.

Chaz

Just this morning, my wife and I talked about leaving the house dark and leaving the neighborhood for the evening on Haloween and then decided against it. We recalled, growing up, all the people who over the years gave out candy, popcorn, coins, and so on so us kids could have a little fun. Gotta pay it forward.

Vastmind

Those coin chocolates here are the worst, haha
First ones we used to try to trade away when we were
kids, hahaha......... Is the chocolate in those better over
the pond?

lobster

Vastmind said:

Is the chocolate in those better over
the pond?

These choc coins were from a £ shop (cheap) and not fit for zombies or nagas. I would not give them to visitors, 'orrible . . . maybe that is the point. Chocolate coins should not be this bad and I was going to take them back. Generally speaking European chocolate, particularly Swiss and Belgian, is better than the American variety.

lobster

Happy Halloween

Vastmind

Be safe this year, everyone..no matter how you party! hahaha
Love one another.....

Billyboy

No, I will not be celebrating Halloween, but wish everyone who does a safe and fun time Halloween.

bookworm

Halloween can go to hell

Jason

But of course. It's how we recruit for Satan and get our quota of child sacrifices, after all.

lobster

Thanks guys, :clap:
. . . have created this Halloween Special with help from my good pals from the hell realms.

Dharma for Devas, Demons and Dodos
The Hate Fold Bath

1. Wrong view
Always view things from the skew of the wisest dharma deva you can. In this way you will refine your perception to always have rose tinted glasses or insight into official dharma. Never look into and investigate for yourself, that might lead to the light. Heavenly view will not help you. Better the devil you know.

2. Wrong intention
Don't go silly over sila, always intend to do well, better or be superficial. What no one discovers is clearly as acceptable as what you can get away with or a reputation for. In other words expose your best traits to impress the gullible and yourself. Wear a nice uniform, sari, official title. Consider it a disguise. Humility and other behaviour is easy to fake. If you find an impressive blind man, follow him, you will end up somewhere.

3. Wrong speech
Better to say something than forever listen to others mindless chatter. What you say is always right. You said it. That is your right. Freedom is the ability to hear only our preferences.

4. Wrong action
You can not do wrong. You are just the means to others karma. If you are crazy, somebody must be responsible. Mayhem is your friend. Sex and drugs and rock and roll for real happiness. You know it makes sense.

5. Wrong livelihood
By doing the dirty demon jobs, you are helping the hypocrites. Wear your evil with dharma pride. Be a Holy person, this will allow some of the best cover early on.

6. Wrong effort
If it's hard, you probably need to take it easy.

7. Wrong mindfulness
Empty your mind of mindfullness. Be Mindless

8. Wrong concentration
Don't get caught up in the details, that is where the devil is and that is above your pay grade.

Hope that is helpless.
I was inspired by this misquote

A foolish woman proclaims her inaptitude
A wise woman keeps them secret within.
A strawman floats on the surface of water,
But a precious gem placed upon it sinks to know depths

-Sakya Pandita

:crazy:

Simonthepilgrim

Samhain/All Souls/All Hallows Eve - truly part of our pre-Roman, British traditions. I would not want to forget them but my observance of them will be muted. There will be bonfires in the hills around here and British pagan puja will be offered tonight just as the Christian will be offered tomorrow. I recall that the monks who went to Aoteraroa (New Zealand) offered puja to the local deities. They are wiser than I so I follow their example.

Vastmind

Jason said:

But of course. It's how we recruit for Satan and get our quota of child sacrifices, after all.

I tell the fundies here..."How come he never tries to come get them
when they're hungry, need a ride, or when they get a sassy mouth and
are unappreciative...lolololol

Keeps the push light and funny .....

Cinorjer

The foster kids are going trick or treating for the first time. She's a princess and he's something called a transformer bumblebee. We'll take them to the "good" neighborhood and walk them around a bit. We turn the lights off and go someplace now because we have three dogs who go ballistic when a bunch of strange creatures invade our porch and shout "Trick or treat" and we can't see locking the dogs in a room to bark all night long as a solution. Also, we're about the only house on the block who did the give out candy routine so we didn't get many kids anyway.

Nirvana

Hey!
For the first time in 5 years, two 6-8 yr-old girls outfitted for Trick or Treat came by with their mother!

Woo! Fewer Kit Kats 4 me 2 consume!

It'sa Party!

Cinorjer

Well, the kids did the trick or treat routine. It was raining so they had little umbrellas and we tried to guide them around the larger puddles, but all of us got pretty cold and wet. Wasn't about to deny them the experience, though. When we got home both tore into their bags of goodies and both of them got sick from eating too much candy. Wasn't about to deny them that experience, either. So now they're both in bed, I'm taking a big slug of cough syrup and calling it a night also.

lobster

I celebrated by going to the Horny Man Museum.
I expected devilishness, virgins and Lucifer the light bringer.
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/displays/centenary-gallery

I had to make do with mock up Voodoo temples, screaming kids, stuffed bats and extinct lobsters and staff fobbing me off with science.

It was hell.
I loved it.