Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

CADAVERINO!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD JOB!!!!
I'm KEEPing THAT one!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now get back to work!

No law classes on Fridays!

And with that... I shall stop watching this topic. It just upsets me anyway.

Cad, that is only a District Court decision, not binding. Did you find any US Supreme court or Circuit cases( also not binding beyond that circuit)? Come on now. I expect more from Halloween. com's premiere Law student. Get your Shepards out and start cross referencing. Oh that's right, these days you guys have it easy, you just press a botton on Westlaw.

Well, that decision is binding in Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't ruled on Halloween, but it has on Christmas displays. In Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island put up a Christmas display every year in a public park. The particular display involved in the case included Santa Claus, a reindeer, a Christmas tree, a "Season's Greetings" banner, and a nativity scene.

A majority of the Supreme Court concluded that this display did not violate any of the three traditional tests of whether it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (that the government may not promote any particular religion): there was a secular purpose; the primary effect was not to benefit religion in general, or Christianity in particular; and there was no undue "administrative entanglement", since the city erected it without any contact with religious authorities.

This decision bodes well for public displays of Halloween decorations, or school participation in Halloween activities, because Halloween as celebrated in America is if anything much more secularized than Christmas; outside neo-paganism, Halloween hasn't had a religious association since the ancient Celts.

.....anyway...... I can't remember who it was that said it but I agree that the best way to respond to haters (I'm talking about the vocal kind) is with a Mona Lisa smile and a Happy Halloween!

Well I really agree with Uncletor that a big part of whats missing in this world is the "Spirit of Compromise" well said Uncletor I also agree with LawP that we are better to do our nasty venting here then out there, and save our cool headed venting for out there because if you just flip out on people then it just feeds on their already warped sense of understanding.

Here where I live Halloween was taken out of schools years ago and replaced with the "Fall Festivals"ug

Yet Halloween is said to be right behind xmas here and gaining in popularity every year.

MamaHooch, We have the same problem here with some church groups who are very vocal towards Harry Potter being Witchcraft related..

All this Political Correctness and Multi-cultral over sensitivities are binding us up in shackles don't you think?

It's just people with a total lack of understanding or knowledge, who want to control the things that they don't understand. So they get verbal, and abusive when they KNOW they can't have things their way.

Sad but true.

So true Wolfman

If I'm not mistaken, DOD, living up in Canada, don't you guys have it even worse than in the U.S.?

Looking back and adding on to the first post, i can remember when we used to have an annual Halloween festival at our elementary school. It was great fun for everyone until a totaly uptight, prude set of parents went marching into the principal's office and pretty much said something along the lines "Halloween is a for worshiping the devil" (which is not what its about at all) and that ended the annual festival. A few laters however, the festival was started up again with the theme "Fall Festival" and it lacked the great halloween decor and fun. I can remember being totally enraged and i feel sorry for the kids today who dont get to experience the Halloween fun we used to experience.

MyersFan1 wrote: "Halloween is a for worshiping the devil"

Were they Itallian parents?
Never mind.

You're right though. All it takes is a few whiners to ruin things for EVERYbody! The squeeky wheel will always get the grease.

Hey OEJ, ya it's bad up here, especally with the whole mutli-cultral thing, there are so many beliefs and customs, so not to offend anyone it's " Lets not celebrate anything and all be miserable" or thats how it seems. It seems like anyone can come and just change our traditions but all hell breaks lose when you want to celebrate something thats been apart of our tradition FOREVER! But with more and more freedom of speech it seems to have given Halloween a foothold cause now its almost passing xmas

We're all being lead down the slow road to despotism!

Long live the despots! Yay!!!!