Halloween Diplomacy Abroad -- Can You Help?

There was another post on Halloween before Halloween with a lot of misrepresentation of the facts and there were some down right myths stated in the original post.
I believe it was removed because I can't find it to post it for you.
I think many people don't know the true origin of the holiday and are afraid of it. It's not devil worship. it has nothing to do with human sacrafice , It's or was a celebration of the harvest and the saints, and to honor dead ancestors, Trick or treating evolved from begers begging for food in return for prayers for the ancestors of the people that lived there.

http://www.brownielocks.com/halloweenhistory.html

Not all Americans celebrate halloween either. We are part of that culture. I don't know what you know about Halloween nor do I presume I know why your daycare provider does not acknowledge this holiday.
In college I was ok with the traditional part of the holiday as my parents were. Then I worked in a store where we had to throw out all candy with pin holes in case it was tainted. I stopped buying candy in halloween wrap. Later I read about the reason for the holiday and decided not to celebrate at all. I am a Christian and don't acknowledge Satanic holidays. Check it out for yourself. Why faces on pumpkins? Why... ?
Well you get the idea. Witchcraft is a abomination to God Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth.
Thanks for considering another American point of view.

http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/halloween.html
I had to answer your questions, as my family STOPPED celebrating Halloween when we were little AFTER looking it up in encyclopedias. Where are you looking it up, that you are finding it so wonderful? Also, try talking to some people from other countries about what still takes place on Halloween nite! Like PR for instance. Women and children do not even go outside on this night if they value their lives! I find it to be a terrible experience. Since I don't believe that dead spirits come out of their graves, it isn't something that I will ever be encouraging my children to celebrate either. I also even as an adult find the costumes and bloody gore to be gross. I think I found it most disturbing after 9-11 when rescue workers were still pulling corpses out of the wreckage, and other people were dressing up as mutilated people. Somehow my brain connected the two and found it horrifying that anyone could be that insensitive. But there really is no connection- somehow one just reminded me of the other. But that is my opinion- I would recommend looking it up- some of the original terrible traditions are still practiced today in different areas of the world. Something I cannot 'celebrate'.

I did some research online as well because of some of the things people have said about the basis of the holiday and I could find no reference to human/child sacrifice. You can get more info on wikipedia. Heck, it could be possible that something awful like that DID happen in their country hundreds of years ago, who knows.

many hilidays have origins different from how they are celebrated now......Halloween is a wonderful holiday as it is the only one that doesn't require cooking for a week before hand lol.....to me Halloween is about being creative, about having fun scaring your friends and about seeing all the kids in the neighborhood (I think seeing the kids in costume is my favorite part) I love to hand out candy and see how the little ones react to getting candy for one little phrase

We had a German foreign exchange student last year and gave her the traditional Halloween experience. She had the best time.
The weekend before Halloween we went to the pumpkin patch and got our pumpkins. Everyone got a pumpkin and you have to carry your own from the patch to the weigh station.
That weekend we carved them into faces, she had never done this.
We made her clean out her own.
I then take all the seeds and cook them with salt, I had her help with this too.
We decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, mums. I got a hay bale and she helped make a huge spider with a couple black garbage bags and some of that spider webbing.
She dressed up as an American Indian with all the junk we have in the house. My own 14 year old was a cowboy.
My hubby and the kids took her trick or treating, yes they were old enough to go by themselves but this was her first time and we wanted to be a part of this with her.
She then helped give out candy until about 8.
She had so much fun. This year she dressed up, and some of the kids who were in America last year had a Halloween party in Germany.

This year we live in a new community where there are literally 5 houses. So we went ot the church for trunk or treat. We had 26 cars in the church parking lot and each one of us had candy and a game. We did the spider and decorated our van with fake spider webbing. THen we did a cake walk but instead of a circle we made a spider web out of duck tape, the kids had to walk around and the winner received a huge candy bar.

We have done the spooky Halloween forest and trails at different times.
I do not let my cats outside and especially on Halloween night I lock them up in the bathroom while we hand out candy.

Halloween is another American materialistic tradition. Anymore it is nothing more than a reason to have a party and get dressed up. It's fun.

My German daughter noticed right away that Americans party. We celebrate everything. Labor Day, Birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, President's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, you name it we celebrate. We even had a huge Oktoberfest party when she was here, because we had a reason to party, I had a real German lady living with us, with a dirndle. :o)

I don't think most people even know what Halloween really is or was. They have no idea that Nov 1st is All Saint's Day. They don't care. Halloween is a time to let your hair down and have some fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

halloween is mostly to have fun because after halloween in many countries we celebrate all saints day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_de_Muertos
that day is when the spirit of all dead people come to visit for a few hours.