MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow schools have been ordered to ban students from celebrating the cult of the dead, better known as Halloween, despite the widespread popularity of the imported festival to Russia.
Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for the city's education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.
"It's not an attempt to block the celebration of this holiday completely, just in schools and colleges," he added.
Pumpkins and images of witches are widespread across Russia, with many bars organizing special fancy dress parties, despite the efforts of the Kremlin and especially the Russian Orthodox Church to curb enthusiasm for non-native festivities....
The Roman-catholics policies will do the same thing what they did with the pagans and embrace the Islam! After all there is no difference between their saints, Is there?
Some things you just don't need a Bible study for. Why would we want to exalt on one day of the year what we abhor every other day of the year? That's a bit like sowing one's wild oats on Saturday night and praying for crop failure on Sunday morning. It just don't work that way.
Uncle Raisin www.UncleRaisin.com "Raisin" the Standard Against Injustice
I can't help but admire the Russian Orthodox Church for their stand on halloween and other evils of modern society, even though I disagree with many of their doctrines. If the average (European) evangelical church of today had the same backbone things might look a little brighter.
Lance you should have wrote"protestants don't know who the saints are in heaven,other than those mentioned in the bible,so the festival has reverted to its pagon origins and the papish church"
Lance Eccles wrote: Halloween was originally a pagan festival. It was Christianized by the Catholic Church, being made a celebration of all the saints in heaven. Protestants didn't want to know about saints in heaven, so the festival has reverted to its pagan origins.
another twisted argument Lance -
the Catholic Church did not "christianize" the festival - she "incorporated" it.
Those born again (John 3;3-8) go to heaven when they die but they are not to be prayed to - see among other places Elijah´s answer to Saul (1 Samuel 28;11-19)
Halloween has never been a "Protestant" custom and those born again do not celebrate it.
Lance Eccles wrote: Halloween was originally a pagan festival. It was Christianized by the Catholic Church, being made a celebration of all the saints in heaven.
Lance I really appreciate your post as it should even for you illustrate a major point of how wrong the Roman Catholic Religion is.
Halloween was a damnable pagan festival even to including human sacrifice that was Catholicized (you cannot Christianize anything that is is disobedience to the commandments and word of God)
So basically Rome could say to Pagans ...join the Catholic Church, you don't have to repent or really change your ways as we have a Catholic way of including all the things you've enjoyed as a pagan just not the human sacrifice stuff.
So you don't want to believe in Jesus and obey Him don't worry about it we have "his" momma who will tell "him" to accept you just like you are.
Don't worry about missing your old gods we've got "saints" for all sorts of things you can bow down before and pray to.
And don't forget we even worship the same god as the Muslims and have all sorts of neat rituals you can enjoy and don't worry about hell we've invented purgatory.
Catholicized well might be another word for spiritual prostitution.
Good for Russia. Come on, USA, you can do it too. Halloween needs to go. Of course, Christians are under no obligation to observe the papal holy days either. If the popes didn't impose All Saints Day, there would most likely be no Halloween(All Saints Eve).
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michael hranek
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