The year they canceled Halloween

Here's a completely bonkers news story from...the past. (Late '80s? Early '90s? I find that it's really hard to tell what era conservatives are from, even when you see them in present day.) Anyway, it seems this Arlington, Texas community decided that Halloween was too Satanic and full of ugly, so they banned it! And the replacement they devised (a fall celebration in which children were encouraged to dress up as their favorite characters from literature) is at Lisa Simpson levels of lame. If anybody could use a little Satan to spice things up, it's these people.

Incidentally, this comes from the VHS Exposing the Satanic Web, which you can watch in its entirety (though in the wrong aspect ratio, which is hateful) via Google video. It's a fairly amusing though overlong scare film hosted by Dave Roever, whose face was severely burned by a grenade in Vietnam. Sad story, but I'd be lying if I said that didn't add some atmosphere.

Comments

[Scott]

And yet, try as she might, Principal Shirley Cole can't keep that girl's hands out of the scarecrow's naughty region. (At 0:53 in the vid)

[Whereismyrobot]

I grew up in the metroplex around this time, and the level of paranoia regarding this issue was unbelievable. It was on par with the Say No to Drugs campaign.

I distinctly remember an officer coming to our school and telling us that if we are using the "hook 'em horns" sign, then we are saluting the devil. No exaggeration. Another thing I remember is that they told us that peace signs (which were making a resurgence at the time) were broken crosses turned upside down.

Also Dave Roever must have made a tidy profit touring local schools. I always felt bad because he was profiting off of kids who were basically just freaked out by him.

As far as the satanic stuff goes, I don't know why that was such a hot topic at that time. It doesn't seem like there is much money to be made off of banning it.

[unmuse]

locally, (jacksonville, FL) the city council has yet to decide if Halloween is going to be celebrated on Sunday or Saturday. There is apparently an issue with it falling on Sunday. The south sucks.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=173157

[Merideth]

Schools do this all the time. They're afraid to have Halloween, because some parent will object.

So they have a "Book Festival" -- where kids can come dressed as their favorite "book character".

What happens is kids wear their Halloween costume as planned, then rush to the library to find a book featuring said character.

As a librarian, this is my least favorite time of year...

[Selah]

Every who down in whoville likes Halloween a lot...but the grinch...who lived south of the Bible Belt...did not?

I dunno. I tried to think of something similar. I'm not good at this stuff, lol.

[kate]

I hope some wiseass kid showed up as Frankenstein. "What? It's from Mary Shelley's classic novel!"

[WarOnTara85]

I live in Birmingham, and we stopped celebrating Halloween when I was 11 because our church decided it was evil. Instead, they have a "Fall Festival" and the kids are supposed to dress up as Biblical characters.....cause that's fun. Though I did win with my god daughter last year. She was 5 months at the time, I put her in a basket and she was Moses.

[Leanspa]

If you are referring to a specific halloween event then try to contact whoever is sponsoring it to find out if they have any rain delay plans.

Leanspa

[Johnny Chicago]

This ban was thrown together at a time when this country tried to have morals.

Good thing Reagan and the Iran-Contra deals outlawed THAT.

[Taffy]

This must has been during the great "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's.

[KimmyS]

Is it bad of me to giggle when I see a little kid stuff straw down a scarecrow's crotch?

[Selah]

Taffy, I thought of the Satanic Panic too, but I couldn't remember if it was the 70s or the 80s.

[Douglas (Watkins)]

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.[4][5] Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.[6] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

[Vanessa M]

I want to say at least they are encouraging the kids to read. Not sure conservatives of today even do that much.

(then I read Merideth's comment and my weak light of optimism was snuffed out.)

I really and truly cannot wrap my mind around the idea that people in this day and age live in fear of a Babylonian deity that is somehow appeased by sugar-seeking children wearing pointy black hats.

[Maggie]

Thank you So Much for this!!!!! My friends were just discussing "a good old fashioned 80s/90s Satanic scare" in relation to the various "evil" scares in today's news.

Bonus points for this actually being local for us! I'm from Dallas.

[la_chica]

I appreciate your video because it helped me find inspiration for my 1980's business lady halloween hairdo

[cam]

Satan came from a book (the bible) as did Dracula, Frankenstein, witches, Hannibal Lecter etc etc etc. I'm guessing they've had some time to work that out for themselves.

[Louise]

I wonder what that lady would do if she found out about the sexy Freddy Krueger costume....

[katy]

Ah, the good old days of recovered memory and satanic child abuse cults -- none of which left any evidence, which is odd, because if all the recovered memories were true, you'd be tripping over sacrificed children each time you turned around.

[Cleanse Aware]

My friends were just discussing "a good old fashioned 80s/90s Satanic scare" in relation to the various "evil" scares in today's news. Thanks you.

[briannzielinski]

Halloween is for all ages. some teens say its for kids because they feel they are "too cool" for it. Trick or
treating is even for all ages, if I have anything to say about it!
Leanspa

[SF_Infidel]

@KimmyS - No. I saw it too, and found it rather amusing and ironic.