Anti-Halloween Idiocy

First a town in the south bans halloween because it's satanic. Now a town in Washington has banned it because the witch costumes might offend Wiccans. Can we please, all sane people, rise up and with one voice tell both groups to sit down and shut the fuck up? Thank you.

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Yes. I just commented recently on another blog about the idiocy of the Satanism charge, but this wiican stuff is equally mindless. If we can't have even the slightest bit of a sense of humor about ourselves, we're all doomed.

Actually a wiccan group came forward and said this was stupid, and since the cartoonish witches don't have any bigoted meanings, they don't care about them.

By Matthew Phillips (not verified) on 22 Oct 2004 #permalink

According to the local news stories the school authorities thought the whole thing was disruptive to learning and a waste of time, BEFORE also observing that the witch caricatures were not very respectful of Wiccans. Well, heaven forbid that a school administration faced with WASLs should want to concentrate on curriculum.

It is interesting that, with absolutely no support from any institution, Wiccan has gained so much ground.

By serial catowner (not verified) on 22 Oct 2004 #permalink

You have to understand something about Washington. A land where alternitive grundge became an industry. A state whose ties to corporations are Starbucks, Boeing, and Microsoft, but you aren't quite able to tell jokes about how the punks died in the 80s because they somehow live on. Alternitive is accepted, no...ingrained here, and Wiccen is just part of the scene. That, and the schools are run by PC Christians who don't like hurting other people's feelings.

By TheTachyix (not verified) on 22 Oct 2004 #permalink

The decision actually had nothing to do with Wicca, and the district that is doing this is not in Seattle - it's a very conservative semi-rural 'burb most famous for hosting the state fair.

Local school officials have explained over and over again that the decision was based on the loss of too many hours of instruction to parties, planning for parties, and disruptive behavior by dressed-up kids in the few schools that still had Haloween events. The decision was therefore taken to make the rules uniform: parties and dressing up are OK, but not during the school day.

One official also mentioned the Wicca issue (some Wiccans have been upset in the past by "witch" costumes, which they say can lead to harassment of Wiccan kids), and that's what got picked up in the national media. It's far more sexy than the real problem, which has to do with state testing requirements and instruction hours.