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Following is an excerpt of "A Brady Halloween" by Steve Jones added on 10/12/2007.
A Brady Halloween
Steve Jones

Here's the story of a lovely lady
Who was bringing up three very lovely girls.
All of them had hair of gold, like their mother,
The youngest one in curls.

Here's the story, of a man named Brady.
Who was busy with three boys of his own.
They were four men, living all together.
Yet they were all alone.

Till the one day when the lady met this fellow
And they knew that it was much more than a hunch,
That this group would somehow form a family.
That's the way they all became the ...What? THE BRADY BUNCH!!!

Shortly after Mike and Carol married they got into a discussion about Halloween. It was coming up and Mike mentioned that it was one of his favorite "holidays" of the year. He couldn't wait to see what kind of crazy costumes the kids would come up with for their night of trick-or-treating. He was surprised to see Carol's somber reaction. He said "What's wrong?" Carol replied "The girls and I have never participated in Halloween because we're very religious." Mike said "What does religion have to do with it? The boys and I are regular church-goers and we don't see anything wrong with Halloween!" Carol said "I'm going to go get my Bible and show you where you're wrong and I'm right." Mike said "I'm going to go get my Bible and show you where YOU'RE wrong and I'M right."

We'll get back to Mike and Carol in just a few minutes. I want to talk to you today about Halloween. Tomorrow is the first day of October and we're going to be surrounded by the trappings of Halloween all month long. How should we feel about that? As Christians should we participate in Halloween activities, decorations, parties, and trick-or-treat. AND, what should our attitude be toward the Christians who disagree with us?

I. THE HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
Halloween originated as a pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. DO WE HAVE ANY FOLKS HERE OF IRISH DESCENT? O'briens, O'malleys, Flannerys maybe? Thank you very much for giving us the gift of Halloween.

Anyway, many of those old European cultural traditions recognized this time of the year as the END of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of winter, the season of death and dying. (Of course here in South Florida it's the land of "Endless Summer" life and vitality where all the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children are above average). The Samhain (Saven) festival was a fire-festival, or feast, when the dead were thought to revisit the mortal world and large communal bonfires would hence be lit to ward off evil spirits (I guess they don't like fire). The term Halloween is shortened from "All-hallow-even", as it is the evening of/before "All Hallow's Day", also known as "All Saints' Day". Hallow means Holy One or Saint. That's the result of a couple of Popes moving the Catholic feast of "All Sa ...

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