Should Epicureans Celebrate Something Else Instead of Celebrating Halloween?

Thinking that this coud be a thread for discussion of Halloween, and how modern Epicureans can make sense of it. I am noticing that the popularity of Halloween seems to increase more and more, (in area of the US that I live in). There are Halloween type public events occuring even now (the first I saw just happened on this past Thursday night), which is crazy because Halloween is not till October 31st. And there are numerous events happening on the two weekends coming up (the weekend before Halloween and then on Halloween which is on a Friday).

Many downtown shopping city areas put on events...and it looks like over 20 churchs or more (throughout the area of where my sister lives and some also in my area) are holding events called "Trunk-or-Treat" for children to dress up and get candy (people decorate the trunk of their cars and hand out candy to children as they walk around the parking lot).

I can't help but think that perhaps the Christian religion is "needing" to promote Halloween since anything that represents "supernatural" (and promoting the idea that the spirit of humans exists separately from the body...and therefore there are ghosts and "life after death") ...is just the other side of the same coin (where would Christians be without the devil?).

I think that modern Epicureans should consider how to apply PD 01 to our current situation with Halloween.

PD01: "The blessed and immortal nature knows no trouble itself, nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favor. For all such things exist only in the weak."

Of course there are many aspects to Halloween, and children have a different and much more simple understanding of it, compared to teenagers and adults.

For adults who succumb to or have "supernatural belief tendencies", Halloween ends up reproducing a somewhat similar supernatural mythos as compared to ancient Greek mythology, but with a twist -- there are powerful forces, and some people (like in the "Harry Potter mythology") know how to harness the powers or subdue the evil powers - in the end you have powers that do your bidding if you know how to interact with them. But this modern mythology ends up reinforcing both ideas of the existence of a "supernatural realm" and also "supernatural good and evil".

Here is a current news write-up on Halloween. I think that adults aren't exactly "immune" to mental concepts of things or their correlate actions -- they do affect us in some way...as evidence shows in this news article about a fake house fire, and other unintelligent things.

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Halloween has gotten more intense over time, from horror enthusiasts decorating their homes with fake bloodstains to animatronic ghouls in costume stores scaring the daylights out of kids. Some parents are worried — is Halloween too scary for kids?

Family visits to Spirit Halloween stores have become “a seasonal tradition,” a company spokesperson tells TODAY.com, adding, “Our animatronics offer varying levels of scare.”

On TikTok, parents are sharing videos of their children shrieking and falling to the floor in abject terror as towering mechanical monsters pop out at them.

Sometimes, people get so carried away with Halloween decorations that the authories get involved.

A South Carolina family has installed special effects that looks like a “house fire,” with smoke and flames bursting from windows. ...

Is Halloween getting too scary for kids?

If your kid is freaked out, they're not alone. Here's how to handle it.

www.today.com

Another excerpt from that article:

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“The real benefit of Halloween is for adults, not children,” Cindy Dell Clark, a professor emeritus of anthropology and author of "All Together Now: American Holiday Symbolism Among Children and Adults," tells TODAY.com. “It’s one day where (adults) can have the catharsis of just mocking death in its face, lampooning it, pinning it up on their house. But ... for children it’s serious. At age 6 or 7, when adults take them to a haunted house, they are truly frightened.”

I think that there are more questions coming up regarding the idea of the "catharsis" of Halloween for adults. And does it end up mocking death in such a manner so that a person doesn't really have to think deeply about mortality?

Of course, Epicurean philosophy addresses the concept of death in such a very different manner. There isn't anything there for us to mock!

Quote from Don

The trick or treating and parties are just having fun, so if they provide pleasure with a minimum of pain, why not participate in the popular civic festival.

It is up to each person to decide if and how to engage with popular modern day festivals... however... I want people to open their eyes and realize that they are participating in something that in many aspects elevates ideas that insist that there is a spirit that survives death and that there are spirits around that "enjoy causing pain and trouble for others". In many aspects the "dark spirit of Halloween" is about a disassociated aspect of human beings and their subconconsciously supressed potential for violence. Also, it is not taking into account that violent acts are often done by psychotic people who have uncontrolled schizophrenia or severe brain injuries.

As for ancient Epicureans, I would guess that there were some civic events that they participated in and others which they drew the line and said nope, not going to.

I think that the Epicurean philosophy is still in a "rebirth" phase and so we haven't really sorted out these issues.

Also, western civilization is so individualized (as is this forum) that we don't have group practices or alternative celebrations established.

I'll add this quote by Cassius which was posted over in another thread:

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My own view of employing the psychological hedonism argument in this context is that while there is a lot of merit depending on how it is presented (as Twain does), I don't find it particularly useful on the deeper and more important point of decided what the word "pleasure' really should be held to mean. it's one thing to say that every in truth acts for what they think will bring them the best result, but how that result correlates to "pleasure" is really the issue, and saying that "everyone does it" doesn't really help with that, at least from my point of view. All the other lemmings may be jumping off the cliff, but observing that everyone is doing it doesn't really help me decide that I should follow that path myself.

But I see the point being, just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean that I should choose to do something.