Happy Samhain! Happy End of Summer! Happy Halloween!

Stop appropriating Celtic culture

In this day of Incident of Mass Offense, it is very hard to have any fun without someone taking issue with how or why someone is doing something.

• Little girls dressing up as Moana or Frozen’s Elsa for Halloween is ‘cultural appropriation’, activist claims
• Universities issue guides, threats and counseling for 'offensive' Halloween costumes
• College investigates offensive Halloween costume photo
• Racially charged photos of Baltimore private school students in Halloween costumes create stir online

It really doesn't take much to offend someone and have the media jump all over it like it was an alien invasion or something.

• Yuli Gurriel's offensive gesture unleashes World Series debate about racism and political correctness

Sure, sure...people do wear outfits for Halloween that are truly disgusting and offensive. But, complaining about little children wearing princess outfits from their favorite movie or show is going overboard. For the most part, little girls wear outfits to look like someone they want to be like.

My little girl has an Elsa costume for Halloween. Why? Well, she likes Elsa, because Elsa likes the cold. And she likes the cold, just "like daddy does". So, there is no way that I'm going to not let my little princess wear an Elsa dress. She looks adorable in it and sings "The cold never bothered me anyway." while she wears it. It just melts her daddy's heart.

Now, my little boy wanted to be an Indian/Native American for Halloween. I have no problem with that. I dressed up like an Indian when I was a child. Not that I was mocking Indians, but I thought they were cool. I had a Cub Scout Den Master who was an Indian and had his living room filled with Native American art work and other things. And, there is a possibility that my family has Iroquois in the family tree. I did my best to put the warrior paint instead of just a few marks on his face. A little hard with a squirmy 5 year old.

This actually brings up a point about team mascots. No team picks a mascot to make fun of that mascot. The mascot represents themselves on the field. The Washington Red Skins, the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings all have mascots that the players and fans are proud of. It would be stupid, really stupid, to pick a mascot that not only would be made fun of by the opposing team, but by the team's own fans. It is done out of respect and admiration. It is beyond logic why people don't see the simplicity in it. And on a side note, Minnesota is filled with a lot of families that probably were descendants from Vikings and were probably my family's neighbors for the time we lived there.

But, let's get back to Halloween. If people really cared about culture appropriation from wearing a costume, shouldn't they care about culture appropriation from celebrating an event? I guess it would be too much to ask for someone to be completely informed.

Believe it or not, there are some cultures that are much older than others. The Celtic culture is very old and has been celebrating events in the year for a long time.

Our modern celebration of Halloween is a descendent of the ancient Celtic festival called "Samhain;" meaning Summer's End. Samhain was the first day of winter, and the end of one pastoral year. It was the time when the night became longer than the day, the last apples were picked, and the year began again with its dark winter half. Also called Samhiunn or Hallowe'en, this festival is sometimes called Trinoux Samonia or "Three Nights of the End of Summer."

Originally a Druidic festival, it was celebrated on the eve of November 1 (October 31 - technically, either date is appropriate as the Celts measured the day from sunset to sunset.) It is balanced by Beltane (or Bealtaine, Beltaine) which signals the start of summer, 6 months later. The ancient Celts probably held them exactly mid-way between an equinox (when day and night were equal) and the following solstice (when the nighttime was shortest or longest). ~ http://www.sacredfire.net/festivals.html

There is no getting around that Halloween came from Samhain. It is/was Celtic culture that was melded into Christian culture in order to hide pagan holidays (and possibly keep Christians from being persecuted for celebrating their own holidays).

Now, as someone who most likely has more than just a little Celtic blood in my system, I don't find it offensive if people celebrate Halloween. I don't find it offensive that they just dress up, instead of lighting bonfires and having a festival celebrating the end of Summer. Just as the Irish in my doesn't care that people want to be Irish for one day out of the year and pretend that the only thing the Irish do is get drunk and turn things green.

Trick or Treat? This article was a treat.

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Let the positive energy sing!

More Power to the Minnows!!