To the editor:

John Bond bemoans Christians celebrating Halloween, or Samhein, to give it its correct name. We should, he says, not celebrate Satanic festivals such as this in favor of All Saints Day

Sir, Paganism is not Satanism, for Halloween is a Pagan festival. Indeed, All Saints Day is merely the early European Church’s sanctified version of All Hallows Eve.

The early church in Europe had a very poor following initially, and so it adopted a number of Pagan festivals as a fop to the populace, and attached new meaning to the symbolisms. Hence, many of the major Christian festivals are in reality Pagan festivals: Easter (ever wonder why its date is set by the moon’s phases?), Christmas, Candlemas, and yes, All Saints.

But surely, it is entirely suitable for Kansans in particular, to be celebrating Samhein. It is, after all, the Day of the Dead, the day on which the earthly and spiritual worlds are most closely allied, and on which we mourn the world dying and look forward in trepidation to the death of winter and hope for the new crop next year. Christmas, or yuletide, is then the midwinter festival at which we pray to the gods for the return of Springtime and new life: Easter, or Eostrcelebrates this new life and fertility. How much more suitable is this for Kansas, with its farming communities, to observe?

Finally, Satanism, I would remind Mr. Bond, is an entirely Christian invention. Paganism predates both by several thousand years

Philip Deamer,

Lawrence