School Says Halloween Disrespectful to Witches | |
Are you looking for world business news? Shop for the best costumes here Discounted Shipping Offers - See site for full details. A Washington state school district is canceling its annual Halloween celebration, and the explanation has some parents baffled. "Let them have their 30 minutes of dressing goofy and having candy," Silas Macon, a father of two school-age girls, said Wednesday outside Maplewood Elementary School after learning that the grade-school tradition of a party and parade in costume during the last half-hour of class before Halloween night won't happen this year in the district. Top U.S. stories "We really want to make sure we're using all of our time in the best interest of our students," Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said. The superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons, Hansen said. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. Second, some families can't afford costumes and the celebrations thus can create embarrassment for children. Both of those reasons seemed sensible to the parents who spoke to ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. But the district's third reason left some Puyallup parents shaking their heads. The district said Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches. "Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," Hansen said. The Wiccan, or Pagan, religion is said to be growing in the United States and there are Wiccan groups in Puyallup. On the district's list of guidelines related to holidays and celebrations is an item that reads: "Use of derogatory stereotypes is prohibited, such as the traditional image of a witch, which is offensive to members of the Wiccan religion." "I do lots of things that are not revolving around wearing a black outfit and stirring a cauldron," Wiccan priestess Cheryl Sulyma-Masson said in an interview with ABC News in which she explained that Wiccans, or Pagan Clergy, celebrate nature.
(abcnews.go.com) Halloween music online can become a lifesaver. Just picture it… you made all the necessary Halloween decorations to host a Halloween party for your friends, the clock is ticking and the time to open the door is coming… and only then you realize you completely forgot about the Halloween music! Not so many years ago, you would be in a very big trouble with no music – but today, with the internet as your ally, you can still recover from such a potential disaster. Power up your computer, start your web browser and head for the nearest search engine (thankfully, when online, the entire world is equally as near). In a few seconds, you’ll be presented with a large selection of free online Halloween music that you can download and burn to a CD. It really is that simple. Within minutes, the scariest Halloween music tunes will be playing through your speakers, just as your friends start arriving. That serves to show you how useful online internet music downloads can be, even in the most difficult moments. Now, just relax for the rest of the night, and celebrate with your friends on that unique Halloween night. You already had your part of scary moments for now.
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