American Public School Holiday Crisis

In three letters to the editor author Jay Dubya describes how religious holidays in Americans public schools are part of the ongoing culture wars between traditionalists and revisionists.



Revisionists Rewriting Halloween Tradition



      Now that Halloween has come and gone, I wish to describe what I believe is actually happening concerning Halloween on a national level that has had its repercussions right here in the Hammonton School System. Halloween has recently been changed from an annual school tradition to “Black and Orange Day.” Local school administrators have publicly stated that the conversion is due to “safety reasons.” How many incidents involving violence or student injury during past Halloween celebrations have happened in our public elementary schools? I’ll bet few if none! Certainly if safety is a major concern the elementary school kids could continue to enjoy their parade and celebration without wearing masks while parents could stay out of the school building and hear about the festivities over nightly supper. I suspect that other more sinister factors are at work here besides a “concern for safety.”

    First of all Halloween has much of its origin attributed to the medieval idea of ghosts of saints (spirits) populating the earth just prior to All Saints Day and All Souls Day in early November. To be a saint one has to obviously be dead so naturally Halloween (as we know it with ghouls and goblins) is an extension of that ancient belief in ghosts. Please remember that “Halloween” means “Holy Eve.”

    The essential problem of contemporary social revisionists (those in powerful positions attempting to rewrite American history and culture) is that (in their demented point of view) all references to Christian holidays in public schools must be eliminated to allow for “the Separation of Church and State.” Our Founding Fathers thought that the “Separation of Church and State” meant to not have a State...