Scare mongering

Richard Lucas (Letters, 30 
October) has a problem with people being shown images of zombies and grievous wounds on Halloween T-shirts, yet has no problem showing them images all year round of a bleeding and tortured man nailed to a cross, set up for such a gruesome fate by his “Father”.

I assume irony is not Mr Lucas’s strong point.

Alistair McBay

National Secular Society

Atholl Crescent

Edinburgh

As I’M sure Richard Lucas is aware – if not, my Pagan friends can tell him – Halloween was not originally intended to be a festival of what he calls “evil spirituality”.

Rather, it used to be the 
pre-Christian festival Samain, which marks the time when the veil between this dimension and others is thin, and we may honour our dead ancestors and relations through perhaps encountering them in visions and dreams. It exists in other traditions – I imagine the Hindu Diwahli may be a similar festival, and the Christian church has always marked it by All Saints’ Day on 1 November.

If the festival is nowadays marked by disturbing imagery, that is the fault of retail capitalism, not our Pagan friends.

In my experience, they are respectful and dignified about this festival, as they are about what he terms “Xmas”. I assume he is referring to Yule here, which was a Pagan festival marking the winter solstice long before Christianity took it over.

Oh, and while we are about it, “Easter” is actually the name of the Pagan goddess Eostre, and many people have pointed out the dying and resurrected 
God-figure in a number of 
pre-Christian belief systems.

It all goes to show that there are no clear demarcations 
between religious beliefs for people of good will – what really matters is the way we live our lives, whether in pursuit of selfish gain or caring for our 
fellows and the environment we inhabit. If that is “post Christian”, many of us are proud to claim that title.

(Dr) Mary Brown

Dalvenie Road

Banchory