Enough Halloween Music Already?

[EJA]

Is anyone else wishing Halloween would just go away on Beethoven Radio? I don't think much of the holiday, and the music is just depressing. It might be acceptable to have some Halloween music on Friday afternoon, but does it have to stretch out all week? Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Independence Day — those might be worth celebrating for a week, but not Halloween. I say enough already.

Or is it just me?

And while we're at it, don't forget that November 1 is All Saint's Day. Why not have some music for that?

<small>[ 10-28-2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: EJA ]</small>

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Several requiems might be nice for Nov 1. Mozart, followed by Faure, followed by Rutter, followed by some back to back Bach...

I rather like the Halloween music. It's a fine, fine holiday and deserves the air time.

Selma

[Nicole Marie]

Thank you Selma and the majority of our listeners agree. It's a fun time of year and our listeners are enjoying the contests, tunes and web site. We've done this every year and it's keeps getting bigger and better because of the positive response we get. Also Ethan we shy away from religious holidays because not all of our listeners are of the same religion. Except Christmas but that has become something way bigger.

<small>[ 10-28-2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: Nicole Marie ]</small>

[EJA]

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
Several requiems might be nice for Nov 1. Mozart, followed by Faure, followed by Rutter, followed by some back to back Bach...

Zactly what I was thinking, Selma. Lots of Rutter, especially.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
I rather like the Halloween music. It's a fine, fine holiday and deserves the air time.
Selma

Fine for what? What's so fine about it? What makes it so deserving of air time? Why should we celebrate the devil and all his works? Yuck.

[Nicole Marie]

Geeze Ethan. Halloween has so many good aspects to it. Day of the Dead - you celebrate the lives of those you've lost. Many Latin cultures celebrate the day in this way. And Halloween came from the Celts who celebrated this day as their New Year!

"So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it."


http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Ethan, you've forgotten your medications again.

The religious Christians among us are celebrating All Saint's Eve.

The more secular among us are enjoying the sugar rush and the costume party.

The pagans among us are celebrating Samhain; that's undoubtedly the festival you're thinking of.

I'll be at the costume party, with coffee and chocolate. Enjoying the pirate ship, the spooky music and the trick-or-treating kids. You do whatever floats your boat.

Selma

p.s. I'm the one in the fairy godmother costume.

[EJA]

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
Ethan, you've forgotten your medications again.

If I hear any more Halloween music, I'm going to need medication to keep my Berzerker genes from expressing themselves.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
The religious Christians among us are celebrating All Saint's Eve.

Don't know any who do.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
The more secular among us are enjoying the sugar rush and the costume party.

Costume partys are fine, and I, of all people, have nothing against a sugar rush, but gee, do we have to do it the same night the pagans are out cavorting with demons? Something about that just doesn't sit right with me.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
The pagans among us are celebrating Samhain; that's undoubtedly the festival you're thinking of.

That's what I have a problem with. I just don't approve of devil worship, divination, human sacrifice, etc. Maybe I'm odd.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
I'll be at the costume party, with coffee and chocolate. Enjoying the pirate ship, the spooky music and the trick-or-treating kids. You do whatever floats your boat.

I shall — probably eating all the Halloween candy we bought "for the kids" who didn't show up. Living out in the country, we haven't gotten any trick-or treaters in years, but we always buy candy just in case. Don't want to dissappoint some sweet little kid (and do want to eat some candy). Enjoy the pirate ship, the kids, and uh, the chocolate.

I suppose it will be smokier than hell down there . . . Was it Bluebeard who locked himself and some of his hearties in the hold of his ship with burning sulphur and brimstone for several days of drunken revelling so as to make sure that they could endure the fires of hell that he thought they were to endure for their misdeeds?

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
p.s. I'm the one in the fairy godmother costume.

I'll steer clear of anyone in a fiery godmother suit. I don't wanna be a statistic — I mean pumpkin.

[bignaf]

Haloween is a religious holiday. (pagan origin).

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Ethan, you can relax. The pagans and wiccans I know have given up human sacrifice, even for Samhain. They mostly make do with a little kosher salt, a candle, some incense, and some water (bottled by preference). Some of the pagans insist on making ceremonial mead. Why, I don't understand. Disgusting stuff.

Don't know anybody that's into devil worship. Well, maybe in ellay. They collect a few more oddballs than sandy eggo.

We made this constitutional decision, some time back, to put up with whatever peculiar forms of worship people find appropriate, so long as civil law is observed. I'm comfortable with this practice but you seem to find it uncomfortable. That's sad, you will have many headaches from batting your cranium on that there brick wall.

Tell you what. You can go quietly into your closet and pray for all the poor doomed whatevers. And I'll have Ruth light a candle for your enlightenment, next time she's drawing down the moon. Seems fair to me.

Selma

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Oh, and nobody will turn you into a pumpkin. A person has to draw the line somewhere.

[EJA]

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
We made this constitutional decision, some time back, to put up with whatever peculiar forms of worship people find appropriate, so long as civil law is observed. I'm comfortable with this practice but you seem to find it uncomfortable. That's sad, you will have many headaches from batting your cranium on that there brick wall.

Selma, you are putting words in my mouth and accusing me of positions that I do not hold, and I resent it. It's not the first time you've done it, either. You're a great twister. I said nothing about prohibiting anyone's free exercise of religion. I have no problem with it (provided, of course, that their religion doesn't violate existing laws, such as those against murder, etc.). My position is that those of us who are not pagans should not participate in pagan religious practices, and indeed, we should avoid all appearances of doing so. bignaf is absoultely right; Halloween is a religious holiday – a pagan religious holiday. Saying that it is otherwise is pure syncretic sophistry. There is a very large difference between tolerating and participating.

Originally posted by Selma in San Diego:
Tell you what. You can go quietly into your closet and pray for all the poor doomed whatevers. And I'll have Ruth light a candle for your enlightenment, next time she's drawing down the moon. Seems fair to me.

Please spare me.

[barfle]

Originally posted by EJA:
Or is it just me?

It's just you.

Originally posted by EJA:
I just don't approve of devil worship, divination, human sacrifice, etc. Maybe I'm odd.

Well, I don't know of anyone who actually approves of that either. However, I've never seen any of that done at haloween, except sarcastically, or maybe in an opera. It's a joke! Get it?

[shostakovich]

Just before we hang Ethan for his views, I'd like to come to his assistance. There's a great divide between his religious beliefs an my lack of them, but I respect his intelligence and devotion to ideas that he has come by honestly. He simply posted an opion that Halloween was overdone musically, and asked if it bothered anyone. So far, apparently not.

Halloween represents something different to Ethan than to most of us. It doesn't deserve ridicule. He and I have e-mailed one another occasionally for more than a year, so I may know him better than most. He's a very decent guy, and has feelings like we all have.
Shos

[Shapley]

I just hope they don't play that darned "Scrooged" soundtrack again.

[shostakovich]

Charles Ives wrote a Halloween. That's pretty scary.

[treebeau]

I think that Selma was mizundaztood, though. I believe her to be witty, intelligent and a bit zany. She's not the kind to want to insult anyone, as far as I'm concerned. She pokes fun at herself and her fellow Califormians quite a bit, so I can't see every word as dead (ha ha) serious.

Regards,
Tim B.

[Nicole Marie]

I'm with treebeau on this one. It's also hard not to post after Ethan when he makes statements like, "My position is that those of us who are not pagans should not participate in pagan religious practices." It's Halloween for the love of God, don't take life so seriously, it'll lead you to an early grave.

(The grave part is a joke, Halloween get it? Christ, we have to put disclaimers at the end of our posts now.) But I'm serious about not taking life so seriously, lighten up.

[barfle]

My comment about "It's just you" was, to a certain extent, tongue in cheek. But he's pretty well alone in his distaste for "halloween" music.

But my comments about halloween being a satire are dead (no pun intended) serious. It's a time when kids make fun of all those ghosts, goblins, witches, yadda yadda yadda. I've experienced almost as many halloweens as Shos, and although there have been plenty of pranks and antics, nobody I've ever known thought it was anything but making fun.

Ethan is very, very much "in your face" when it comes to his religious views. He has his, I have mine, and I keep mine to myself unless asked about them. He's asking for comment, and when he gets it, I don't know why anyone should think he's being picked on.

And I'd like to cast my vote for the Durufle Requiem.

[lliam]

Originally posted by Nicole Marie:
Thank you Selma and the majority of our listeners agree. It's a fun time of year and our listeners are enjoying the contests, tunes and web site.

Why not settle this discussion with an online VOTE. :p

[Nicole Marie]

Oh Lliam no need to make this personal, funny you target me when there are other people who share my view. We will not post this question on the Beethoven Poll. The majority of our listeners do not take part in the BBB and the majority of people who visit our homepage do not visit the BBB. These viewers would have not idea why the poll question would be there and I am not bringing this mess to the thousands who visit the site every week.

We see an increase in the Halloween fun because we see in the requests that come into the station. Tune in and you'll hear us play the Halloween requests.

<small>[ 10-29-2003, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Nicole Marie ]</small>