As Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, aka Samhain draws nearer, I feel I have to make a simple request. Please, listen with open ears and hearts because I have been living with this my entire life.

My religion is not a costume. My religion exists. I was born into it. It is a part of my culture. I am a pagan. I am a witch. My religion deserves just as much respect as any monotheist religion. It is not a joke. It is not a myth. 

You would never wear a yamaka as a ‘costume’ on halloween. You would not go out trick-or-treating as a rabbi. (OR you might, if you’re a scumlord, which in that case, I’m used to your type and am not talking to you.)

Although it happened before photography and a long, long time ago, pagans were systematically converted, killed, wiped from the face of the planet. The burning times were real. Saint Patrick’s day is a holiday celebrating the ‘driving out’ of the pagans from Ireland- the systematic conversion, expulsion, and murder of people because of their deeply-held beliefs. It was so systematic and so severe that not much survives of the ways of the past. My family and those like them have been doing their best to preserve the old ways despite the stereotypes, the mockery, the fear, and the hate still inherent in Christian propaganda.

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/wiccanpaganhistory/i/Burning_Times.htm

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/glossary/g/English_WC_Law.htm

Google Images for Search word ‘Witch’ and this is what pops up first:

It’s either cutesy or grotesque, a joke or something to be feared/hated. I’m so tired of seeing it every year. I am so tired of ‘witch related’ media perpetuating harmful stereotypes. I’m tired of Salem being a tourist trap, where fear of witchcraft was so severe that it killed ‘innocent’ people (we’re all innocent, witchcraft is NOT evil, ffs) who never practiced in the first place.

I’m tired. I’m saddened. I’m disappointed. I’ve spent many years minimizing my own pain. 

Not on my holy day, please. Don’t do it if you have any compassion in you for another human soul who is hurting. Don’t wear my life and beliefs as a costume.