Halloween at SDC

Ozark Outlaw · October 24, 2010, 12:05:03 AM

Quote from: U Smell Smoke on October 23, 2010, 08:52:13 PM
If they put a bunch of extra decorations up for Halloween it might make it tough to get Christmas ready in time.

Funny you should mention that. I was at the park a couple of weeks ago, and they were already putting up all the Christmas Lights in the middle of the Harvest Festival. I suppose it takes a long time to put all of those lights up with, or without Halloween decorations.

Nate65807 · October 24, 2010, 12:47:33 AM

I wonder how much lights they have to put up? It seems like a lot of the lights are up throughout the whole year. Last time I was there, they even had some of the Christmas lights turned on (maybe testing them)

That must be a tough chore...4 million lights. If one light goes out....they all go out, LOL

sanddunerider · October 24, 2010, 06:55:06 AM

i was near the opera house last month and looked like several lights had been hung in that area. primarily in and around PK.

Makayna · October 24, 2010, 10:25:22 AM

Quote from: Nate65807 on October 24, 2010, 12:47:33 AM
I wonder how much lights they have to put up? It seems like a lot of the lights are up throughout the whole year. Last time I was there, they even had some of the Christmas lights turned on (maybe testing them)

That must be a tough chore...4 million lights. If one light goes out....they all go out, LOL

Lots and lots and lots of lights go up that week. So many that I HATE putting up Christmas lights around my house... still.

rubedugans · October 24, 2010, 12:54:34 PM

Been there on Halloween, you would not think it is anything but Fall. No sign of any celebrations at all.
If you want to talk about Holidays (holy-days) and pagan practices, many modern holidays and symbols have roots in these same rituals/ practices.

Odd thing my wife and I have noticed, there are no black cats offered in the gift shops. We are Christians, and own a little black kitty, and love figures, decorations etc with the cat on it. We know many things come up around Halloween that are negative, rituals, superstitions etc. When Bummer and Lazarus (the pet store) opened, my mom went in and asked if they had any black cat items, and off the record was told that black cats would rarely be found in the store out of choice by the powers that be.

Something to think about.

KBCraig · October 24, 2010, 04:44:52 PM

Christmas and Easter are both pagan holidays.

'Nuff said.

marolinesdad · October 24, 2010, 04:57:49 PM

Christmas and Easter are not pagan Holidays... They are Christian Holidays that the early church put on the same days as pagan holidays. They did this to make it easier to convert pagans.

Nate65807 · October 24, 2010, 06:25:32 PM

Just because the origin of something comes from one place, doesn't mean that it can't be evolved to something else.

I'm getting a hamburger at Wendys which has its origins in Hamburg, Germany. I assure you, they won't be giving me steak mixed with breadcrumbs an onions. It will be way cheaper too.

We should be careful to stay on topic. Maybe a religion thread should be created for those who want to debate it, but not me

Parson B Ready · October 24, 2010, 09:15:49 PM

If I had to choose between Halloween at SDC and OTC the way it is, I would choose the Christmas festival hands down.

Also KBCraig and OklaSDCfan are both correct.

Halloween, Christmas, and Easter were all attempts to Christianize Pagan Holidays. All Saints Day was originally held in May, it was moved in the 8th Century by Pope Gregory to correspond with the Celtic festival Samhain and its Roman corollary. The early church followed the Jewish custom of celebrating a holy-day with the start of sundown the previous evening. Thus the night before All Saints Day (AKA All Hallows Day) was called All Hallows Eve, which was shortened to Halloween. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Church door on October 31, 1517, because he knew the church would be gathering for All Hallow's Eve services. Christmas was an even earlier attempt to Christianize the Saturnalia festival. Instead of celebrating the birthday of the sun god on December 25. Christians started celebrating the birthday of the Son of God. The December 25th date for Christmas was actually fixed at the Council of Nicea in 325AD. Prior to that, Christmas was celebrated on January 6. The Eastern Orthodox still celebrate Christmas on January 6. But January 6 is now regarded as the Day of the Epiphany in the Western Church. The Council of Nicea also fixed the date of Easter to be the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. This happened to correspond with the pagan festival of Astarte, the goddes of spring. In the British Isles it was called the festival of Eostra. According to the Venerable Bede (10th Century AD), on the day of the Vernal Equinox a sacred rabbit comes into the land and lays a sacred egg (No Cadbury didn't make that up!). Out of the sacred egg the goddess of fertility/spring, Eostra, is hatched. When the goddess hatches from the egg, she ascends to the sky, hovers over the fields until harvest, then dies with the harvest, and is reborn again in the spring by the same process. The word "Easter" is actually the name for the festival of Eostra, as it is a variation of her name. Thus all three holidays were attempts to Christianize pagan holidays, obviously it worked pretty well with Christmas and Easter, but not so much for Halloween. But I still celebrate all three.

sanddunerider · October 24, 2010, 09:30:01 PM

Looks like they have 95% lights up now.. looks like 4,000,000 lights!!! and maybe 8,000,000 staples! lol

saw the lighted figures laying down in grass around the train track, and train is all decked out and ready. So they will be ready to flip the switch in 2 weeks..

And as far as the halloween thing, we relate pumpkins, scaregrows, stalks of corn and so on to the holiday, and of course there are plenty of these on display now for fall festival.. pretty close now to halloween///

rubedugans · October 31, 2010, 11:55:52 AM

post from Facebook...Branson Landing

QuoteAre you ready to get your sugar rush on? Join us for Safe Street Trick-or-Treat TONIGHT from 5 PM - 7 PM to collect all of your favorite treats. And, don't forget to enter our Halloween Photo Costume Contest to win a $75 Ridemakerz gift card! Click on the Contests tab above to enter!

Parson B Ready · October 31, 2010, 05:04:02 PM

Quote from: sanddunerider on October 24, 2010, 09:30:01 PM
Looks like they have 95% lights up now.. looks like 4,000,000 lights!!! and maybe 8,000,000 staples! lol saw the lighted figures laying down in grass around the train track, and train is all decked out and ready. So they will be ready to flip the switch in 2 weeks..

I wonder if they have ever thought about leaving the strings of lights up year round on the buildings? It seems like it would eliminate a lot of work and a lot of wear and tear on the buildings. If they didn't have the lights turned on, would anybody even notice that they were still up? Don't they start working on the lights sometime in August? So some of them are up almost half the season already......I know this going off topic, sorry!

shavethewhales · October 31, 2010, 05:14:36 PM

^Yes, it's always noticeable when the lights are left up, and it looks tacky. They do need to invent a better system though. The train station looked pretty bad the last time I looked at it because of all the holes from years of stapling lights into it. I'm sure many of the other buildings are in the same way.

MissinTheGreenTrams · November 01, 2010, 09:03:50 AM

why staple the llights on the train??? with all the options of clips that are available and the amount they would need they could get a discount, I think 3M puts them out.......they stick to the surface and you pull a tab and it comes rights off......no muss no fuss. They could do a trial on a similar surface sometime throughout the year. Ya know soak it down with water check for cold temps and ice to see how it stands up.

Ozark Outlaw · November 01, 2010, 10:50:55 AM

Quote from: shavethewhales on October 31, 2010, 05:14:36 PM
^Yes, it's always noticeable when the lights are left up, and it looks tacky. They do need to invent a better system though. The train station looked pretty bad the last time I looked at it because of all the holes from years of stapling lights into it. I'm sure many of the other buildings are in the same way.

I know it sounds quirky, but that has always been a huge concern of mine. As much as we all enjoy the millions of pretty Christmas lights, at what cost? Every structure in Silver Dollar City is riddled with holes from the mounting each year. They do need to find an alternative to the traditional staples, but let's face it, nothing so far has worked so well at holding the lights on tight.