WASHINGTON - Witches, beware. Mummies, be gone. Halloween may be a celebration of all things creepy and macabre, but a growing number of US communities are shunning traditional ghoulish festivities, seen by some as tainted by association with paganism and the occult.
On Saturday, the streets of US cities and towns will fill with zombies, vampires and worse, as children clad in sometimes-fearsome costumes go door to door in search of candy handouts in the annual ritual of "trick-or-treating."
The days leading up to the October 31 festivities often are marked by similarly ghoulish celebrations at US schools and community centers.
Not everyone sees Halloween as good, wholesome fun, however.
Complaints about costumes deemed as Satanic, creepy or culturally insensitive have led a growing number of churches, schools and community groups to replace Halloween festivities with "fall festivals" featuring costume parades and party celebrations stripped of all associations to monsters, goblins and witches.
Christian conservatives have led the way in opposing the traditional Halloween revelry.
"Many believers ... find some aspects of Halloween celebrations disturbing," said Richard Dobson, head of the "Focus On the Family" organization, one of the most influential Christian groups in the United States.
Dobson told followers on his website that he takes particular exception to the "traditional emphasis upon the occult, witches, devils, death, and evil" in many Halloween celebrations that focus on faux haunted houses and fake severed limbs.
"There is clearly no place in the Christian community for this 'darker side' of Halloween," said Dobson, whose syndicated radio programs are heard on hundreds of stations across the United States.
He suggested kids dress up as Disney characters or similarly innocuous figures who don't evoke the netherworld.
"Make costumes for your children that represent fun characters, such as Mickey Mouse or an elderly grandmother, and then let them go door-to-door asking for treats," he suggested.
Halloween -- a named taken from "All Hallows' Even" falls on the day before All Saints' Day on November 1 -- a holiday when Christians remember their deceased loved ones.
Although the fete is largely devoid of religious meaning today, its antecedents are in fact pagan, with origins in ancient Celtic observances marking the end of summer and, some say, paying homage to the netherworld.
Concern over the "occult" tone of Halloween is not restricted to the United States. In Spain earlier this week, Roman Catholic leaders sounded an alarm over the growing popularity of Halloween, calling it "pagan," "anti-Christian" and a celebration of death over life.
The Bishop of Siguenza-Guadalajara, Jose Sanchez, went as far as to say that Halloween "was not an innocent festivity" because it "has a background of the occult and anti-Christianity."
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