By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
October 24, 2023 — 7.46pm
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CBD was spooked on Tuesday at the chilling discovery that upmarket Melbourne private school St Michael’s Grammar has banned Halloween.
Parents were alerted late last week, via a lengthy message on the school community smartphone app, that the Anglican establishment’s senior chaplain, Father Kenyon McKie, had declared that the scary stuff was not welcome at the school’s St Kilda campus.
After a 600-word recap on the origins, history and traditions of the festival, McKie – an accredited Godly Play teacher – got to discussing the dangers of Halloween.
“Many Christians would feel that recognising Halloween gives the false impression that what is actually potentially spiritually dangerous is innocuous,” the chaplain wrote.
“Some children develop a fascination with the supernatural that may lead them into more sinister occult practices later in life.”
That’s proper scary, but it’s not the only reason why Halloween has been expelled from St Michael’s.
“As a Child Safe School, we do not want to promote a practice that, in some cases, causes annoyance, destruction of property and havoc for our neighbourhoods,” McKie wrote.
The senior chaplain was gracious enough to let families know they were “welcome to observe celebrations and festivals of their choosing outside school”.
So many questions, right? In response to our queries, the school told us that McKie’s message to parents reflected the school’s long-standing position on Halloween, which appeared to have served it well.
“In the past we have never had any behavioural issues or concerns regarding the school’s recommendations on Halloween, and we do not anticipate any issues this year,” a spokesperson said.
Comment by Nelle- I knew about this but it never entered my world it was just something those Americans adhered to and followed but like everything else it eventually found Australia more’s the pity- when I was young Australia was a back water and we were able to enjoy our great country happily oblivious to the horrors about to be dropped on us-which have, over time, undermined and unraveled the core of our values and traditions
Nelle's journey 