Halloween is not the "giving" holiday...

[slick]

Its not even a freaking holiday lady!

Lady walks in the door, super slow day today, so I was ready to rent a room.

SC: Yea, I have a free night.
ME: Um, you say you made a reservation for a free stay using your points?
SC: I did that stay 2 nights (its actually stay 2 times, aka 2 separate stays) thing and want to use my free night stay here.
ME: Okay, you can either call the 1-800 number or go online and do it.
SC: Why can't you do it?
ME: Unfortunately, the only way to do it right now is online or the toll free line.
SC: Okay, how do I do it online?
ME: Well you can use that computer over there *points to it*. When you launch the web browser, you will automatically be taken to our website, from there, go to book a room and under the rate type select free night redemption. From there it should prompt you to enter your rewards membership ID and guide you through the rest of the process.
SC: What membership ID?
ME: The one you signed up for to collect rewards points.
SC: I never signed up, no one told me to.
ME: If you didn't sign up, none of your stays counted since they were not logged. You have to be a member in order to track your stays and collect points.
SC: But no one told me that.
ME: I am sorry. I can sign you up today for it if you like.
SC: But I already stayed twice, I want a free room tonight.
ME: Sorry ma'am, but we cannot give you a free room, I can however give you a good rate for the night.
SC: NO! I want my free room, I don't care, look me up, I stayed two times already!
ME: We cannot track stays ma'am, the system is not set up like that, I have no way of knowing when and where you stayed.
SC: YES YOU DO! DON'T LIE TO ME!
ME: Sorry ma'am, but I am not lying to you.
SC: Just give me my free room!
ME: I'm sorry, but I can't.
SC: Its Halloween for god sakes!
ME: I don't follow...
SC: YOU ARE DENYING ME A ROOM ON HALLOWEEN!
ME: What does today being Halloween have to do with this?
SC: Its the time to give!
ME: No, it isn't.
SC: *standing in front of me, looking uber confused, but not annoyed, just confused*
SC: Fine, the hell with this place. *turns around and starts to walk out*
ME: Have a Happy Halloween!
SC: *gives me the good old one finger salute*

Maybe she had too much candy today, or not enough. I don't know, I was slightly annoyed, but this SC didn't bother as much as I thought she would.

[raven_illusion]

*thinks back to Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin* But if you don't give her a free room the Great Pumpkin won't bring you gifts.

[Gawdzillers]

Actually, it is a holiday, one that was started by the Catholics, in fact.
It's All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day. The costumes and everything came from people dressing up as ghosts and skeletons to respect the dead.
The candy thing came out of nowhere, though.

Aside that, this lady apparently thinks Halloween is Christmas.
Stupid lady.

[Raieth]

All Hallows Eve is a Pagen holiday actually.

It's the day when the world of the dead is closeset to ours. You dress as scary things to try and scare away the dead.

I'm pretty sure the candy thing came about from the if you are confronted by a scary thing and don't know if it's a person or a 'non' person then give it something good to eat.

[Brightglaive]

Actually, it is a holiday, one that was started by the Catholics, in fact.
It's All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day. The costumes and everything came from people dressing up as ghosts and skeletons to respect the dead.

All Hallows Eve was actually a pagan holiday. All saints day was originally on May13th (which also happened to conincide with the pagan feast of the lemures) but was moved by popes Gregory III and Gregory IV to November 1st (All Hallows Day). It is theorized that the Catholic church had to come up with a holiday in the British Isles to combat the pagan influence of Samhain and Feralia. Both were festivals of the end of summer and also have been associated with the harvest. All Hallows Even' or All Hallows Eve or simply Halloween is the night (or evening) before All Hallows Day aka All Saints day.

Interestingly enough, All Souls Day (which is also a Catholic holiday and the day after All Saints Day,) is november 2. In the UK most of the Halloween and All Souls Day celebrations have been moved to Guy Fawkes Night (remember remember the fifth of november the gunpowder, treason, and plot) which is November 5th and is coming up. Happy All Saints (or All Hallows) Day, People!!!

P.S.
Wikipedia is an interesting read about halloween see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

[Tria]

Actually, it is a holiday, one that was started by the Catholics, in fact.
It's All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day. The costumes and everything came from people dressing up as ghosts and skeletons to respect the dead.
The candy thing came out of nowhere, though.

Aside that, this lady apparently thinks Halloween is Christmas.
Stupid lady.

Meh, they fucked up Samhain too. >

[Andara Bledin]

Actually, quite a large number of Christian holidays are just re-dressed pagan holidays.

Those pagans wouldn't join the church if they couldn't keep their parties, don'cha know.

The candy thing is tied with the whole "trick or treat" thing. The idea is that you give a treat to the goblins that come to bribe them to not play tricks on you.

It's actually rather similar to wassailing, in several ways.

^-.-^

[Rapscallion]

Let's leave the religion off here and concentrate on SCs, please?

Rapscallion

[BookstoreEscapee]

SC: Its the time to give!

But you have to say TRICK OR TREAT!!!

[Boozy]

But you have to say TRICK OR TREAT!!!

Beat me to it.

I didn't know that hotels gave away free stays on Halloween. Now I feel cheap for giving out chocolate bars.

[Bright_Star]

Even if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving you still couldn't give her a FREE room.

[Banthor the Unruly]

Actually I heard the candy thing was started by the Boy Scouts as a way of keeping kids out of trouble. Going door to door for candy instead of vandalism.

[Geek King]

Actually I heard the candy thing was started by the Boy Scouts as a way of keeping kids out of trouble. Going door to door for candy instead of vandalism.

As much as I'm a fan of the scouts, that's not one of the things we can claim credit for. That tradition goes back before the scouts were organized. It was mainly a town thing, and the treats were supposed to be bribes to the evil spirits so they would leave their homes alone. Or something like that.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Giving holiday"

No, actually it's the "taking" holiday. And sometimes the "TP'ing holiday."

[PepperElf]

Actually, it is a holiday, one that was started by the Catholics, in fact.
It's All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day. The costumes and everything came from people dressing up as ghosts and skeletons to respect the dead.
The candy thing came out of nowhere, though.

Aside that, this lady apparently thinks Halloween is Christmas.
Stupid lady.

it pre-dates us catholics actually, though it's not the first time we've adopted pagan traditions and used them as our own. the pagans called it samhein ("sow-een") and it represented their new year, as well as a time to remember those who had died.

(i'm catholic but my bf is a wicca priest)