Posted 10/21/2004 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

Remember the good old days when towns would ban Halloween because they don't want to offend the Christians? Well, now it seems that Puyallup Washington is looking out for with witches. The real Witches.

The district says Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.

"Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that," said Hansen.

The Wiccan, or Pagan, religion is growing in the U.S. and there are Wiccan groups in Puyallup.

Number eight on the district's guidelines related to holidays and celebrations reads as follows: "Use of derogatory stereotypes is prohibited, such as the traditional image of a witch, which is offensive to members of the Wiccan religion."

If your religion is so fragile that it's threatened by children in pointy hats begging for candy, maybe you should shop around a bit for a better God.

"I do lots of things that are not revolving around wearing a black outfit and stirring a cauldron," said Wiccan Priestess Cheryl Sulyma-Masson in an interview with ABC News where she explained that Wiccans (or Pagan Clergy) celebrate nature, not Satan.

So does that mean she's not going trick-or-treating this year? Satan's got a pretty strong grip on those witches if they turn down free Snickers.