I'm Dressing Up as a Christian for Halloween This Year

I am not a huge fan of Halloween but since when did Halloween become a bad word as far as the school system is concerned.  When I went to school, we had Halloween parties, we dressed up in Halloween costumes and we ate Halloween treats.  And guess what, most of us didn't grow up to become heathens.  I went to a catholic school and one year we even had a haunted house.  Now, I can't vouch for how frightening the entire thing was because I didn't get any further than the first room, but I do remember our priest at the time, dressed in a dracula costume lying in what appeared to my first grade eyes to be a coffin.  He didn't burst into flames and he wasn't struck down by lightening.  He scared the crap out of me but that was about it.  The thing that gets to me is they still have the parties.  Sometimes they even let the kids dress up in costumes.  The only difference is they call it an Autumn Party or something equally idiotic.  Apparently, Halloween is a pagan celebration and thus can't be celebrated in school.  But what about Easter and for that matter Christmas.  They are christian holidays that public school's happily give up their academic time for without hesitation or a ridiculous name change.  Maybe its because there is no Halloween icon.  Easter has the bunny.  Christmas has the big guy in the red suit.  Maybe Halloween just needs a representative to speak up on its behalf.  Or is it just that the christian religion has that much of a stronghold on the world today that any beliefs that differ from theirs need to be stifled.  Isn't this unfair to the pagans?  Why don't we celebrate jewish or islamic or hindu holidays as well?  Or maybe we should just have quarterly parties to celebrate - well to be politically correct - nothing.  I say either call them what they are or don't celebrate them at all.  Your child isn't going to turn evil because she wears a Dora the Explorer costume for an hour or eats a cookie with Happy Halloween iced on the top.  Lighten up.  I don't like the holiday but at least I call it what it is.  I can't decide if its the power christians have in society today or Halloween itself that scares me more.