Have a blessed Samhain 2020!

I don't think Samhain has much to do with God's blessing! Hear this short and accurate clip through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhkbp35rgJ0

In Ireland Samhain was the night where the division between the Spirit world and earth was non functional. Hence the moves taken to scare them off (candles in pumpkins, etc.), Scary creatures, etc. It was a night of fear of the dead.

The origin may go even further back into early Biblical times, but it's difficult to talk about that on an open forum as the signal to NOISE ratio is usually very poor. Send me a pm if you're interested.

See, this is exactly why I did not post this in the religion thread ...
Neither the Bible nor "God" are what Samhain is about.

Blessed Be!

Agreed. If you had left the word 'blessed' out of it, I wouldn't have posted. But it was you who brought God into it, really.

As for Samhain, It's originally a Celtic (Irish/Scottish) thing. I think the Irish & Scots know what it's about.

Blessing people doesn't have to bring "God" into it, although for the OP, Scasey, and me it does bring gods into it. Also, you don't have a monopoly of Irishness!

I certainly don't have a monopoly of Irishness. Until recently, people were Ireland's greatest export, and I've no Scots blood in me. There is a significant Irish lobby in the Excited States, and that lobby and publishing were factor in 1917-1921.

There are actually a lot of significant celebrations of the dead about the end of October; Samhain is simply the best known one. That allows interesting conclusions to be drawn but I'll mention none of them in view of the comments. I am curious about who apart from God can bestow a meaningful blessing.

Um. I'm pretty sure anyone can bestow a meaningful blessing. IMO.

Asklepios can manage it, in my experience!

If your god is perfect then it does not do ANTHING. No thinking, no blessing, no nothing.
Why bless? What's to gain? A perfect being is fully whole and complete.
Why think? To arrive at a conclusion? To lack something is antithesis to perfection.

To be perfect is to be inert.
An earthworm is more capable of blessing you than a perfect being without any drives left, and if your god does anything, then that means the deed is done to fulfill some desire.
Those who have something they lack cannot be perfect, especially not on a divine scale.

I am not taking this thread into the religious, but you are so wrong. perfection does not have to be inert - it can be lively, artistic, funny etc. You don't lose your personality in perfection.

I thought this was about the IDS until clicking on it.

Would that be Intrusion Detection System or Informix Dynamic Server — and why?

Of course the intrusion detection system, why would IBM's product share the same name?

^ there can be only so many 3-letter acronyms, overlap is bound to occur... I think I like "Intelligent Decision System" best - or maybe "Infant-directed speech" -