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On Halloween

Yes, my children dress up and yes we go out trick-or-treating. We don’t do ghosts and goblins or witches and wizards. We don’t hang up scary decorations or dress up in nasty scary stuff.
We don’t go door to door to people we don’t know.
Our church does put on an alternative party- which was Sunday nite and the kids got oodles and oodles of candy.
Tonite we will dress up the kids in their costumes and go to a friend’s home (who expects us each year), their great Gram’s home and then end up at my parents, where we will be joined by my brother, his wife and ds2, for a fun supper together. We will cap off the evening by watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown- a family tradition.
Halloween is a controversial subject among Christians- should we or shouldn’t we? Do we do nothing or do we do the alternative harvest party stuff?
Halloween has many, many pagan under (and over) tones. It has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival Samhain. It was very common for early Christian missionaries to rename the pagan festivals of the people group they were working to convert. This is how the Nov. 1^st festival Day of the Dead became All Saints Day and Nov. 2^nd became All Souls Day. The ancient celebration that began at sundown on Oct. 31^st became Eve of All Saints Day a.k.a. Eve of All Hallows (hallow referring to saint) or Hallow Even then the olden spelling Hallowe’en. You can see how these terms eventually became Halloween. It just goes to show you that renaming the festival didn’t exactly reclaim it for the Lord.
Halloween for some represents all that is evil. I wasn’t raised to see it as such. I was raised in a wonderful Christian home where we dressed up and went trick-or-treating at the homes of friends and neighbors (never ever to houses of people we didn’t know). I have many wonderful memories of the special costumes my Mama would hand make and the special treats given by some. [For example my one great aunt always gave out the most moist chocolate covered chocolate cupcakes on the planet and we always made that our last trick-or-treating stop so that we could eat them right away!]
When DD9 was 3 she was Little Red Riding Hood and wore the cape my Mama had sewn for me when I was her age.
The year DD6 was born she was a spider and her older sister was Lil Miss Muffet. One year (before DS2) we got our friend and neighbor boy to join us- the kids dressed as the 3 Little Pigs and my DH was the Big Bad Wolf. We have so much fun planning and making the costumes (my Mama the Queen of Goodwill Shopping finds so many treasures!) and I love watching the kids act out their parts!
I enjoy the fun day I make with my children. I use the opportunity to share with them about the origins of Halloween and how we can be Salt and Light to a dark and scary world. We read from the Bible of how Jesus overcame death and how we, as Christians, should have no fear of death. We keep our celebration within our own family and keep the outside world- Out!

Should We, Or Shouldn't We?

10:08 PM, 2006-Oct-31 .. Posted by pamasey

Thank you for sharing how your family celebrates Halloween, and especially how you share the facts about Halloween's origin with them, and especially how Jesus reigns!!!!

This is something that I have been struggling with, and it was so refreshing to hear your experiences. I see your celebration as an example of the bigger picture of how to be a light in the world of darkness. Instead of shutting out the front porch lights and hiding in the back room, you boldly went out and took your joyful spirit (Jesus) with you!

Good for you!

You've inspired me to see a better picture of how I would like to celebrate Halloween, and not to be fearful of it....yes, I did say, "celebrate"...!.....What a wonderful time to celebrate that we do not have to be in darkness anymore because of Jesus!

Blessings to you and your family!

Pam