When I was younger (much younger :o), my parents did let us go out for Halloween. We were dressed up as princesses or Minnie/Mickey Mouse, visiting the neighbours that we knew, as well as our grandparents. But at a certain time in my childhood (I can't remember how old I was), my parents decided that going out for Halloween was not something we should participate in, due to the increase focus of death (i.e. skeletons, tombstones, skulls etc). Instead, we would go out for supper and my mom would make sure each of us would have a bag of candy/chips to enjoy at school so that we weren't sitting there drooling into our Smurf lunchboxes while watching our peers chow down on one sweet thing after another (grrrrr, reminds me of my younger sister who was able to ration her candy for weeks on end when mine would be gone within a few days. Ahhh, discipline. I lacked it then already :o). As for Nathan, I may be wrong, but I think with his family, they never went out.
When we got married, we had decided then already that we would not let our kids go out for Halloween. Although we didn't have kids, we didn't participate by handing out candies. That's right. We were the grinches of Halloween, the ones with the lights out.
Back then the decision was made without much research into it. It was just the way we were brought up and it carried over into our marriage. And it was a decision that was easy to stick to due to the fact that we didn't have kids. That is, until Keziah was born. We didn't research into Halloween until she was born, knowing that we should really come to a final and concrete decision as it now would be affecting her (and now Lincoln).
And research we did. You see, I was hoping that the more research we did, the more we would agree with people that "it's just for fun!!" and that we would let our kids enjoy a night of dressing up and weeks of candy. However, the opposite happened. The more we researched the more our eyes were opened as to what and how this "holiday" came about.
I am sure you can all agree with me that once again, commercialism has taken hold of a "holiday" to new levels. The things people can
I don't know. Just somethin' about that theme, as well as reading up on it has convicted us not to participate. I wish it didn't!!! Getting dressed up IS fun!! Getting candy is also fun!! (Believe me, I research it every year again as I become wishy-washy in my thoughts, wanting Keziah and Lincoln to have fun, too. And I may or may not have wanted free candy).
But is the ruler of the dark not using "fun" as a way to get us, who are called to be children of the Light, involved and participating in something that clearly has dark/death undertones? And aren't we supposed to focus on Life? Not death? Is this where the saying "the devil walks in slippers" fits? Or am I taking it too far? I am asking these questions seriously, not always being sure of the answers (and if you do and you see that I am way out to lunch, I ask that you enlighten me! Seriously.). But, for the fact that these questions make me uncomfortable and very unsure as to whether we should participate in Halloween, we as a family don't. And won't until I can be convinced that by participating, we are glorifying God.
I guess I just don't have that carefree attitude of "ah, c'mon. It's for the kids!". Not with what I know now about Halloween. And not when a lot of the decoration carries on the themes of evil. And especially not when I read from the Bible how God abhors anything to do with witches and witchcraft; evil spirits; darkness.
But what I do read from God's Word are verses like Colossians 3: 17: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." and what is written in Ephesians 5: 8-10: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord."
Maybe I am naive and narrow-minded, but I just can't see how participating in Halloween is "innocent", pleasing to God, bringing glory to His name. That is afterall what He wants from us. In everything we do. And yes, I live with myself and so I know I fall short of that every. single. day.
If you are interested, below are some links about the history of Halloween. Have a read and see what you think. As you can see these articles are off the internet, meaning, I don't know how credible they are but I found them interesting....And I know there are so many more articles out there. But I thought I'd share these 3 with you as a starting point.
http://www.halloweenhistory.org/
more history
and an interesting read: http://www.exposingsatanism.org/halloween.htm
And lastly, let me share with you a funny story about Halloween (see? I am not all boring and "unfun". I know a humorous story when I see one :o):
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Walmart, with Keziah plodding behind me. After awhile, I didn't hear her footsteps and so I stopped to check. Sure enough, she had stopped walking a ways back and was frozen to the spot. Fear was written all over her face while she called out "Mom? Mom? Mommy!!". She wasn't calling me because she couldn't find me. No, she was calling out FOR me. Why? Because right beside my shopping cart was something that looked quite like this:
After dealing with all these scary things with her for over a month with all of this Halloween stuff out in the stores, I finally decided that it was time for her to see that the witch was not real. I picked her up and walked her over to the witch, all the while saying to her,"Look. It is NOT real. It does not move. It does not say anything. It is fake." And then. Well, I am sure you are guessing what happened. If not, let me show you how smart of a mom my kids have. I had the bright idea of touching the witch's hand to PROVE to her it was not real. Wouldn't you know it, the moment my hand touched the witch, it set off the witch, making the eyes go bright red and flashing, the arms went up and down and the witch's mouth opened and out came this scary Halloween sound??! Yeah. I am pretty sure I am up for Mother of the Year after that incident! The poor girl!! (is it insensitive of me that every time I think of this, I laugh??!)
You are doing the right thing. We used to give candy just to get the kids away from the door. Then our kids got older and it just seemed wrong to give candy when they couldn't go trick or treating. Didn't make sense to them. So since then (for the last 20 something years) we just keep the house dark and no one comes to the door. Cheaper that way too! There is a group out here (I am out west) that wants to boycott the big chain grocery store next year to get them to put their Halloween costumes and decorations away from the front door. how do you explain all this junk (skelotons, skulls, bloody axes, witches, tombstones, etc) to a 3,4, 5 or whatever age year old. Put it in the back corner somewhere. If people are looking for Halloween stuff they will find it!
ReplyDelete