I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year.....I love the jack-o-lanterns, the cute costumes for kids, the cheap candy...but I hate the glorification of death, evil and all things scary and creepy.
Growing up, we did not celebrate Halloween in the traditional way. My parents tried to steer clear of the scary parts and associations with evil and instead focus on All Saints Day. Our church had a great All Saints party every year with awesome games and goodie bags. We dressed up as Bible characters or modern day "saints" and wrote out clues for a panel to guess who we were. It was fun to try to "stump" the panel every year. Of course, most little girls were Miriam with a baby doll in a basket or Queen Esther or Mary. Boys were often a shepherd or King David.... it was fun.
Now as a parent, I am trying to celebrate the innocent parts of Halloween...the cute animal costumes, fun jack-o-lanterns. Yet every time we go into a store or even drive down the street, we are bombarded by associations with death (tomb stones, skeletons) or horror.
Yesterday in Walmart I wanted to look for some spider rings because Kayleigh is fascinated with "bitsy spider"...the song mostly, but also every spider she sees (and now is a good time of year to see alot). But there wasn't a single isle in the the Halloween section that I could go down without freaking myself out, let alone my girls. Why can't they put all things scary in one or two isles and then mark them off somehow? I know we can't completely shield our children from everything we don't want them exposed to, but we can try to proctect their little eyes, hearts and minds from unnecessary frights.
Even story time or craft time at the library...geared toward toddlers....was out of my control. I don't want "scary" stories read to my children. I don't want my girls decorating ghosts...friendly or not! I don't want to explain what a witch is..... Yet I found myself in those situations this week. Why can't everyone stick to pumpkins?!?!
I don't want to skip Halloween completely....I just want to rewrite the script! I'm sure I'm not the only parent struggling with this....
Obviously we went to the same church you did when we were little, and I feel the same way!! Our parents must have read the same book :) As I grew up I felt a little cheated that I didn't get to go trick or treating, so I want that for my kids, but I could do without everything else. I also can't stand that there are Halloween events for like 2-3 weeks before Halloween. I am so sick of their costumes already and we haven't even gone trick or treating yet!!
ReplyDeleteAmen to your comments. It is a good time to explain very simply about good and evil. God is good and the world is bad because of sin. Celebrating harvest and God's goodness is more fun!!!! And He created pumpkins too :)
ReplyDeleteLove and hugs
Grandma
I agree. We too have the same dilemma. We want to get dressed up and see the neighbors without getting scared. There are some houses in our own neighborhood that I make the kids look away b/c of the scary images on their front lawn. How sad! What happened to cute pumpkins! I have complained to stores by e-mailing customer service b/c of their displays and the way they are scaring the kids. I have avoided taking my children to certain stores b/c of this. It is sad that Halloween has become so popular and people celebrate this more than Christmas and Easter. We are this year having an All saints Day party on Saturday and hope this will become a tradition and something the kids remember more than Halloween.
ReplyDeleteKelly
Another way to celebrate is to focus on this time of year as a Fall Harvest celebration rather than Halloween -- it's Biblical. Costumes can be fun and innocent for sure. But isn't it nice when Halloween is over and Thanksgiving season arrives?
ReplyDeleteFor our family, we don't celebrate halloween.at.all. Here's a good verse that pretty much sums up why:
ReplyDelete“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” ~Philippians 4:8-9