Halloween

When I was very young, I lived in a small town outside of El Paso, TX. I remember, vaguely, trick or treating (I think I remember being Barbie one year and Popeye another). We moved from the small town when I was six, almost 7. We moved from suburbia to "way out in the boon docks". My dad bought a biggish piece of property (4 1/2 acres...about). It was pretty remote and so my days of trick or treating ended. No tricks. No treats. No costumes. Due to our remoteness, we did not get trick or treaters either. Halloween faded into a holiday that I watched on TV, but did not experience. I could care less...I do not remember having any ill feelings and as an adult, gave little thought to the holiday.

When we became parents, all things holiday took on new meanings. Christmas, which is always fun, became SO MUCH BETTER (we did opt out of doing the Santa thing...Matt is avidly against lying to his kids). Halloween, though, that became a controversy.

I became a Christian when Sierra was just a couple months old. In my church, especially in my group of friends, I came to understand the origins of Halloween. It is the celebration of all things evil. It's the Devil's night. It is dark. Well, I couldn't have any of that...so, we made the decision that we would not participate in Halloween. It was easy, at first...Sierra was just a baby. When she got a little older, we found out about church festivals on that oh so evil night, so we would go (but no way would we dress up for it). We would see all the kids at the festivals having SO MUCH FUN in their princess costumes, pirate costumes, super hero costumes, etc and something would twitch inside.

As the years progressed, we began letting Sierra dress up for Halloween, but only for fall festivals and only in something positive. I was one of those parents that was at the school protesting anything Halloween (if you, as a teacher, are reading a Halloween book, than give Sierra an activity to do elsewhere). We would cover our windows, making our house very dark so Trick or Treaters would pass our house by. Oh yeah...I was shining my light for Jesus as I hid in the dark.

It occured to me, one day. The origin of Christmas. God didn't just call down to Earth one day and say, "Thou shalt celebrate the birth of my son on the 25th of December every year!" This holiday began as a pagan holiday...Winter Solstice (I believe). It was a holiday that the Catholic Priests abhorred and decided the best thing to do would be to begin to celebrate the birth of Christ at the same time and try to win the Pagans over with stories of His birth.

Same thing with Easter. It is a Pagan Holiday and the Catholic priests did the same thing only this time to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. As we now know, both holidays are celebrated world wide and most know the root of the holidays (though many may not celebrate it this way) as religious holidays. But their roots lie in Pagan rituals. Do we decide to just stop celebrating these holidays based on their origins?? Do we decide to stop putting up a Christmas Tree when we discover that that, too, was based in Pagan rituals??

So, that brings me to Halloween. When I see little kids running down the street in excitement in their Princess costumes...or their Iron Man costumes....are they celebrating a holiday of evil and death, or one of fun and imagination?? Do they even know what that means?? Or are they having fun....being told how cute they are.....going from house to house asking for candy?? Oh yeah, that is some evil doings there. And what am I doing when I am out with a smile on my face greeting those little charmers and showing them love as well as enjoying my kids joy?? Am I not showing Christ??

So, we celebrate Halloween. Let's face it...most of the characters out there are make believe!! I think we give Satan more power than he deserves or has!! I wonder how much victory he gets in our intolerance vs. being one who chooses to be out among the crowds, talking with neighbors you would NEVER meet otherwise!! Poor Sierra, she only got 3 years of trick or treating due to my intolerance.