October 31, 2007 6:11 AM
We don't do Halloween
Just in case anyone wanted to know.
Some friends of ours are having a family bonfire tonight though and we are going to go toast marshmallows and sing with friends of all ages - which to me sounds about as perfect as it gets :)
What about you?
Comments
We don't "do Halloween" either. Instead we take that night to do something special with our family. We are considering doing a Reformation party next year. Any thoughts on that ?
Posted by: Julie P | October 31, 2007 9:02 AM
We celebrate All Saints Day, which is tomorrow.
As Catholics we believe that we have a wonderful extended family in the Communion of Saints and tomorrow is our annual "Family Reunion"!
We usually attend an All Saints party with our friends. The kids dress up as their favorite saints. They do a saints parade and play games and have snacks from the countries that the saints came from. It is a great way to inspire the children to a heroic life of virtue, and even more fun than Trick or Treating!
Posted by: Jennifer | October 31, 2007 9:42 AM
We don't do Halloween either, especially since I was saved out of a life in the occult. I'm taking my daughter to a Fall Festival at our church.
Enjoy the bonfire!!
Posted by: Libby | October 31, 2007 11:33 AM
We don't do Halloween either, but we have a Fall Celebration at church.
~Leslie
Posted by: My Twenty Cents Keeps Moving | October 31, 2007 12:09 PM
We do Halloween. And here's why:
http://thesmocklady.com/blog/what-about-halloween/
Also, any day/icon/celebration is what you make it. Just because we light candles at Advent doesn't mean that everyone who lights a candle anytime or during the Advent season is lighting the candle to symbolize Christ being the Light of the world. Just because some people celebrate Yule instead of Christmas does not mean I have to stop celebrating Christ's birth at Christmas. Those who dabble in the dark side of Halloween are just wannabes (as we call them). Just because they believe they can attempt to do things of a dark nature on All Hallows Eve does not mean they actually can. Also, just because they want to make it something more, doesn't mean I have to. And not Celebrating Christ's triumph over evil and satan is giving in to the ones who don't. Christ has already fought this battle and won. He said, "It is finished."
Dressing up in costumes is a means of mocking the Devil and all those who follow him. Trick or Treating was started by the Boys Scouts of America to get children off the streets and to provide an alternative to the pranks that were going on. Read the article I posted.
Halloween means All Hallows Eve. Hallowed means Holy. It is a Holy Day for the saints. Yes! I celebrate it. It is the eve of All Saints Day. It is the Day of Reformation. October 31, 1517.
http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/10/daily-10-31-2003.shtml
Posted by: SmockLady | October 31, 2007 1:18 PM
Barbara: I know you are busy right now, but would you mind sharing about the reasons you stopped celebrating Halloween and when it happened?
Every year I struggle with the issue. I don't care for it at all, but my husband grew up celebrating it and he would like our kids to have "those" memories (dressing up, trick-or-treating") and I don't know what to do.
And a question to Libby, if you don't mind: what is your opinion about the whole thing?
Thank you both. Just trying to find the best solution for our family, as DH and I don't seem to agree on this one.
Posted by: LadyLovas | October 31, 2007 2:38 PM
We don't 'do' Halloween either. Never have with our kids. Our small rural town does something odd, anyway I think it's odd. They choose which night will be 'trick-or-treat' night and it isn't Halloween night necessarily. So last Saturday night was 'trick-or-treat' night in our town. We kept the lights off and had 'movie night' with our kids with Root Beer and popcorn. It was a good time.
Posted by: Beckie | October 31, 2007 4:39 PM
My husband and I both came from anti-Halloween families, and never celebrated it growing up. When we got married, we re-examined the issue and determined that Halloween's pagan origins weren't any more sinister than Christmas's, and we weren't about to give up Christmas!
We probably wouldn't bother (or would do a strictly Reformation Day or All Saints' Day celebration) if we didn't live in a neighborhood with lots of trick-or-treating, but since we do, and we want to get to know our neighbors, it seemed a terrible pity to shut the door and turn out the lights the one evening of the year everyone is wandering around the streets.
Posted by: Queen of Carrots | October 31, 2007 8:15 PM
We're thinking about opting out of Halloween, as well. My husband has always had problems with the history of the holiday, and I was always the one making a case for the fun I had as a kid (like the previous poster's husband). I figured, if the world can secularize Christmas, why can't we secularize Halloween and make it just about candy and costumes (for me, as a kid, it was all about the costumes). But now with a child old enough to participate and young enough to be scared by ghouls and goblins (seen everywhere from neighbors' lawns to store displays), I want to get away from it entirely, too. It is just too tricky (no pun intended!) to go "half-way" with the holiday: the kids can dress up but they can't go out? So I think we'll toss the whole holiday. I appreciate reading others' solutions and fun things that they do instead. One question: how do you keep people from ringing your doorbell all night long? I kept our light off tonight, and STILL people rang (waking the baby, of course). I thought about putting a note on our door, but couldn't think of what to say that wouldn't sound un-neighborly or incite roudy teens to vandalize our house. A "Baby Sleeping" sign seems unwise; I don't want to announce the presence of a baby to potentially creepy strangers.
Posted by: Marisa | October 31, 2007 8:25 PM
We don't do halloween either and thankfully we live out in the boonies so we don't get trick or treaters.
Posted by: Laura @ Laura Williams' Musings | October 31, 2007 11:25 PM
Hey Marissa- turn out the lights AND turn on the sprinkler. That's what my hubby did after I left for our church fall festival with my munchkins. (I'll let you know later if our house gets egged.)
I too am in limbo over whether or not to celebrate Halloween. I mean what are we celebrating? Even the best take on Halloween still seems greedy.
Honestly the only reason I even did the fall festival is because my MIL loves to see my little girl dressed up all cute! (OK, I like to see her dressed up cute too!) But my daughter had a great time and there were no blood dripping ghouls like the ones that appeared at our door last year! I told my daughter there was a party at church to celebrate fall. This is the time of year farmers (her grandpa and uncle in ND included) work hard to bring in their harvest and we can thank God for those farmers and the food they provide, etc...
Anyway, I second LadyLovas and hope to get more insight on this topic.
Posted by: purebillow | November 1, 2007 12:31 AM
We do Halloween. I decided a long time ago that whatever Halloween's roots might or might not be, it is a day God made and I am going to make it a day to celebrate.
Posted by: Michelle Potter | November 1, 2007 2:31 AM
For many reasons, we do not "do halloween" either....in fact it is really a "non issue" in our family.....just another day. Since we homeschool the kids did not even know much about halloween for many years. We usually just hang out in the back room of our house with the porch light off & a note on the door just stating we do not observe halloween. (we've never experienced any vandalism or negativity from neighbors)
My children (7 of them so far - ages 18 years to 7 months)have never complained, whined or even once asked to "do halloween". I think the key is to provide so many family traditional activities & events throughout the entire year that are filled with fun and meaning while creating wonderful memories...that your kids think being a part of your family is truly THE BEST! In fact we often have other kids want to join in on all our many family traditions or begin asking their parents to do what we do.
I have recently shared about one of those traditions - our fall family pumpkin patch day on my blog - you can read about it here!
Another bonus to not "doing halloween" - no candy around my house right now in these late evening hours for me to be tempted by! :)
Posted by: Beth Lambdin | November 1, 2007 2:45 AM
I, too, would like to know more about why you don't do halloween. My kids are still young and I'm trying to make a decision about this! Thanks for your insight, and that of everyone else!
Amy
Posted by: Amy K. | November 1, 2007 9:32 AM
Our history of Halloweens has varied year to year. Of course, before we were Christians - and living just north of San Francisco where every day is halloween :) - we didn't think twice about it. I dressed as a witch two years before marrying Tripp. The year we got married we went to a party as master/slave (yes, we were weird). One year after marriage we were Blue Meanies (Yellow Submarine).
Becoming Christians, we had to rethink everything we did and since we both had backgrounds in the occult, we decided to stop the Halloween stuff.
Then, following our terrible experience in a very legalistic church, coming into spiritual freedom we decided to give Halloween another try. We were still living in the Bay Area, but the kids were little and I was homeschooling. I bought shiny metallic fabric and made the boys knights costumes (yes, moi, who HATES sewing)and Sophia was the fair maiden. So we had our little fling with spiritual freedom and Halloween (just like we decided for a while that even as recovered alcoholics, we now had freedom in Christ so we could drink again - big mistake for gentically-programmed addicts but we had to learn the hard way).
I think once or twice in the last 15 years - for one reason or another - we allowed some of our kids who wanted to to "do" Halloween (I just don't want to use the word celebrate :) The village of Waterford goes all out and lots of people come from surrounding areas to bring their kids for the Old World atmosphere that night, but I've never really wanted to go though it's just a mile away.
Sometimes we've gotten together with friends. The bonfire last night was cancelled because our friends realized we have a fire ban in effect.
So we did our usual thing - staying home and turning out the lights, going downstairs to watch a movie.
We live in the country and have the youngest children in our spread-out neighborhood, so I really don't think anyone would come around anyway.
Our children - even though theyre now in public school - have always gone with the flow. We go to a conservative homeschool church right now (home of Mike Farris) and we are one of maybe three public school families. Last night was the regular Wednesday night youth group and Mddy told me that some of the kids had gone trick-or-treating beforehand - for the first time.
I don't know. I don't judge anyone and really believe that you have to take it family by family, year by year - listening for God's direction. Do I believe that God might want some families to participate? You bet I do. He just does that kind of thing. I remember when I thought God would want everyone to homeschool - but then he asked me to put my kids in public school. some people would find that hard to believe. But they just have to wait until God asks them to do something others might misjudge them for :)
The important thing is to think about it, pray about it, and be open to the direction God leads you. Don't worry about your kids' reaction. God will take care of their hearts.
I do hope others share their experiences. I know it's after-the-fact - but it might be helpful for next year.
Posted by: barbara | November 1, 2007 10:25 AM
We don’t participate in Halloween. The darkness that has always been an integral part of Halloween but downplayed in such things as trick-or-treating and primary school parties has gotten much too dark- and sexualized. Try and find an innocent costume outside of the toddler ages in the costume shops and you will be frightened by what you see. “Naughty” angel costumes replete with crosses and super short skirt and breast hugging bodices, devil costumes with a low décolleté (for size 7 children- approximately 5-8 year olds). Truly the holiday dabbles in things other than the occult. Following suit with contemporary ready-to wear clothes, Halloween costumes are another opportunity for children to be exploited.
One of the main reasons we don’t participate in Halloween is that it is counterintuitive to living a life that glorifies Christ. If we are to emulate Christ (the light of the world, the living water, bright shining stars in the universe) than putting severed heads, glorifying death, and placing flying wraiths in your front yard is not the way to do it.
Halloween night is no joke for those involved with the occult and Satanism. To borrow from a website that says it best (link below) “Those who oppose Christ are known to organize on Halloween to observe satanic rituals, to cast spells, to oppose churches and families, to perform sacrilegious acts, and to even offer blood sacrifices to Satan. While some may say, "But we only do this in fun...we don't practice witchcraft," those things that represent Satan and his domain cannot be handled or emulated "for fun". Such participation places you in enemy and forbidden territory and that is dangerous ground…It (Halloween) does not have even one single redeeming virtue. It is custom born out of pagan superstition. It is a demon-inspired, devil-glorifying, occult festival. It is an evening holy unto evil, death, and divination. The Scriptures tells us to "Abstain from all appearance of evil." [1Thess. 5:22] “ IMHO it is dangerous to dabble in a festival based on evil beginnings/
Posted by: Laura | November 1, 2007 2:23 PM
The fear factor of halloween really bothers me........ DH and I both grew up celebrating it. I, from a Christian home, him from a catholic home. At some point after our oldest was a year old or so, we just felt like something about halloween just didn't " feel" right.......We struggled for a few years with how to handle it, what to do or not do.
This was the first year that my oldest son ( 6 1/2) really understood what was going on. He is very bummed out that we won't let him celebrate, even after I read him a book about it, and he got tons of candy.........We homeschool, and I guess I was hoping he would not be so disappointed? Will he get over it? He's the type of kid that is starting to notice the things we do differently, and makes a point to say that he wants to do them.......
BTW: I don't condemn other Christians for celebrating, but I think they ought to at least pray about it and read the history of it.......I get bummed when Christians avoid research because they are afraid God might ask them to change......
Posted by: Lisa | November 1, 2007 3:54 PM
Every year I take my seven children, most of them in costumes, to my parents neighborhood, which is our former neighborhood. Their neighbors and good friends have hot dogs, chili, chips, etc., and invite the entire neighborhood and their family. It is wonderful and we absolutely enjoy seeing our family and many, many friends. I walk the kids around for some trick-or-treating, but once again, it's a chance for our old neighbors to see the kids. So today we have tons of candy we don't need and that will probably get tossed in a day or two, but we also have wonderful memories.
Posted by: Jill S | November 1, 2007 5:07 PM
We don't do Halloween either-just pumpkin patches and church Harvest Parties. We don't celebrate because of the roots, though I have come a long way realizing not to judge anyone who does. There are those who don't celebrate Christmas or Easter because of the pagan roots, yet I celebrate them with Christian meaning. Though I find nothing redeeming about Halloween, I have learned that I'm not to judge. I am glad you brought it up. :)
Posted by: Angela | November 1, 2007 5:56 PM
my boys have dressed in costumes since they were about 3. I don't mean on October 31, I mean daily. Every day they would be buzz lightyear, batman, superman, flash or any other super hero in the justice league. when it became close to halloween the neighbors would ask my oldest, then about 3 or 4, what he was going to dress up as. He looked at them like they were crazy because he, unlike the other two, would only be batman. daily. The boys couldn't understand halloween, a night to dress up, so we started calling it candy night. the name has stuck. even though the oldest is now nearly 9 we still call it candy night.
this year they voted to go to the church party "not of this world" but we go out for candy. they love it and it is fun seeing neighbors you don't normally see.
Posted by: janet | November 1, 2007 11:12 PM
First, I'd like to point out I'm not the Amy K who posted above. I think I was here first but I probably don't post as often, so I may have to change my handle to something else.
Secondly, I notice that most people here recognize that Halloween has pagan elements. People are split on whether that makes it acceptable or not for Christians to celebrate.
Thirdly, there is a subset who recognize that if you throw out Halloween because of its pagan elements, that creates a problem with Christmas and its many pagan elements. I also see that the answer to that conundrum is to accept Halloween so that Christmas also remains acceptable.
I thought a relevant scripture could be added for further thought. After the Israelites were saved out of Egypt, Aaron was left with them while Moses went up to the mountain. The Israelites want something familiar and tangible for their worship and pick an icon of Egyptian (pagan) religious origin to put on their altar. But they say it's a feast for the Lord. If you read the whole chapter in Exodus, it's instructive what the Lord thought about that.
Exodus 32:2-5
Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
Posted by: Amy K (the other one) | November 2, 2007 10:24 PM
