Christmas = Christ
Easter = Resurrection
Fourth of July = Independence
Memorial Day = Sacrifice
President's Day = Two positive role models
Thanksgiving = Pretty obvious
etc.
Halloween = celebration of death? witchcraft ? scaring the living daylights out of people? candy?
What does Halloween really stand for? There are those that say that it originated from pagan festivals of the dead. That it's a dark, dark day - a day of satanic celebration. However, others claim that Halloween began with All Saints Day and that it actually has a Christian heritage.
I tend to lean towards believing that Halloween has a darker past than she many want to reveal. However, does it really matter? I don't know that it does. We see people celebrating holidays without knowing their true meaning all-the-time (i.e. - the entire month of December). Many, many people go crazy over Christmas without ever giving Christ a second thought. And I beg to argue that the majority of those in costume on October 31st don't have the occult on their mind while collecting Snickers bars.
While I really don't care for Halloween we have decided to participate. But on a very minimal level. We don't want to be "that house" with windows black and door shut tight. Especially in our tiny, close-knit neighborhood. And how to you explain to a 3 year old that God doesn't want him to dress up like Spiderman and eat lollipops? So I do allow my kids to choose Halloween costumes but they are not allow to be anything dark or scary (Landon tottered the line this year desperately wanting to be a dragon). Also, you'll see pumpkins, gourds and hay bales all over my house this time of year but you won't find spiders, ghosts, or skeletons. We pass out candy, trick-or-treat and have 2 hours of fun the night of the 31st, but that's about it. I didn't even tell Landon it was Halloween yesterday until 4pm. We don't emphasize the day and we keep things really light.
And, while I do love a good church Harvest Festival, we enjoy spending the evening with our neighborhood. We live next to amazing people. For example, three years ago one of our neighbors built a huge pirate ship on his front lawn on Halloween night. His 5 year old son with Downs Syndrome was a pirate that year - and every pirate needs a ship. Well, the ship turned into a tradition and he's built it for the past three years. But this year it was bigger than ever. HUGE! Because this year they asked for donations as they allowed trick-or-treaters to roam the ship. And all proceeds are going towards their adoption of a little boys with Downs Syndrome from Eastern Europe. So stinkin' rad!! I wish I had thought of it. Actually, I told RJ he needed to build a giant castle in our yard (so that our dragons could "guard it") and we could raise money for our little lady to come home. He - being the one who would have done all the work - wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.
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| Our crew: a peacock, Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Olivia the pig, Snow White, 2 dragons & A Wild Thing |
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| My dragons |
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| Fat little dragon |
3 comments:
I'm totally with you on Halloween. Not much meaning or purpose. But I have tried lightening up a bit about it, and just having fun, and it's working bit by bit.
But last night as we were taking our 2-year-old around the neighborhood and running into my husband's students, we realized the great display of MANNERS. Granted, we can learn these any day or time of year, it just seemed very prevalent as all these kids, young and old, were saying Thank you, and sharing, and being courteous as people passed on thin walkways, etc. It was a nice realization.
Oh, and those are some adorable dragons too!! :)
I completely agree on all levels with what you just wrote. It could have been my blog except I don't blog anymore (four kids!!!!!). I love reading your blog though. :) -Rhiannon
oh my gosh! Parker is sooooooo cute in that costume. We totally agree with you on Halloween. We pretty much do the same thing, except I may dress up for it too, from time to time.
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