Halloween has always been a fun time for getting treats from your neighbors and playing tricks by scaring one another, along with costume parties. Dressing up has always been an element of Halloween that we all looked forward to. Somewhere along came a spider, that said; "This is all wrong!" "This is the work of the Devil!" So many, began to look at Halloween as an element of something that is bad for children, young people and adults.
Somewhere in the 60's bad people began to do bad things to children at Halloween time. Razor blades in apples; poisoned candies; and whatever else could be used that would cause harm to the child that consumed it or played with it. Halloween became a time of "beware!" Parents began to inspect the candies given and threw away anything that was not sealed by the manufacturer. Good fruit was automatically disposed of along with otherwise good treats. The church took a stand and drew a line that separated the church from Halloween festivities and replaced it with Christian activities; which included a carnival atmoshpere along with booths of chance and lots of candy and prizes. Costumes are worn and cake walks are held. Everyone has fun and all go home with their bags brimming over from their goodies and their treats don't need to be inspected. Everyone feels good about where they've been and what they were doing.
The word Halloween is derived from the celebration of "allhallows Eve" which begins on October 31st, the day before "All Saints Day" which was celebrated on November 1st, by the Catholic church. It is true that other secular feast days were being celebrated around the same time which called for spooky spirits coming from death to life. The druid Priests tried to confuse the spirit world by taking part. At the same time the Catholic Priests brought in their known and unknown saints to be celebrated. Perhaps this was an alternative for the church.
Now I am not saying that a parent shouldn't be circumspect when it comes to things given to their children. Nor am I saying that Halloween is a Christian holiday. I am saying that Halloween became a bad children's festival, because of a few, who spoke loudly and could be heard among the masses. Those who wanted to cause havoc brought up the original feast days and said that is why we celebrate witches, goblins and ghosts on Halloween. Perhaps that is so!
As a child I never saw anything sinister about Halloween, nor was I celebrating any ghosts, saints or anything. I was just a child having fun. As a young parent I encouraged the nice costumes but I did check the candies and threw away the fruits. As most parents, I too felt protective of my children and would have anyway, but became more concerned because of the element that was lurking behind the facade of a secular holiday called, Halloween.
When the Pilgrims left England and came to America they left this tradition behind them. As more and more migrated to the New Country, Halloween moved in also. I believe that Halloween is part of the secular world and the Christian world needs to view it for what it is. A secular celebration! It is sad that it has become what it is and probably this is good for the church. Because the church has easily separated itself from the sinister elements and have brought happiness and joy as an alternative to ghosts, goblins, witches and Satanic movies.
"Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17 In other words Christ gave us a ministry of reconciliation. "So we are ambassadors for Christ; God making His appeal through us." 2 Corinthians 5:20a We want the world to look at us and say; "That is what I want!" We want others to see that the Christian world doesn't need Halloween to have fun but that we can have fun with the Holy Ghost without remorse or condemnation. By Jane Ann Crenshaw 10/5/09
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2 comments:
Two of our kids families try to ignore Halloween but it is very difficult to do with the outlandish displays in the stores. It will be interesting to see what the next generation will do--either go whole hog on Halloween or ignore it. I would place my bet that they will go whole hog.
At the preschool, where I work, Halloween is a big deal. Parents really go all out for costumes. The older kids set up a haunted house and the younger classes come through it. But they ask for no scary costumes.
A lot of things we were on the bandwagon against, in our younger years, we now say "what's the big deal?" Santa and I are set to learn the waltz so we can dance before the audience at a symphony orchestra performance that we go to each year. To often we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
Tonight Santa will don his full costume and open the door to our trick or treaters and pass out candy canes. He loves it. Yesterday his "costume" was red sweat pants, his red Santa t-shirt and a Santa hat. He was a big hit at the Y where he went after work.
Some guys at Vernon's job told him Santa is really Satan. They brought some literature for him to read. It is, as always, someone taking a shred of a thought and going overboard and finding scriptures to prove their "truth."
We need to focus more time on letting our lights shine instead of looking for what is wrong with everything and condemning the world around us.
Some may say we've gone liberal but we feel we are finally feeling the liberty we have in Christ. We have always preached about the grace of Christ that forgives our sins, while we refuse to extend grace to others sins.
Now that we aren't in the pulpit, life looks different. I like the view from here much better.
I remember a Christian communication professor telling us that "Words do not mean. PEOPLE mean." We hear someone saying "DON'T say that word, because that word means...." But it is the person speaking it that gives meaning to it. I think the same is true with various traditions. I grew up in a non-Christian home and so Halloween was not seen as "evil," and we did all the usuall American kid stuff -- costumes, parties, marching about the neighborhood collecting treats. The meaning we gave to it (if we had thought about it seriously then) was costume and candy! That's all. I'm sorry it means some horribly sinister things to others, but for our family it will always be costume and candy. Nothing more.
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