Halloween for me is a very controversial holiday. As a child I loved Halloween. It meant dressing up and trick or treating with friends in our neighborhood where there were no strangers. A highlight was carving pumpkins with my dad. I will never forget in my tween years how horrified I was when he made our pumpkin have snot (pumpkin slime) coming out of it's nose. We wore the same costumes year after year (I was either bugs bunny or a witch) and we smoked candy cigarettes (I know bad to the bone right). It was a holiday that celebrated being tricky and maybe a little bit naughty and you got candy, lots and lots of candy.
The holiday and my heart have changed drastically since those days of innocence. Every year I grumble as Halloween comes near. I procrastinate costume buying because in the back of my mind I am thinking about boycotting the holiday altogether. You cannot wear the same costume year after year anymore it just isn't cool. Our neighborhood (any neighborhood for that matter) is no longer so safe. Learning that our neighbor was a sex offender ten years back made us look at people very differently and guard our children very carefully. We have seen the evil in this world and through foster care have met the families that it destroys and children that it leaves behind. The holiday just seems well evil and frankly I no longer want to celebrate evil.
In the past I have allowed our children to participate. The school does its annual Halloween parade and parties. I was never brave enough to stand up for my own distaste about the holiday. I even could have pulled my children out of school and have a fun day with them but I didn't want to deprive them of the fun. I didn't stand firm in my convictions and show them how to stand up for what you know in your heart is right. I missed a valuable opportunity to teach about the peer pressure of this world. That being said, I respect those families who can get through Halloween unscathed by the images and attitude that Halloween encourages. If you are careful, it may be possible. We tried with non-scary costumes and making trick or treating an opportunity to visit the grandparents.
This year it is kind of a cop out. Because we are homeschooling, it is much easier to take a stand...so I am. There will be no Halloween here. Instead, we will celebrate the bounty of the harvest. God has truly blessed us and we will focus on thankfulness, on not just on one day, thanksgiving, but throughout the season. We will look at God's creation and observe the beauty that He brings us during the fall in our nature study. Science will be observing and identifying birds in their natural fall habitats. Writing will include thankfulness journals and character study will include gratefulness. Now I am not saying that we won't indulge on any of the candy or enjoy any of the other festivities that the season has to offer. What I am saying is that we will be more intentional about our focus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
*Did your family celebrate Halloween growing up? What are some of your favorite fun and non scary memories of Halloween?
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