Halloween. It's a time when kids transform through costume into things from their imagination, raid the neighborhood for candy, carve pumpkins, go to pumpkin patches and haunted houses, and participate in Halloween Costume contest and parades. It's a time when adult women delite in getting to dress like skanks for the day and because of this adult men all over rejoice.
...it's a time for evil?
It was not until I moved down south that I heard a lot of people say they do not celebrate Halloween or do not allow their children to celebrate Halloween because they felt it is sacrilegious, based off a pagan holiday, and promotes witch craft and the devil.
Newsflash: Just about every holiday we celebrate is based off a pagan holiday.
While I understand people not wanting to allow their children or themselves to associate with anything sacrilegious, I feel Halloween is what you make it. Firstly, all the "scariness" of Halloween is made by commerical candy and costume companies who profit off the holiday being celebrated...the same way all the "love" is made by commerical candy and gift companies on Valentine's day. When was Halloween every associated with evil? It was once associated with remembering or honoring the dead.
Secondly, God knows your heart. Therefore, if Halloween is about fun and candy for you then God is aware of that. I think people often pick and choose which Holidays they feel it's acceptable to go with the "sacrilegious or commercialzed norm" and which ones they don't (which makes no sense to me). If you feel Halloween is a sacrilegious holiday, I question how you celebrate Christmas. I mean, if you have a tree, exchange gifts, etc. wouldn't that actually be worse than celebrrating Halloween because you are taking the focus off Jesus' birthday? Can't see anything more "sacrilegious" than that. Once again it is what is in your heart, this applies to Christmas too. You can participate in both the religious and commercial aspects of Christmas simply because God knows where your heart is. There are holidays that people celebrate that are way worse than Halloween considering those holidays had factual horrible effects on a whole community associated with them versus the implicated non factual effects associated with Hallowen. For example, Columbus Day or Thanksgiving. These holidays are technically worse to celebrate since they signify a time where Native Americans were exploited and their land conquered.
I think that not allowing your kids to celebrate Halloween when the rest of their friends or classmates are is robbing them of a simple childhood joy, and from the direction society is going, childhood is lasting for a shorter and shorter time and those simple joys are becoming more and more limited.
So while everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs, I say that all holidays are what you make them and what is in your heart. If it's about fun for you it's about fun, if it's about religion for you it's about religion, if it's about both commerical and religion for you it's about both, and if it's about evil for you then I guess that's when it's a problem...it's about evil.
People honestly neeed to get it together. There are way worse things in the world than celebrating Halloween.
ReplyDeleteFolks need to live a little. SMH
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