Halloween.....Part 2

Go back and read Halloween Part 1 before you continue.

For the past couple of years we have held our ground pretty good. It seems like it was last year that I began to think a little more about what impact celebrating this holiday might have. Someone made a post on a friend’s blog site of mine basically saying how surprised they were that a Christian would celebrate Halloween. I remember that the comment seemed very untimely and a little judgemental. The responses to the comment caused me to think quite a bit more about this subject. I learned of several people who I consider to be good Christians who find nothing at all wrong with the Holiday. Since that time, I have pondered the issue once again in my mind.

This year, I had a discussion with one of the best Christians I know. She thinks it sends a bad message to our children to celebrate the holiday. She told me of the suffering she has endured by family members for trying to hold to her values. And for that, I respect her greatly. I have also run into a good Christian family who refuses to participate in the events. So Amy and I had a long discussion on the issue. I could tell that she was beginning to lean towards letting our children celebrate the holiday. At one time we argued about it a little mostly when I suggested to her that many parents dress their kids up more for the parents interest in the holiday than for the kids. I was holding strong on the issue, and truly believed that giving in would amount to selling part of my soul to the secular progressive culture. But something came about last week that caused me to compromise by belief. Here is the situation:

Cassidy came home from pre-school very excited about the Halloween party they were going to have. She had a letter with her explaining that the kids were going to dress up and go around from class to class trick-or-treating (she attends pre-school at Mt. Vernon High School). She had already decided she was going to dress up as a Fire Fighter. Towards the end of the letter it stated that if we didn’t want our kids to participate, then they would find “something else” for her to do.

In a rather frank tone, Amy said something close to this: “I don’t care if you don’t want her to participate, but you are going to be the one to tell her.” Although my anger kindled a little at this point, it didn’t take me a moment to realize how cruel it would be to try to explain to a little girl who just turned 4 that we were not going to let her do this. She knows nothing of Celtic tradition, nothing about the preacher who made my family think twice about our convictions, and my best explanations to her would never make her understand. Oh, I could tell her that we are Christians, and God probably doesn’t want her to partake in the celebration of a holiday having its roots in Pagan worship, but in the end she would say, “Okay Daddy,” look down at the floor with tear filled eyes, and would never understand why all the other kids get to have fun while she sits on the sidelines with “something else.”

I’m simply not going to do that. I’m mad, but I’m not going to take this away from her. There will come a day when Cassidy will have to decide for herself if celebrating the holiday bothers her convictions. But until that day, I guess I don’t see anything wrong with pumpkins, hay bales, hayrides, bonfires, or even dressing up. I don’t think it is a sin to go trick-or-treating. But I still feel uneasy about the abundance of witches, demons, etc. The church has since named the day following Samhain as All Saints Day, and the evening before came to be known as “All Hallows Eve” and eventually Halloween. To some, the day still represents evil, and is celebrated as such. But to many, the day is simply a festive day for children to have fun. In the end, I still don’t like Halloween. But I suppose I would like robbing my child of the festivity even less. Making decisions like this are difficult. But this is what is means to be a parent, and something tells me that this is the first of many difficult decisions that Amy and I will have to make.

Oh, for what it is worth, I didn't tell Cassidy anything about the pumpkin lanterns that the Celts used, or even Sleepy Hallow. Instead, I compared cleaning out the stinky junk from inside the pumpkin to the way that God cleans us out on the inside. And of course, he replaces it with his light. Check the blog soon to see how Cassidy was transformed for Halloween.