Halloween?

It's October, which means you can't go anywhere without being accosted by all manner of creepy-looking paraphernalia: skeletons, ghosts, vampires, tombstones, leering pumpkins, and *shudder* spiders, among other things. Some people (ahem...our neighbors) have even gone so far as to start decorating their houses with "Halloween lights," a garish orange parody of the Christmas lights I love so much. I hate taking my children to the store during this month because I don't want them too see all the horrible decorations and costumes. However, I am kind of conflicted about Halloween as a whole.

Growing up, my family never celebrated Halloween. No costumes, no trick or treating, no parties. Usually my mom would buy a bag of candy, just in case any neighbor kids stopped by (which, living in the East Mountains, they usually didn't!) and let us eat a couple of pieces. Once or twice we went to "Fall Carnivals" thrown at churches, and I seem to remember one where we all dressed up as Bible characters. (I must have been about 6 because I remember I wore an old pillowcase and was Miriam and my brother Isaac was Moses and Mom put him in a basket.) Usually we celebrated "Reformation Day" instead, because as any good homeschooling kid knows, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses of protest against the Catholic church to the door of the church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.

I understand the reasons why my parents chose not to celebrate Halloween, and I respected them, even though I felt (and still feel) that it was highly unfair that Satan had stolen the holiday of dress up and candy, two of my favorite things! Once I hit my twenties, my sister and I dressed up in our homemade Renaissance costumes and went out with friends to dinner on Halloween a few times. But now that I have kids who are old enough to actually notice, Halloween has become an issue I have to deal with.

My husband came from a Christian, Bible-believing family who had a different approach to Halloween. Their kids always dressed up and went trick-or-treating. For the first few years we had kids, we'd talk about what we believed about Halloween, but we never really had to decide because they were too little to really do anything. We dressed them in their Batman and Superman and Pooh bear pajamas, just because it was cute, and we passed out candy to the neighbor kids. But this year they are getting older and we still haven't decided on a strong conviction one way or the other.

I believe that there are many aspects of Halloween that definitely ARE wrong and demonic. I don't approve of all the ugly and scary things, simply because I don't think they are edifying or glorifying to God, and I wouldn't let my kids dress up like them or decorate our house with them. But I admit I don't see anything inherently wrong with dressing up in costumes. Or eating candy! I don't want my kids to go trick-or-treating because I don't feel like it's safe, and somehow it seems rude to me to ask other people for candy! Especially because they would certainly never be allowed to "trick" someone who doesn't give it to them!

This year Robert decided we should go to the "trunk or treat" event that's being held at a nearby church. And I am making all the costumes. Gabriella's favorite movie is Cinderella, and the boys like it a lot too, so we are all going to be characters from Cinderella. Gabriella will be Cinderella, of course, and I have already started working on her dress. Elora will be one of the mice, and Joseph will be Prince Charming, and James will be Bruno, the dog (because honestly, that is who James likes best! ;-) And if I get around to it, I will be the fairy godmother and Robert will be the Grand Duke.

 I love sewing costumes, and I am really excited about making them for my kids. As for the whole "Halloween Issue," we may just have to take it on a year-by-year basis. Ultimately we will do whatever Robert thinks is best, because he's the boss of this house! ;-) There is no specific Bible verse that says whether or not to celebrate Halloween...but there is one that says "wives, submit to your husbands." And I trust him to make a good decision because I know he listens to The Boss.

What about you? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?