Halloween

                          

This is my "Halloween" entry.  The little guy above is about as close as I get to celebrating the day.  We just don't do it in our house.

When I was a little girl, we waited impatiently for Halloween to come.  My mom usually made my costumes for me.  We didn't have enough money to buy them at the store.  Our masks were these little black eye covers with a rubber band.  We walked for hours seeking treats from our neighbors.  There was a man who gave out ice cream bars every year.  Home baked cookies, popcorn balls and other yummy home-made stuff.  It seemed a special time for kids.

While my children were growing up, strange things began to happen around this time of year.  Not only were there more older kids out and about, but people's houses got egged or tp'd or some other stunt equally as frustrating to the receiver.  And the news started telling us to have our kids' candies x-rayed before we let them eat them.  Halloween began to be a scary time and kids were dying.  Maybe it happened when I was a kid, but I don't remember.

Some years ago, I began to hear that some churches were discouraging the celebration of Halloween.  I thought they might be getting too involved in a "harmless" children's holiday.  Still, they began to have harvest celebrations and parties for their youth instead.  Didn't seem to bother the kids all that much.  And a lot of the scary costumes disappeared from their lives. 

After I moved to Mexico, I saw some of the celebrations that come at the end of October/first of November.  They celebrate the Day of the Dead.  It kind of gave me the creeps seeing them build an alter, cut tissue paper snowflakes and put their dead relative's favorite food and drink on the altar next to his or her picture.  The theory was that the dead would come back and consume those items. I get that it is a cultural thing, but . . .yuck. 

SoI began to study these times in earnest. I searched the internet, read secular articles and Christian ones alike.  I looked at the celebrations of Halloween and Day of the Dead from my Christian viewpoint and found them more than a little off the path I was following.  In fact, there is more satanic activity this time of year than any other.  Some really creepy stuff is still happening out there.  We haven't wiped out the evil celebrations of old with our commercialism of the holiday.

I decided to leave Halloween out of my life.  We had a Christian home for children there in Mexico and we wanted to offer our best for them.  The kids were loved and well cared for and didn't miss a thing.  When they reached secondary school, we stopped keeping them home on the days that the Day of the Dead was studied.  By that age, they could understand that though we didn't agree with the custom, it was a part of their cultural heritage.  We still did not allow them to attend Halloween celebrations.

This Halloween day, Rob, Andrea and I will join members of our church at a harvest celebration.  The church is inviting neighborhood kids to join in and have fun.  We will do some translating for those who don't speak English.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm going to wear my best smile for my costume.