November 2, 2009 Hallowon't

I’m sort of the Halloween equivalent of the Grinch. I don’t like Halloween. There, I said it! I confess! I wrote a newspaper column stating the basic reasons why many years ago, and heard later that I’d been the topic of a radio commentator’s tirade. How can anyone not like Halloween? Children love it! There’s chocolate!

When I was a little girl, our church participated in Trick or Treat for UNICEF—I remember walking around the college campus where we lived, dressed in the pilgrim outfit my mother had sewn (my sister was garbed a la Martha Washington), tightly clutching the valuable pennies that would benefit children on the other side of the world.

As a new mom, however, there was no UNICEF angle where we lived. I found myself questioning the history of Halloween and whether or not the things it promoted was what I wanted to promote in my children. The church I attended hosted an alternative to trick or treating, asking children to dress up as Bible characters instead of goblins and superheroes. Dress-up is fun, as well as being an important imagination-stimulator. That, I could handle. But we didn’t take the kids trick or treating.

I think they’ve forgiven me. The jury’s still out on the Santa thing.

Now that my children are adults and I’m a grandmother, I’ve had to adjust a little. When my oldest granddaughter attended a church pre-school, Halloween played a surprisingly huge part of their October curriculum. I bit my tongue at the Casper coloring pages, even made her a costume for the school parade, bought candy to hand out in the neighborhood. Didn’t like it, but went along for the ride.

I could get into the questionable beginnings of Halloween, the dark history, but instead, let me just give some personal thoughts. Our Lord is the Lord of life – Halloween, traditionally, focuses on death. Graveyards, R.I.P., ghosts haunting cemeteries…where is the fun in that? Having buried a son, and having found many hours of comfort praying and crying at his grave, a cemetery holds no fear for me. We will all die one day; Christians certainly have nothing to fear from death, because it is the gateway to eternal life—why make it a scary thing for impressionable children?

Witches and demons—and they are real, not cartoon characters to mimic or lampoon—do not celebrate the Lord of life, but raise creation to a status of equality with the Creator. Minions of the Lord of darkness, they manipulate us for evil purposes, tempt with sin, terrorize and taunt…anything to take our focus off of God and his promises. What possible good comes from dressing up like them and either diminishing the reality of their existence or paying homage to their powers?

And don’t even get me started on the latest vampire phase. Hollywood has taken killing and the eating of blood (forbidden in the Bible) and sanitized it to the point that tweens, teens, and adults who should know better, are swept into the romance of it all. “But this is about good vampires,” I’m told. Ever see them reading their Bibles? Do they go to church? Do they follow Jesus? I think not. Are they good role models for our children? They hate the light…which sounds familiar. Biblical, even, in a definitively negative context.

But the candy…everyone loves candy, right? We have a nation of overweight children (and adults) but on October 31 it’s okay to gorge ourselves on sweets. Aside from candy makers, who really benefits? The candy’s available throughout the year at every grocery store, but wrap it in orange and black, and it’s supposed to taste somehow better.

Call me strange if you will, but the whole concept of trick or treating rubs me the wrong way. Jesus preached a gospel of giving, not taking. Of doing good to others, not playing tricks on them when they don’t comply with our wishes. Maybe I’m being an extremist—certainly the majority of little children traipsing door to door have no mischief in mind—but I think words are important. When we sing “trick or treat”, we’re actually saying, “If you don’t give me a treat, I’m going to play a trick…and you won’t like it.” Not healthy, if you ask me…and nobody did, actually!

While I’m all for disregarding Halloween completely, I do appreciate the attempts to refocus people from haunted houses and that ilk onto more positive activities. The church with which I am blessed to be involved hosts a fall festival in October, free to the church kids and to the entire community. This past weekend we worked for its success, gave out tons of candy, dressed up ourselves (it’s always fun to pretend to be someone else!)…as well as showing a friendly face to folks who would otherwise not darken our doors. If that brings people to Christ, hallelujah! Use what Satan loves to use for bad, for good. It saddened me, though, as the caretaker of the Garden Tomb trying to solve the "Mystery of the Empty Tomb" that other events had sufficiently trained some kids to expect frightening objects to jump out at them as soon as they entered the darkened room. Some were really afraid...the opposite of what we wanted to provide for them.

On All Hallow’s Eve itself, I went to another church for their "Trunk or Treat" (candy was given out of the back of vehicles), heard the gospel message in exchange for a free hot dog, won a cupcake in a cakewalk, oohed and ahhhed at the adorable kids in costumes, and got to sit inside a firetruck. All in all, not a bad afternoon.

Later, I got lots of exercise following the grandkids and their friends as we snaked throughout our daughter’s neighborhood (sorely needed exercise after the amount of sweets consumed). It’s not that it wasn’t fun…it’s just that the same activities could have been done any time during the year without the ghosts, goblins, skeletons, vampires, werewolves, graveyards, witches, demons, serial killer costumes, fake blood, etc. etc. etc.

Okay, I’ve vented. Halloween’s over and no real wrong, hopefully, was done. Maybe I’m being too serious, too literal, too hyperspiritual. Maybe next year I’ll dress up as Elvira and score some Kit Kats myself.

Sarcasm. Just another service I offer.