Growing up in a church, I have heard several different opinions about Halloween. I would like to know your thoughts!
Do you think Halloween is a holiday Christian's shouldn't be involved with?
If Christian's do get involved what is ok, what is not?
Do you celebrate Halloween? Party? Costume? Trick or Treat? Animal Sacrifices? :)
What have you been taught about Halloween? What would you teach your kids about it?
I've been taught several different things, from we can redeem the holiday and just have a costume party/ reason for fellowship... to don't even associate with it since it began as a pagan holiday of worshiping the Devil. Of course it's near impossible in America to avoid anything Halloween because it is one of the highest selling holiday's, candy, costumes, party supplies...etc.
I want to hear your opinions, then I'll share mine!
10 comments:
We never celebrated Halloween growing. I think mostly because of the negative connotations regarding it being a demonic holiday, and 'as Christians, we don't support that' but also a little mom being freaked out about getting candy from strangers laced with something or whatever/it's cheaper not to celebrate.
My folks never had a problem if someone would knock on the door for trick or treating but because it wasn't in the front of our minds, we never had candy ready so those kids got raisins or pudding or whatever mom could find. Thankfully, we never got egged, but it helped we lived in what many folks called 'the boonies' so, people drove their kids around our neighborhood.
The church I grew up in would have a 'Fall Fest' or something along those lines where we had games, candy, bobbing for apples and stuff, and you dressed up as a Bible character.
I always found this to be rather lame and stupid. Let's do everything the secular world does but change the name and 'sanctify' our costumes by making them Bible characters.
Personally, I don't celebrate it now, but c'mon, I'm 28. Just might be a bit awkward wearing a costume asking for candy somewhere.
When I have kids, I don't think I'll celebrate it either. I don't think it hurt me any growing up to not celebrate it, but helped me be able to better communicate with others why I don't do or agree with things that seem common to everyone else.
We "celebrate" it. Sans the devil worship. We just call it dress up/ candy day at our house. And we even trick or treat. I just think it is a fun thing to do and I really really enjoy making the costumes.
I mean, to each his own. But my thing is, the christmas tree has pagan origins right??
Why not celebrate it? It's so fun for the kids to get dressed up and get FREE candy! We always celebrated it in my Christian family and never even talked about it having a "bad" meaning or being the devil's holiday. We even had "scary" costumes some years. I think if you don't make a big deal about it being a bad thing, then it won't be!
Clayton and I were just talking about this yesterday. I think it's totally fine to dress up and go trick or treating...what fun for a little kid! I think when Caroline gets older we will just say it's a fun day to dress up and get candy. I agree with Sabrina, if you don't make it a big deal then I don't think it will be.
We went to fall festivals at church and trick or treated in the neighborhood. My birthday is the 29th so we had dress up parties some years for my b-day party. We never were aloud to be scary things.
My kids will do what I did as a kid. We'll let them know what the holiday is when they get big enough to understand same with Christmas.
I would probably put this in what I call the Romans 14 Category. Basically, do what you do, as long as you are doing it unto God, and as long as you're not a stumbling block to your brother.
I doubt that my kids will go trick or treating or go to haunted houses,they certainly won't be wearing any demonic or scary costumes. lol. They'll probably dress up for parties with freinds or things like that. And as they get older I'll be sure to tell them the truth about the holiday and let them decide what they want to do.
I think Halloween is awesome and fun. Just like every other holiday, there may or may not have been "devil-worship" in the past, but that crap is long forgot by most people.
So go out and have fun, dress up and eat candy.
My favorite halloween thing is the fun in making really creative costumes.
I'm shooting for a no Christmas tree policy for Christmas... I think that's one that I might lose though. I just don't want to do the whole put it up, decorate it, blah blah blah. Just not interested... Nat on the other hand definitely wants a tree, so I think I'll probably lose that particular wish.
i used to dress up and do trick or treating as a kid. i dont think my parents ever really knew what some people thought of it until we got a little older. koreans dont celebrate it (well, maybe lately but definitely not when my parents were living in korea) and when we got older, and my parents had been in the states for awhile, we used to have dress up nights at church. it would be "superhero theme" or "hawaiian theme" things like that. did praise and worship and of course, lots of candy.
Our children dress up and trick or treat. We got to a local mall, because they pass out candy in the afternoon, which aligns more with their happy times! I absolutely loved Halloween as a child. I never knew it had demonic origins or anything like that. At the time, my parents did not know the Lord, but it was all about the candy and fun costumes.
I agree the origins are way long forgotten. Enjoying childhood is important to me for my kids, so we will celebrate....without the demons, etc.
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