Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween!

I know people have mixed feelings about Halloween, and to tell you the truth, it is a little strange. It's not my favorite holiday or actually, anywhere close. I am wearing an orange shirt and black pants today, and even some candy corn decorated socks. I did buy special candy for the students. I like to watch scary flicks and light jack-o-lanterns. But I don't go crazy over it, because no matter how hard Hallmark tries, Halloween is not really a cute and cuddly holiday. (no matter how cute and cuddly the kids look) It's a celebration of death it seems to me and though it can be fun to be scared, it's not an altar at which I worship. So while I don't refrain from all Halloween related activity, and while I even enjoy some of it, it remains a little bizarre to me how absolutely crazy we go over it in this country. What are your feelings on Halloween? Feel free to tell me exactly what you think, I'm interested.

On a side note, the Mexican restaurant where I got my lunch gave me some candy. I'm a little leery of eating it, it might be laced with poison. :-)

4 comments:

~ jen ~ said...

I feel the same as you do, Amy. And Michael as well, which is why Sam isn't trick-or-treating. It's hard to explain to people, though, when they ask. Even if I do decide to explain our rationale, I get looks of disbelief that someone of my age could be such a stick-in-the-mud (I don't think I am, however.

Jack-o-lanterns are nice, and so is the candy, but I leave the rest alone....

Chaotic Hammer said...

My wife is a bigger fan of Halloween than I am. I think she likes the chance to dress up in a fun and cool way, that you really have no excuse to do any other time (based on her normal dress-up, maybe she's a bit of a closet goth chick, but has no real excuse to dress like that otherwise).

I don't have really strong pro- or con- feelings about it, and really have no qualms with people on either side of the issue. If it bothers people's conscience to be participating, they should be free not to do it. If they see it as harmless fun, and don't take any of the "ghouls and goblins" stuff seriously, I see no reason to put a damper on their fun.

Romans 14 gives a pretty good and balanced explanation of why it's okay to have different people who feel differently about such things, but that they should not judge one another or cause one another to stumble. This also means that those who do participate should not be giving those who choose to abstain a lot of badgering about it.

kathryn said...

good points, ppl!!! Now that i have adult, moved out of the house children, i don't 'get into it' the same way. . though i never felt it was a 'holiday', cuz its not. . its just a neighbourhood funfest with candy! I like that. . my grandkids looked adorable last night!!! We went over to their place to take them treats before they went out trick or treating. . my granddaughter is 2 1/2. . she was a princess. . and my grandson is 6 and he went as a firefighter. . they both looked so sweet and they were SO excited!!!

My husband and I gave out our candies at the door - they were gone in only 1 hour!!! and then we turned off the lights, headed out to the movies to watch "The Prestige" with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlet Johansson and Michael Caine. . pretty great Halloween movie!!!

Lisa said...

I agree with all that's been said. Y'all beat me to it. I grew up celebrating Halloween--getting dressed up and going trick or treating. But, it's become very controversial as many things are among Christians. My parents always said it would be up to us what we do when we grow up and have kids. I agree that if it bothers people, then they should be able not to do it without alot of ribbing. The same for those who choose to do it. If it's something that causes people around you to stumble, maybe you should rethink doing it for the moment. I don't know, I just think it's up to you to decide and it's between you, your family, and God.

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment! I appreciate hearing your thoughts.