An article about why we do not celebrate Halloween.

                          http://voices.yahoo.com/halloween-574714.html?cat=34


                                                        "Halloween"
                                       Why We Choose Not to Celebrate


Many people will be choosing to celebrate Halloween this month. So this may come as a surprise to you when I say many others will not be celebrating Halloween.

So you may be wondering why would anyone not want to celebrate Halloween. Why not take the kids and go "trick or treating"? What's the harm in a little fun?

Well let's just think about this a few minutes.

What are we saying to our children when we allow and even encourage them to dress up in costumes, then go door to door asking for treats?

Well number one we are saying we are not really serious when we tell them things like "don't talk to strangers", or "don't take candy from strangers"

We are also teaching our children that they can get something through deceit. As they are pretending to be something or someone other than who they are. We are also allowing our children to think that it's okay to go door to door asking for and getting free candy or treats.

Well, maybe your thinking well I only take my children to the homes of those I know, I don't allow my child to go to a strangers door for Halloween.

Okay, that is well and good. I am sure you are proud of yourself because you are making sure that your child only goes to safe homes for treats. But then over the next few weeks or days after this "special" night out, you begin to notice that your child has suddenly developed nightmares. Or begins to be concerned that a monster may be under the bed or in the closet. Uhmm... could there be a reason that some children may begin this behaviour soon after Halloween?

I would suggest that there really could be a real reason as to why some children may start having nightares or other fears soon after Halloween. It is because whatever you put in your mind or dwell on or think about becomes a part of you.

If you are putting things into your mind that are scary then sooner or later these things will come out. Now if you will take a good look at what kinds of costumes or themes are being represented some of these things are just plain scary. Not to mention that many haunted houses or mazes are held at this time of year. With the intent to scare people.

I mean who wants to run into a real live ghost, I mean a dead ghost...A ghost would be a spirit that was not at peace so I would say must people would not want to be around one. Even a friendly ghost would cause someone to be a little unnerved.

So what about goblins? Do you really think you would want to go to sleep as a child thinking a goblin could be under the bed or somewhere close by? No, I really think if your honest you would say no. After all a small child or immature child may think "goblin may be in my room, what do gobblins do? goblins eat people, oh no...." then that child will want a parent to check and recheck to make sure no child eatting goblins are hiding in their room.

So would it make you feel any better if a witch were close by? I mean look at how the majority of witches are described in "children's literature". What child would like to have a witch turn them into a toad or cook them for supper, (as in Hansel in Gretel, remember the wicked witch was planning to eat the children)

I know, now your thinking I am going too far? But am I? Can you remember what it was to be a child? To have adults say "Don't speak to strangers"., "Don't take candy from strangers.","Don't lie?" (pretending to be something you are not for the sole effect of gaining something from someone else for free is deceitful which is another way of lying).

You are also in directly saying that you can gain something you want without working for it. In the case of Halloween it would be candy. And the encouragement to demand something from your neighbors whether or not your neighbors really wanted to give you their candy.

Okay, so you are still not convinced that Halloween breeds problems for families. After all you went "trick or treating", your neighbors did, everyone who you know takes their children "trick or treating" so it can't be all that bad right?

Wrong. Just because everyone is doing something does not make it okay or right. Even if you don't dig to deeply into the origins of Halloween, it should just be starting to become evident to you by now, that Halloween may actually be directly causing behaviour problems in some homes, and adding extra stresses to many families that really are not well prepared to handle excess stress.

For our family it is hard for us to agree to celebrate a holiday that seems to glorify and promote things that go against what we would like for our chldren to learn.

We believe that Halloween creates or promotes problems within the Christian home.

It is because of some of the things I mentioned above that we do not celebrate Halloween. We have other deeper reasons for believing it is wrong for our family to celebrate this particular holiday, this is just a brief over view.

So if you happen to notice that not everyone allows their children to go "trick or treating" maybe this will help you see some reasons why, without going into too much detail.