That is the question. We definitely do. The girls aren't allowed to wear icky costumes--Hannah's gonna be Princess Leah and Sky's gonna be a Cubs player--but other than that we trick or treat and decorate and do candy and goodie bags with spider rings and all of it. I know one of our sweet friends southeast of here has to "cloak" her Halloween celebrations with her kids in order to not be labelled a heretic:) Fortunately in northwest Hoosier land I've not been accused of being a Pagan because we carve our pumpkins rather than paint them, but hey there's a first time for everything...
4 comments:
Do! Why shouldn't Christians celebrate Halloween? Personally, I see it as a reminder of our mortality, and I don't think it's a bad thing to remember that every once in a while. Hey, we observe Good Friday (we even get it off work), a holiday that's all about Christ's horrible death. I won't let my kids wear icky costumes either, but I don't think it's harmful to acknowledge our own mortality. It can even be used as a spiritual lesson for kids!
Wait, wait, wait... you CARVE your pumpkins? JENNY! You heathen!
LOL!
Just kidding. Seriously, if we're going to remove everything from our lives that might possibly have a pagan origin, you're going to have to stop putting up Christmas trees, change the date of All Saint's Day, stop going to bonfires, not put the Ichtus fish on the back of your car, not wear a wedding ring... I could go on and on! Let's just claim pumpkin carving for what it is... a fun pastime and way to get pumpkin seeds for a delicious roasted treat... and call it a day!
even Easter is named after a babylonian goddess (Aestar or something depending on which alphabet they translate from) who had a son that was murdered for the sake of their people. the early church took a lot of dates that were traditionally pagan and sewed their new Christian rituals to those dates because they were already being celebrated and thus easy for the populace to remember. nobody talked about THAT at the conservative Baptist church I grew up in... so you're exactly right about the christmas tree and everything else having to go out the window if we're gonna get technical. so do your homework people, before you rush away from halloween parties and toward your harvest parties...you'll be surprised what you find!
yes, we carve...
he who is without sin may cast the first stone...
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