What We Do With Halloween
Mike Quimby
Halloween is coming fast. Some run to it, while some run away as fast as they can. Some turn their lawns into graveyards, while others turn off the lights and pretend they aren't home. The question I wanted to ponder is, "What really is Halloween and what do my family and I want to do with it?" This is not a proclamation of what all people should do. It simply is an explanation of how Jen and Mike arrived to celebrate the day (or not) as we do.
Halloween actually means "Holy Eve" (The American Desk Encyclopedia Steve Luck, Oxford University Press, page 365). It seems to be originally a Christian holiday set aside to remember the dead. In countries where the day has remained more faith-based, people often put candles on graves of loved ones. There is some debate as to whether or not the Christians "Christianized" a pagan Celtic feast, but I'm actually not interested in that for the purpose of this post.
The bottom line for us is that no matter what the intentions were originally, what Halloween has become is a celebration of darkness. We witness a slew of scary movies flooding the networks. Michael Myers, Freddie Kruger, and Jason are movie characters that many of us are familiar with. I walked into a local store recently to look for a costume for my wife and was greeted at the door by a robotic demon-possessed young girl, twisting her head back and forth. (I think it was the little girl from The Exorcist). There was also another automated little girl on her knees in a bloody nightgown, with scars on her face, asking for my help, and there was a werewolf that popped up from behind a tombstone. Once inside the store I saw other creatures and characters that were either meant to scare or seduce. There was blood and guts galore, or sexually charged female versions of your favorite super heroes.
I was only in the store a little while before deciding they weren't getting my business. But something happened while I was there. It became clear to me that our family doesn't NEED to be a part of this. We don't need to walk around our local community only to have our children come home scarred by costumes they saw. My responsibility as a parent is to protect my children from things that would instill fear in them.
Even as I write this I can hear readers suggest I'm a "prude" or that I'm sheltering my children too much from the world. I would inform anyone who reads this that my children are very aware of evil. In fact, we make it a point to educate them about the source of evil. That's right, Satan himself.
The question now is, how can we be culturally relevant and responsible at the same time? We certainly want our kids to be able to dress up in fun costumes and to interact with other kids. So we came up with a plan! The Quimby's will take our kids to some houses of some close friends on Halloween so they can show off their costumes. We will keep them home after that so they can hunt for candy that we hide in the house. Truth is the kids loved the idea when we presented it. They have no desire to go out and be scared. They don't like darkness let alone embrace it. And I love that.
We are also hosting an event for our church during the day on Halloween where kids can dress up in their costumes, make some crafts, eat hot delicious food and go trunk or treating (a relatively new tradition where children walk from car to car and receive goodies from people's car trunks). And the main focus of the event will be the reading of The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. During the reading of it, a pumpkin will be gutted and carved to represent God's transformation of us from the inside out if we choose to trust Him as Savior and Lord. And it ends with a light being put inside, representing the light of Christ shining through us.
That's what we want people to take from our celebration. Not death and darkness. In Luke chapter 1, verse 78-79 we see that Jesus came "to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." Rather than protesting Halloween, or sticking our heads in the sand as it comes and goes, we make good use of it. We want to ourselves remember that "God did not give us a spirit of fear" (2 Tim. 1:7) and help others understand that by Jesus' death and resurrection, the grave has been overcome! The light has overcome the darkness!
That's what we do with Halloween. May God help you find light in the midst of darkness!
