Well, I am going to get up on a soapbox. I hope you just bear with me and don't take this personally. Today is Halloween and I must admit that this is one "holiday" that we don't get too excited about. We did buy the girls costumes - only because we were going to go up to church for the fall party - also the girls can use their costumes for dress-up. I am not a big fan of Halloween because of its origin. According to Wikipedia "The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them."
Honestly that is not something that I care to be a part of. I realize that most people don't even know the history of Halloween and just see it as fun - and that is fine. Untill this year - Norah didn't know (or care) what witches or ghosts were. I was okay with that. Now I have to explain to my innocent 3 year old "why that mommy wants her child to be something scary - like a witch." Or as we go for a walk in our neighborhood (actually, when we look out the window) I have to explain why people want scary things outside of their house.
I also don't understand the trick or treating thing (we never did this growing up - and none of us cared either way). Why, in a country of EXCESS, do we send our children to other people's houses (people we don't know) begging for food? Ummmm - there are children in this world who are STARVING!!!!
Don't worry - we don't ruin the fun for others. We do pass out candy - so far we have had 112 trick or treaters. Like I said, the girls have costumes. We ended up not going to church for the festival, though, because the girls were incredibly tired. We went to Kevin's office and Norah had a party at school.
My point is that I would rather celebrate life and peace - not death, witches & ghosts. I would rather give money or food to those who can't even put food on their table - than candy to children who already have more than they need. It is only Halloween that I don't like. I absolutely love fall - enjoying the colors in a world that only God could create.
I guess this could be an early Thoughts for Thursday post.
What do you think about Halloween? Did you 'celebrate' as a kid? Anyone have the same feelings as me? What did you do tonight for Halloween? What do your kids think of the scary costumes or scary decorations? 
4 comments:
Your girls look adorable. I never was allowed to dress up for Halloween when I was growing up and I never felt like I was missing out on something great. We don't let our boys dress up for Halloween either and they don't seem to mind. Seth came home from school asking me what he would dress up as and I told him that we don't celebrate Halloween. We went shopping the other day and the cashier asked Seth what he was going to dress up and he simply said, "We don't do that, right mom?" I don't care for the scary statues that talk by the front doors at Walmart. Seth and I walked by one that actually removed his head. It was pretty scary to my four year old. Halloween, Booooo! To each his own!
my kids dress up and we go to our church for trunk or treating. Everyone dresses up in costume (they aren't allowed to dress up scary) They get candy that I give to my moms classroom (my kids dont eat a lot of candy) Other than that we dont do anything scary!
I did celebrate Halloween as a child, and "back then" we would dress up at school and do parades etc (now, lots of schools ditched teh costumes and we do a "Fall Festival Party").
We dress up now, and we took P T or T'ing this year (just to a few houses). I don't really get into decorating for any holiday (I'm lazy lately... but I wish I did), but when I see all the fun Halloween decorations I kind of like it.
ALTHOUGH... I totally get where you're coming from... it is weird to celebrate that type of meaning. I guess from my view I've just always thought of it as a fun, spooky holiday that you dress up for.
About the T-or-T'ing... I was thinking about that this morning... my friend's 11 year old daughter is in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip with her grandma, and I thought "Oh she missed Halloween" and I thought how different it must be to be in the DR when in our country we have so much "excess" that we just have these "fun" holidays where we give away candy. ANd in other countries kids don't have FOOD let alone free candy just for fun.
As kids we went out every year. It was alot of fun to walk around with all the neighbors and TT. We do the same thing with our 3 little ones. We look at it as a fun opportunity to dress up and to get out and meet the neighbors. A neighbor up the street goes all out and decorates w/ scarey stuff. We did go up there for a after TT party but had to go in the back door w/ the kids. This was nice to meet some neighbors that we did not already know. My oldest is not into scarey stuff and I think may have only hit a few houses.
Now for our candy and stuff we will let the kids have a bit. Sammy our oldest can't have candy so he gets to enjoy a non candy item. After a few days I will pack up the candy and will include some of the nonmelting items in a package to my son's birthfamily. They live on a small island and candy is a HUGE treat for the kids. I will also send them staple items for food tuna, beef jerky, ramen, rice, etc. I figure the kids will still enjoy some sweets.
The girls look great in their costumes.
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