Lani's Blog

How do you Celebrate Halloween?

This time of year is always full of seasonal pleasures: apple cider, cooler weather, bluer skies and little kids in costumes.


The question is do you celebrate Halloween? My own history with the holiday (is it a holiday?) is sporadic and not the norm so my views are a little skewed. But they are mine and I hope to learn of others.





I grew up not really celebrating Halloween. My parents had no religious reasons, but rather, safety issues. I grew up in a neighborhood that was poor and unsafe for trick or treats. And my Mom didn't have time, money or energy to waste on the day. We usually got treats at school. If there was money, we got had cider, donuts and whatever candy had been on sale at K-mart. Dressing up in costumes would have been pointless and expensive.





As I got older, I put the day aside as a day for kids. It wasn't something I thought about. I was working, in school and getting out poverty.





When I became I Christian, Halloween took on a whole new context. There seem to be  two camps of thought about the day.





1. It was an evil day. Witches, ghost and monsters symbolize Halloween and are creatures of evil. We shouldn't have anything to do with it.





2. It's a harmless day of fun for kids.What's wrong with letting them dress up, eat candy and play?





Now those arguments are very simplified. I know somewhere there is evidence for both sides.





Personally, I believe that everyday belongs to the Lord. There are no evil days.





"This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad."


Psalm 118:24





And yet, Halloween in recent years concern me. The recent rise in popularity of witches, vampires and zombies is enough to give me pause. Harry Potter made witchcraft not just for surban housewives. (Sorry Bewitched fans.)  Vampires have always been sexy. Dracula has been played by many gorgeous guys. Frank Langella in Dracula and Chris Sarandon in Fright Night were two of my favorites. The Twilight series brought a tween level of sexiness to the garlic haters.  Zombies are so hot that they have made their way into such classics as Pride and Prejudice.





The thing is Halloween makes evil things to be cute or good. If evil is cute, then it is dangerous. Face it, anything or anybody that wants to suck your blood, your life source, is evil. (vampires) Anything that wants to eat your flesh is evil.(zombies)  Anyone with power that does not come from God comes from someone or something else. (witches)





Where is this going? I dunno. It's my blog and I can ramble if I want.





I guess I am perplexed at the rise of the heroes formerly known as monsters.





"C.S. Lewis said,"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."





I'm glad I never had to decide as a parent what to do about Halloween. As a Christian, its easy to fall into the extremes as Lewis points out. So I think this season I'm going to reread "The Screwtape Letters" by Lewis. It is a series of letters from a senior demon to an underling about how to tempt and control his "patient." Patient being the demon's word for men and women. Lewis had some wonderful things to say about Christianity and our culture. It seems appropriate, for the season, to be reading about demons.





Now, like Charlie Brown, awaiting your rocks.