Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Halloween from a Christian perspective and home




Grocery Cashier: “So what are your children dressing up as?”Me: “Nothing.”Grocery Cashier: “Nothing? Why?”Me: Politely, “We don’t celebrate Halloween.”Grocery Cashier: Confused look on her face, “Oh.”
And, my dear readers, here’s why:
* Halloween is a pagan holiday:“The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain. The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is erroneously regarded as ‘The Celtic New Year’. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. 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. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.” ~Courtesy of Wikipedia.com (You can read more about the history of Halloween at here)
* Halloween does not give glory to God:“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” ~Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT)
* Halloween is not an innocent costume party:Read why Hawaii police describe Halloween as “pandemonium” here:
* A final thought:“We cannot expose ourselves to the world’s false, deceptive way of thinking and come out unscathed.” ~Nancy Leigh Demoss in her book, “Lies Women Believe.”
So some people may think our family “is weird,” but we feel it best to not conform to the worldly habits and instead give glory to God in all we do. For the Bible says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” ~Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT)
“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” ~Proverbs 4:32 (NLT)

3 comments:

bec said...

I appreciate your posting that! I agree with not "celebrating" halloween. My kids love to have dress up play all year long, they don't need just one day to do it and beg for candy that they don't need in the process.
Thanks for the sticker in the mail too! Very thoughtful! School starts next week due to sickness this week! The beauty of the home-school! Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Diane,
hey, just know you will be criticized by many if you don't dress up your kids and bring them trick or treating. Also, in this day and age of crazy people, why would you risk your child getting some candy with razor blades, poison, etc in it. Want your kids to have candy, go buy it for them! Bur then I know you don't so.........
Love Liz

Julie said...

I can't even begin to tell you how often we've had that conversation with not only grocery store clerks, but "everyone" we meet around October including church members and family!!!!
We're "weird" in so many ways (especially with the homeschooling!) and our family comes first, etc., etc. I guess we can handle being weird about shunning Halloween -- we have been for years!
Reminds me of that Christian song, the lyrics are...
"I'm not cool, that's okay, My GOD loves me anyway" My theme song!
Blessings,
Julie

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