We aren’t super big into the celebration of Halloween. In fact, when you really look into it, much confusing conflict arises to the conscious as to the level of participation given the history of Halloween, as it is long, complex and somewhat uncertain. The Sugar-coated holiday of Halloween as our culture is often doesn’t realize how inextricably tied to history, so the commercialized version of today makes little reference now how we typically celebrate without the original knowledge of how it stems back to pagan, demonic, Catholic, and relatively recent American roots. While there isn’t really any one single source nor a consensus as to what it actually means. On one hand it can be viewed as a rather benign holiday filled with dress-up and candy. On the other, which is so often conveniently overlooked, lies it’s origin of Celtic Summer sacrifices to appease Samhain, the lord of death, and evil spirits. Additionally, there are years of Catholic Religiosity attempting to uproot pagan holidays and reinvent it into a celebration of Martyrs and Saints as church-wide observance dubbed All Saints Day in leu of the darker notions Halloween observes. Of course during the Reformation, which also coincides with this Holiday as Martin Luther keenly timed his posting of the 95 Theses on the 31st of October and thus launching the Protestant Reformation, in which people came to understand “saints” in its proper New Testament usage to be all believers. The root of the Protestant Reformation was the rediscovery and recommitment of the doctrine of justification (being salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone) and the protest against the corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that Trick-or-Treating and costumes showed up in America, which originates once again to demonic spiritual activities (or avoidance), as many pagans believed this night released an onslaught of spirits sent to attack humans, so one would be protected by dressing up and assuming disguises to look like evil spirits themselves. Then again, not all historical evidence is so nicely packaged and supports this theory, it could instead be more like creative fiction manufactured to explain and justify the evolution of our now so widely accepted modern customs. In recent years since, many have chosen instead to reinterpreted the Catholic feast of All Saints or more commonly a celebration of Fall agricultural abundance and often throw ‘harvest parties’ in commemoration or to avoid the issue all together (which can arguably be the same thing guised under a different name). Ironically, most of these replacement events are perhaps the ones most easily linked to paganism, as the origins for activities like bobbing for apples was actually a divination ritual related to love and fertility. Some reject Halloween’s present incarnation as it receives much disdain because many feel that it’s intrinsically tied to satanic beliefs, while others freely accept it, giving it little thought beyond the fun of donning a costume and indulging in an overload of sugar intake.

The biggest thing it has come down to for us is not the question of whether or not we don’t or do observe it, but decide each year as it approaches how we will differ in the level of participation in it. Halloween has a long and complex history and it would be incredibly naive to fully reject it, thus isolating ourselves and kids from understanding culture, yet simultaneously a mistake to offer the opposite but equally naive defense of “it’s no big deal” and participate without thinking it through. The question gets tougher each year as the girls get older. Araiya in particular really wanted to Trick-or-Treat, as the lure of candy upon a preschooler can be overwhelming. Inherently, I love dressing up. I love making costumes for the girls. I love the excitement and fun of a holiday. In all honesty, any excuse to make stuff and dress up in atypical garb is alluring. I don’t want to my girls to miss out on the fun, yet want them to keenly understand the true, yet conflicting, surrounding ideology around this holiday and our choice to participate. I want to cultivate their own head knowledge and connect it with their conscious so they are better equipped to make these decisions along with us then eventually for themselves. I don’t look at something like Halloween as an excuse to let kids be kids, but rather as an opportunity to cultivate them to be intelligent, critical thinking and convicted adults.

When it came down to it, we first and foremost wanted to sift through what can be redeeming about this holiday- costume wearing, enjoyment of people we care about, and discussing the truth about our world’s culture and history. We chose not to do any activities on Halloween night, choosing instead to participate in a number of activities in the week leading up to the 31st. One afternoon we hit up a Family Festival at a local Nursery. They had face painting, crafts, a hay maze and pumpkins to buy. Then we spent the week carving pumpkins, baking, and getting costumes together. The night before Halloween we got together with friends, ate a meal and let the kids play in their costumes while eating candy. Some of the adults dressed up too, which sadly I missed out on but have noted as a to-do for next year. I was actually quite surprised that nearly all the houses on our block had darkened their windows to avoid Trick-or-Treaters. I felt a little bad that we haven’t made a point to buy candy to hand out and obviously no one else had either. Next year I see huge potential for using the Holiday to cultivate a bit more neighborhood interaction, any excuse to build community and relationships with our neighbors. As always, each year and each season with these kids is a learning experience. Next year we will once again sift through where our conscious leads us to participate. What works one year will inevitably change the following. There’s always many facets to look at and I have found being too staunchly set on where we stand with these open-handed conscious-based issues leaves little options to not fall and get stuck in a place of hypocrisy or legalism.