People are fine with being disrespectful to Christians

[Flymetothezoom]

At a church playgroup. The people who run it are very devout Christians. I am taken aback, by the number of parents, who thought it was appropriate to bring their kids to the church dressed for Halloween. Kids are dressed as witches, goblins, skeletons, creepy pumpkins etc..
The church holds a light party every year on Halloween and is very clear that they do not endorse Halloween.

I’m not sure they can really complain if they hold a party for halloween that children come dressed up.

The church holds a light party every year on Halloween and is very clear that they do not endorse Halloween.

That doesn't make any sense.
If you don't endorse Halloween, then dint hold a party, light or otherwise

WTF is a "light" party anyway?

If they are going to hold a playhroup ON halloween, what else can they expect? Have they said something or are tou just guessing? If they didn't want kids dressed up they should have made that clear at the last playgroup so parents knew

Halloween is/certainly has become a secular festival. I don’t think the parents are being disrespectful. I think it’s Christian to welcome people and not be judgemental. We used to attend church regularly when I was a child (and my mum volunteered and ran the playgroup). She got horrible letters through the door about stuff like this, so we never went again and the playgroup lost its leader.

My mother sent me to a church party on Halloween dressed as a witch. It was very frowned on but my mother just didn't think about it properly. No disrespect intended.

Even at my very catholic convent primary school run by nuns ,we were allowed to dress up as witches etc at hallowen parties.

I'm assuming a 'light party' is about celebrating light rather than the darkness associated with Halloween?

It's a play group, I bet most of the parents don't even go to church or even think of Halloween as anti Christian. I'd say to be more tolerant.

@minou123
”Light Parties are a fantastic alternative to the Halloween activities that kick off on 31st October. Instead of children being surrounded by things that glorify the darkness, Light Parties focus on all things light, bright, and most importantly, Jesus Christ who overcame the darkness.”

Dressing up as demons, monsters etc has a pedigree going well back into the Middle Ages and further back, in Roman Catholic Europe. The belief was that All Hallow's Eve is when the boundary between this world and the other is porous. Beliefs about liminality between living and dead at certain times of year stretch back centuries before Christianity.

it's only really some sects of Protestantism that seem to have a problem with it in my experience and those are very new sects e.g. only dating from the Reformation, which is new in the context of religious and spiritual practice in the history of humanity.

As for disrespect to Christians, I'm Greek Orthodox and have never found it disrespected in the UK. If anything, people are curoius as they'be heard of Catholics and Protestants but a lot of British people don't really know much about the Orthodox Chruch.

What are they supposed to dress up as then? Lightbulbs?

So they are basically copying Diwali?

I don't think it's particularly disrespectful to Christians. Young children love dressing up and at that age most of them are in cute superhero costumes.

Howling!

OP would dressing them as Thomas Edison be offensive?

I've never heard of a light party...but do they make clear that they DONT want costumes / it's not a Halloween party?

Oh! Every day is a school day on MN

I thought a light party was something like afternoon tea, you know, a few nibbles and only from 2pm-4pm kind of thing 😁

People not believing the same things as you is not disrespect.

You think it is wrong to dress a child up as a vampire, witch etc. other people don't. If you want to run a playgroup that is purely and only for members of the church I would support the churches right to do that. If however you choose to run a playgroup that is open to members of the community (as many churches do) members of the church will inevitably be exposed to the beliefs and norms of the community at large.

Also went to Roman Catholic school taught by nuns and priest and we had Halloween party every year! Of course that was back in the days when costume was made out of a black bin bag!

Halloween has Christian origins - All Hallows, as pp said.

Considering how disrespectful the Christian church can be, I don’t think there is much room for complaining.

(caveat, I don’t mean all Christians before I get jumped on)

I think it's just that people don't understand it's not the done thing for church groups. Halloween is just an excuse the dress up, people don't think about the meaning behind it or the way it sits with Christianity.

It's lack of knowledge/understanding rather than disrespect.

But then again, from some of the responses here, maybe you're right OP.

@Intru 2 points

1. how is asking this question on a forum “shaming” people?
2. also how far can we take this? Should people be shamed for wearing a gimp suit to church or bondage gear, serial killer outfits? In your world are there any limits?

The playgroup should make it clear what the party entails and how the kids should be dressed. That way parents can decide whether to send their children or not.
Simple.

Fucking hell dressing your child as a pumpkin or witch isn’t disrespectful to Christians.

There’s a Baptist church near me whose hall (used for a playgroup and after school club) is all done up for Halloween. My quite devout Christian neighbours sent their kids off to school dressed up this morning. It’s not like all Christians eschew it. It probably wouldn’t occur to most people that some Christians might have a problem with Halloween.