Christian faith vs Halloween

[inmysparetime]

I am a Christian, and refuse to celebrate Halloween in my household as it familiarises and celebrates evil, no matter how it is dressed up as "fun for the kiddies"
I work in a day nursery where everyone (including staff) will be expected to dress up and celebrate Halloween. Any ideas how I can reconcile my professional responsibilities with my faith?

Nope, because our church is actually enthusiastically hosting a Hallowe'en Party for children.

You know the date for Hallowe'en well in advance, could you side step this in future years by arranging a day's leave well in advance?

If not, you'll just have to go in, in ordinary clothes and volunteer for as many non-Hallowe'en connected duties as possible.

If you are interested in a counter-blow, I'll look up some saints to see if there's anyone suitable you could go as.

Be counter-cultural and give treats lovingly rather than promoting the notion of of blackmail.

Dressing up is fun, so wear any costume, not a traditional Hallowe'en one.

Are you Protestant?

You could dress as a Puritan and say you are celebrating Reformation Day.

Have you looked back at how Halloween has always been celebrated as part of the Christian calendar? It is "All Hallows Eve". It is not intended to be a celebration of evil, and I doubt that your workplace are treating it that way.

Our church is organising a 'light party' as an alternative to Halloween, in order to celebrate love and light. I'm not keen on Halloween either, my dd is terrified of all the costumes out there, so this party will be a good alternative for her.

It is also Saint's Day for:
St. Quentin, St. Antonius, St. Arnulf, St. Bega, St. Wolfgang, St. Erth, St. Notburga, and St. Abaidas, (known as Abadias).

Try generic robes and a model of their symbol?

Meditrina, I only work 2 days and have managed to avoid halloween previously, but this time it is on a work day and I have so little leave I can't take this day, I need all my leave for school holidays.
Muminscotland, my workplace are calling it "spooky" which in my book is a cutesy word for scary and bad, borderline evil.

The thought of all those preschool children dressed as demons, witches and vampires makes me , and given the things parents worry about especially on MN it surprises me that they are happy to dress their children in such a way, and make fear of evil into a joke.

But is "spooky" the same as evil? Being slightly scared by things, like fairy tales, is actually a positive thing - it gives you the chance to be a little bit scared of something while still being in a safe environment. It's not the same as being actually scared of a bad thing happening.

Psychologists will tell you that experiencing mildly scary/spooky things in that way is helpful to childrens development. And very few parents on MN or elsewhere think of demons, witches or vampires as anything other than "fairy stories".

I'm guessing that you think they are a genuine threat to childrens safety and faith, and therefore in the category of "genuine evil" rather than "made up things to give a mild thrill/chill"?

inmysparetime - I can only empathise thats its a tricky situation, I'd second what others have said and pick your brightest fancy dress costume.

I don't think you can judge those parents that chose to take part in their own way, people get caught up in it without even thinking about it - our nursery are doing similar and mine will not be dressed up as witches or similar as I don't agree with it but don't want them to be left out

can you influence some of the 'learning', is there a nice story about the traditions of halloween? or even this one www.amazon.co.uk/Pumpkin-Soup-Helen-Cooper/dp/0552545104 which you can make about being friends.... you can only change things by being part of it

I agree with AMumInScotland. Halloween is about being HORRRIFIED at spooky things / bad things. It is experimenting with FICTIONAL eveil, and as such an emphatic reaffirmation that what we crave and strive twoards is the opposite! This is a feature in many many religions, and fairy tales. We test ourselves against the things we are afraid of.

'Light' parties simply deny this important truth, IMO.

No one taking part in Halloween actually wishes to promote or celebrate evil.

Though I am at the way the commercialisation of it has developed into a general horror / gore theme.

Apple bobbing or other traditional cultural halloween pursuits can hardly be a threat, can they? Volunteer to organise the apple bobbing.

VBS, thanks for the ideas.
Part of me thinks I should suck it up and enjoy the day, but I increasingly feel that small children should not be dressed as vampires etc with fake blood dripping off them.
When they are older and able to make their own decisions I can see the case more, but these kids are under 4!

I will try to stick to making a happy pumpkin face, then get the kids to play with the seeds and make smoothies from the flesh.
Hopefully I will find a way to make a stand without being too militant.

you can celebrate moving away from evil/testing yourself/scaring away monsters having fun etc at halloween, indiestar that is the very point of a 'light' party, but dressing children up as ghosts and gouls doesn't reflect this, I'm not sure why I get them being monsters or witches means they have a better understanding of it... there is a little boy at our nursery (2 yrs) who is petrified by the story 'Going on a Bear hunt' I'm not sure how potentially having children dressed up as something scarey for a day will help him at all...

I do however like the traditions of pumpkins and games and having an excuse to have friends over for tea, it just has to be balanced with the commerialised rubbish out there, don't get me started on begging trick or treating

I just read my first post to clarify where I put 'I don't think you can judge...' obviously I do what I meant is I don't even think some parents give it a second thought maybe your nursery hasn't either, some have looked at me as if I'm mad to query the point of some of the new traditions of halloween... but then bonfire night is a tricky one to explain the the kids too and yet I just love fireworks! (fwiw I dress that one up as celebrating light too)

I was in tesco the other day and was dismayed to see the gory stand of costumes, even for babies and toddlers
I want to be true to my beliefs, not ram them down people's throats, I am happy to talk about bats and spiders, or help carve pumpkins, as they are God's creations but I draw the line at anything involving ghosts, vampires or witches, as they represent evil (even if they are fables)
At least at Christmas I can counter the commercialism with the nativity story, there's not much to work with on Halloween for under 4s.
Thank you for all your help, I think I might be able to find a middle ground for Monday.

Could you have a word with your manager? I've taken my DSs to the Halloween party at their nursery over a large number of years and have never yet dressed them up as ghosts or ghouls. They go as cowboys, sailors, spacemen. I've always found that there are quite a lot of kids that aren't dressed in "scary" clothes but are just in fancy dress. It's never been a problem and I don't think anyone ever noticed they weren't dressed as ghosts etc. Your manager will probably be quite happy for you to dress up in other fancy dress.

I will try to have a word with my manager, she's not always in the building though.
Last year a colleague refused to dress up as she is a Christian too, the staff said she was a spoilsport and told her not to be so grumpy about it, and she caved and wore some witch costume items in the end.
I just need some reassurance that I can stand up to that kind of pressure without doing anything that opposes my beliefs.

I think you should be a spider, cat, bat or a pumpkin, they are all natural objects.

My children went to harvest / halloween activity yesterday which was run by a Christian group. They carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, made leaf necklaces, etc.

They have also at groups in the past made pumpkin soup and drawn faces on clementines.

I draw the line at anything involving ghosts, vampires or witches, as they represent evil (even if they are fables)

I would not describe the horrific persecution and murders of over 100,000 women as a 'fable'

Oh, and they weren't 'evil' either. Educate yourself.

If I were you, I'd explore the All Hallows Eve/All Saints' Day connection within Christianity. Honour the dead, particularly the Saints. You might find a costume, or a way of thinking about it, which reconciles it in your mind.

Go as a monk/nun?

Maybe research the South American/Central American catholics' Day of the Dead?

Malinois I am actually educated, thank you very much, I was referring to muminscotland's comments that " very few parents on MN or elsewhere think of demons, witches or vampires as anything other than "fairy stories".
I also doubt any of the poor women persecuted in the witch trials would identify with the gruesome figures portrayed in children's costumes.

I'm from Catholic Ireland and we were told growing up that the celebration was actually All Saints Day and was celebrating the lives of those who had passed on. The theory was that on the Eve of All Saints Day, the spirits of the departed would visit the earth. It's not at all a new celebration here, has been around since I think the eighth century and I'm always a bit on MN when people call it an American celebration because it was ours long before the American's had it!
The other thing to remember is that it was also a harvest festival so maybe it might be nice to emphasise that aspect of it and talk about bringing in the harvest and collecting apples and nuts, etc?
You can dress up as anything you like, it doesn't have to be ghostly.

We don't believe in the glorification of evil either. I have personally experienced direct evil and, trust me, it's not fun or interesting or worth pursuing at all

I don't care about its origins, true meaning or whatever. To me, it's all about taking pleasure from the dark side, which is contrary to Christian teaching. I'm not boring or dull or a killjoy, I just have a natural aversion towards stuff like this. I accept that strange things exist, I have personally seen a ghost in my time, but I never go looking for things like that.

ds1 was totally terrified when he was about 3 when two children in masks came to my door one night on Halloween, so he absolutely hates it and always have. ds2 is totally into his Catholicism and refuses to do anything that he perceives as evil or nasty, so neither of them are missing out.

It makes me sick to see all the decorations up in the stores and the other day in Sainsburys they had a horrible full size zombie figure which would probably terrify a small child or toddler There's no need for it. I also disagree with children going round neighbours houses demanding sweets with menaces. That part of it is just American rubbish.

We're going to be attending a Rainbow Party at the church hall on Monday night

Oh, by the way, children around here do say trick or treat but believe me, there is not a parent in the vicinity who would tolerate a trick. The phrase itself is an American import.
hiddenhome, where did you see a ghost?[fascinated]

This thread is such a target-rich environment that I don't know where to start

Halloween doesn't celebrate evil. As AMuminScotland and IndieSkies said, it features fictional characters that are there only as caricatures. Nobody celebrates harming or killing people, which I believe what "evil" would do, rather than dance about with a long black hat and a broom.

However, this is my personal favorite on this thread : "doubt any of the poor women persecuted in the witch trials would identify with the gruesome figures portrayed in children's costumes"

The irony here is so rich that it makes me . Do we need to remember who tortured and burnt on the stake 10,000s of such poor women? Excruciatingly painful murder of such numbers of innocents (of accused crime) is true evil, some might say. If Halloween was celebrating true evil, would it not include costumes from the Inquisition?

Instead, there are costumes of fictional characters called "witches". Of course those poor women massacred by your Church across Europe would not identify with witch costumes worn at Halloween because They Were Not Witches.

"calling it "spooky" which in my book is a cutesy word for scary and bad, borderline evil."

Your book is obviously not a real dictionary. Spook means "ghost". Spooky means "like or befitting a ghost, eerie", obviously referring to the irrational fear of things of the imaginary. Ex: That old house is spooky.

This is why spies are called "spooks", incidentally. Not because they are scary, bad, and borderline evil like you would take the word to indicate, but because they are like ghosts.