Christians-dealing with Halloween?

[poshme]

Just wondering what other people do- I'm not very happy anout my DCs doing Halloween activities- school topic/ school disco/ cubs all currently focussing on Halloween.
I've said no to school disco, and told cubs DS won't be there & my DCs are upset they're missing out.
I don't agree with trick or treating so we don't do that.
Just wondering how other people deal with it.

I think it's a bit rich for christiand to coomplain- they did invent Satan after all!

MostlyLovingLurchers thank you for your comments, I guess there is a lot of misinformation out there. I just wanted to support the OP in the thought she is not alone in not wanting to celebrate it and that there are things anyone can do if they are not comfortable with it.

I am a lot more relaxed about it now than I once was!

Worldgonecrazy you know of course that Satan features in the Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures so we did not literally invent him.

Sorry world that was meant to be a comment to Mrsmiggins apologies.

OP - we don't / won't be 'celebrating' halloween here either...same as we don't 'do' Eid, summer solstice, saints days etc etc etc...we do what we do, our kids get plenty of treats & fun stuff throughout the year, end of. I suspect a lot of the aggression & animosity against anyone perceived to be opting out of halloween due to 'faith' reasons come down to people feeling defensive because they think there's some kind of implied judgement of what they do with their kids...but whilst I don't judge what other people do, I don't think my kids are to be pitied, and frankly I find it highly offensive when people take it upon themselves to judge my actions by their standards that way...I'm not judging people who want to get involved with halloween, that's their call, but just because my family doesn't buy into their choices doesn't give them any right to finger poke in our direction. I think that the whole "your poor kids / what a kill joy" thing is a very ugly kind of peer pressure / herd think.

There are a whole lot of reasons why we don't 'do' halloween, but as I'm not out for a bunfight & believe we all have the right to choose, I won't go into them here...
ps ...I don't have strong feelings about what the origins of halloween are either!

I can't really see why people would object to Christians not celebrating Halloween!

I have no problem with people not celebrating anything.

I do have a problem with people thinking Halloween has anything to do with celebrating evil.

Personally I don't celebrate Christmas, but I don't hand out leaflets telling people they are taking part in occult activities and glorifying evil.

And I'm sure you would be pretty insulted if I did.

Good point well made Sashh.

Viewing other peoples gods and goddesses as demons seems like religious intolerance to me. Are the Hindu ones also widely regarded as evil?

Modern witches, druids and other neo-pagans do not engage in blood sacrifice or devil worship. The devil is a christian belief - witches and pagans don't believe in him, let alone worship him!

Most pagans I've ever encountered are fluffy tree-hugging types.

Thanks all for your views.
sashh I wouldn't dream of handing out leaflets like that, and I've been very careful in RL not to be negative at all to people about them doing stuff for Halloween- when I told cubs that DS wasn't coming I says I hoped they had a good evening. I hope they did.
I really don't mean to offend anyone- I was just interested in other Christians views. I don't think Halloween as it happens now is a Christian festival, so I don't choose to celebrate it, in the same way that I don't choose to celebrate eid, or Divali etc.
I can't remember who suggested that I didn't like it cos of being CofE- one if my closest friends is RC and she doesn't like it either. I happened to describe myself CofE on this thread, but would usually just call myself christian.
Anyway- interesting thread thanks all. I hope that whatever you're doing Tomorrow night you enjoy it!

Poshme just wondered how last night went for you?

We had a free Light party for anyone who wanted to come and had a great attendance. My daughter and I went and visited a few friends and gave out chocolates and got given sweets and cookies. She didn't dress as anything scary.

It was kind of funny, there were cute little kids dressed as vampires etc and I realised when the costume is pretty simple it doesn't look so bad but when the kids are wearing really horrible masks it just seems so sad to obscure their lovely little faces with something ghoulish!

I did not give out any tracts or preach to anyone about the evils of Halloween!

So I hope we all managed to rub along amicably in our village - the ghouls, cats, princesses and whatever else!

we were due to go to a light party but DS is ill so couldn't. No truck or treaters here as we're rural. So a normal day really thanks.
Just looking forward to Christmas now! Bring on advent!

I don't see why people want to have a light party at Halloween. Either you celebrate it or you don't. Why try to turn it into something it isn't? Why not just ignore it if it doesn't float your boat?

msmiggins we have a Light party as an alternative to the way many people choose to celebrate 31 October. We do it because the children of families we know love a party and might feel they were missing out if they could not go to Halloween parties. I would not want my daughter to feel that she has to miss out on a party but I acknowledge that there may be times when she might or times when she is older and she will choose to go to a Halloween party but while she is still young I would love her to have an alternative way to celebrate this day. Just as many non-Christians might choose to celebrate 25 December differently to me.

I am just curious but does it bother you that some people choose to do something different? Don;t reply if you don't want to, I just sense you don't understand why we do what we do and for me it is important to be open about what I do and it is not an attempt to put other people down. Some of our light party attendees were not regular 'church' families and some wore 'scary' costumes and all were made as welcome as each other. It was a totally free event but people asked to make donations and one mum from another church came up and said please keep doing what you are doing as it is so nice not to be pressurised into doing what everyone else does.

I think it does smack of being a criticism of what others are doing. In the same way if I held a "I'm not celebrating Eid" party. When people hold parties on the same day as another "celebration" (I'm not sure that is the right word for Halloween) it is generally an anti-event - so a anti-monarchy party on the day of the royal wedding, or a ding-dong etc party on the day of Thatcher's funeral.
I do not think the posters on this thread mean it in that regard, but I think this is how it can easily be perceived.

That's exactly as I see it. Why celebrate at all? If you don't see halloween as fun then your kids are not missing out are they? I simply see these light parties as a bit of a protest, as Iggorcist says I wouldn't muscle in on Divali of feast during Ramadan. Why does your light party need to be the same day as Halloween? If Halloween is so dreadful then why do you even celebrate then?

Even the name "light party" does suggest some antagonistic reason.
Halloween is a festival that finds fun in the dark side of things, the theme of your light party is obvioulsy set to counter that in some way.

I guess I can't I can't explain it any more fully so maybe I have failed! We don't celebrate Halloween, we offer a party on that day as an alternative. Much as someone, anyone, may wish to offer an alternative to what is generally on offer. If that is perceived as a judgement on what others are doing then I can't alter that. As others have pointed out some of All Hallow's Eve has it's roots in Christianity so I can't see it is wrong for Christians to behave in a certain way on that day.

Anyway, it is facinating to read this as it had not even occured to me anyone would object to the holding of Light parties!

How can it be antagonistic to call it a Light party if you have just said
Halloween is a festival that finds fun in the dark side of things

It is because we do not want to find fun in the dark side of things that we celebrate the Light. If we wanted to celebrate the dark side of things we would go to a Halloween party.

.. or you could celebrate Reformation day, which was yesterday too.

TheIggorcist that is a lovely idea, not sure how many children's games can come out of that theme though!

But I like the idea, any other days we could celebrate we don't normally? (genuine question).

Personally, I would like to see international day of the girl child celebrated but I guess we would then also need an international day of the boy child too!

www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/

Oh, just thought of something, some churches have super hero parties instead of Halloween parties. This is a genuine question - is that less or more offensive than a Light party?

I actually suggested the superhero thing because I think it is a great theme. And kids can dress up as made up superheroes so they don't need expensive costumes either.

A light party isn't offensive, it just seems a bit silly. You either observe the day, or you don't. And to give a new Christian theme to something that already has a Christian theme is going a bit far.
In response to the earlier question, how about pin the tail on the 95 theses? (Dh suggested that one).

Our Church has a festival of light on 13th Dec (St Lucy's day). This is common to most Scandinavian countries.

Serin Is that the one where people walk around with lighted candles in their hair!!

TheIggorcist I am really surprised anyone would see it is silly. I can think of tons of things that I would see as silly about the way that Halloween is celebrated by some but I can't see why having a Christian party would be silly, I mean don't get me wrong I totally understand that lots of people aren't Christian and would not want to go to a Christian party, so I do understand that. But I am surprised that anyone feels it is silly for a religious group to celebrate things in a different way. But it is interesting as it had not occurred to me that anyone would have a problem with it, (not you necessarily) but I think others have. It's just interesting, it won't change what I do but it is interesting to be aware. It's amazing for me that many people celebrate Christmas with no reference to Jesus but I would not call them silly, I do see it as a genuine choice

Thank you for replying TheIggorcist.