Navigating Halloween

[AgileGreenSeal]

Any Christian parents / grandparents here? How do you navigate Halloween in regards to your children?

I’ve seen it done.
In fact Waddingtons used to make a children’s ouija board in the 1960s/70s.

But those practices you mention don't happen at the vast majority of people's Halloween celebrations anyway OP?

As I mentioned already, dressing up was traditionally about disguising and protecting oneself on that night. People weren't doing it to embrace evil, it was the exact opposite. Does that make a difference to how you view dressing up at Halloween?

That was quite a bit ago now 😁

Many are attempting and failing at it.
Others are ‘successful’ in their attempts.

I would avoid both as dabbling in these things is intrinsically risky. I speak from personal knowledge.

But doesn’t that mean it’s entirely harmless, like talking to your begonias? With no ‘malign spirits’ about to get involved?

I’ve actually said nothing about dressing up., either at Halloween or any other time.

My concerns about Halloween aren’t so superficial.

On the contrary, I am fascinated by the idea that people are actually doing real honest-to-goodness necromancy.

And I don’t mean that sarcastically.

It seems such an extraordinary claim to make.

We are happy to celebrate it as guising is a part of Scottish culture and has been for hundreds of years. We make neep lanterns to carry whilst going around the neighbours.

It involves effort: DC must learn a poem, song, dance, etc. to perform at each door. Speaking to adults door-to-door is great for increasing confidence in DC. It brings our wee hamlet together.

I've had children play pieces of their violins and perform gymnastic routines as well as Highland Dancing over the past decades. I'm a teacher so 'no pairty piece' means no sweetie at our house! My own DC think it's rather mean of me!

During COVID we 'dooked for aipples' and played 'treacle scones'.

It links us to our ancestors who were just as Christian as we are. The activities we do now are no different to those they did.

We do follow it by observing All Saints Day (St John and St Andrew) and All Souls Day (my Mum who died before DC were born).

Maybe there’s a YouTube ‘how to’ video we could look up? Like wiring a plug or retrieving deleted files.

It takes some effort to carve a turnip!
Fair play to you @stargirl1701.

There's nothing to navigate? I grew up in a Christian household and we enjoyed doing some Halloween stuff!

😂

@Mortifiedbythis

I remember my Dad swearing and getting his electric drill from the garage in the 1980s...either neeps are softer or modern knives are sharper because I don't find them challenging. Tastier too!

But that's what most people's Halloweens involve...not necromancy?

You seem to be avoiding parties etc because of beliefs you think are celebrated at them...when they're actually not.

Doesn't every 8 year old want to be a necromancer? 😂

I think it is quite possible to celebrate in a way that doesn’t compromise your beliefs or on the other hand make children miss out on something that they can share with their friends and enjoy. My church is running a light trail at houses that have agreed to participate with clues and then sweets will be distributed back at church with refreshments. Any costumes must be non scary.

I am also making some autumn themed cupcakes for a baby group at church that I also volunteer at, last year a parent brought a big scooped out pumpkin for the babies to have photos in.

My own children didn’t trick or treat as I was very conscious that it can be frightening for elderly people, as older family members had problems with vandalism etc when they didn’t open the door. We did carve pumpkins and allowed the children to distribute sweets in costumes at our door on Halloween.

All these activities are perfectly compatible with being a Christian in my opinion.

Beat me to it.
I wonder how certain persons navigate their lives.

We ignore it - like others have said we don’t celebrate Eid or Hanukkah so why would we participate in it. DS (toddler) isn’t aware of it yet so we’ll cross that bridge when we get nearer to primary age. Thankfully our church is on the light party/avoid side neither DH or I want him involved in it.

That, or a vampire, but I was a weird child!

If there was a way to channel dominance over the dead, my eldest would definitely have chosen that at A-level. We’d have dinosaur skeletons on the rampage and Socrates raised to settle arguments between him and his siblings.

We celebrate all of them! Gifts of food at night for our friends’ iftars, bags of chocolate coins for Hanukkah gelt, chocolate in your shoe for December 6th for St Nicholas’s Day.

The more festivals the better

I don't know 😅
Mine have been power rangers, fairy witches (?), ninjas, various Harry Potter or Star Wars characters, rabbits (don't ask) and pirates over the years...or mostly just random masks and a mish-mash of the above. Anything goes really except we don't go too gory or dark.

Hallowtide is a Christian festival.

Traditional Halloween practice includes divination and necromancy

No they do not. That's a modern take on it from ideas from Victorians on pre-Christian practices that developed into wider cultures over the decades and influenced by other cultural practices on connecting with the dead.

Since back to the early churches there are writings on the importance of honouring and remembering the dead, particularly in the early church the importance of remember martyrs. Traditional practices involve remember those who've died and the good they've done, lighting candles or incense, having images of family and for some saints in preparations for All Saints and All Souls Day.

My family does Día de Muertos, a fusion of Christian and polytheistic traditions, so we add in marigolds, dressing as skeletons that we will one day be, handing out treats to others, making the foods our loved ones like, playing music and a lot of discussions around those who have died and our own feelings on dying, death, and mortality in preparation from All Hallows' Eve through to the evening of the second when we take the marigolds to a local river & on the 3rd, clean up for the year.

I live in Ireland, where Halloween aka Oíche Shamhna (the Eve of Samhain) originated. It predates the arrival of Christianity to this island, possibly by thousands of years according to some scholars.
https://www.knowth.com/tara-samhain.htm

“The practice of divination - telling the future, was an important part of everyday life for the Celts and it is certain that this art formed a central part of the festivities occurred at Tlachtga at Samhain. ”

https://www.newgrange.com/samhain.htm#:~:text=The%20Mound%20of%20the%20Hostages%20is%204%2C500%20to%205000%20years,Ireland%20about%202%2C500%20years%20ago.

Several mentions about 'frightening old people'. Round our way people (from toddlers to students) only visit houses that have a lit pumpkin or other decorations at the front. Young children are always supervised, but the parents stay on the pavement while the children practise their social skills. We always do something a bit spooky when we open the door, which always goes down well, and always request the trick. The vast majority of children and teenagers really make an effort to dress up and have a joke or non-threatening surprise ready before we offer the treats. They are always extremely polite and we often have to encourage them to take more. When we've had enough, we take the pumpkin in and leave any remaining treats outside for latecomers to take. Nice community event, in a 'naice' neighbourhood.