Halloween

I friend of mine did a post on Halloween and it has inspired me to do one of my own!

Next to Christmas Halloween was my favorite holiday, the decorations, the spooky feeling, the candy and of course the dressing up! For those of you with strong powers of observation you will notice that I used the word was in the previous sentence. Yes, my family has chosen to no longer celebrate Halloween.

No, we do not yell at any trick or treaters who come to our house and we don't condemn anyone who does celebrate it. Though I do have to agree with my friend, Halloween costumes have gotten waaaay to sexy in recent years and I do have to admit to being judgmental about that aspect of it.

We researched it (and when I say we, I mean my parents, I was 12, cut me some slack!) and found that all of the traditions and actives were used to keep the demons/evil away or to draw them/it in. Hmm, not exactly something we wanted to be involved in. Again, if you have no problem with Halloween, fine, we won't look down at you or judge you, but we also ask that you do the same for us! God has called us to this, if He hasn't called you, who are we to force our views upon you?

We participated in our churches Halloween alternative harvest party for a few years, but something always bugged me about it and I could never put my finger on why. Only in the past few years have I found the reason.

If the churches feel the need to offer a Halloween alternative, does that mean there's something wrong with it in the first place? If so, shouldn't they find out why they feel the need to call the parties at this time of year anything but a Halloween party?

The don't call the Christmas party a winter time party and they don't call Easter egg hunts spring festivals and offer alternatives to these holidays. They just have the events and don't bother to change the name. Why don't they just have Halloween parties?

If it really is just to provide a warm indoor place with prescreened candy to the kids, why the name change? So, in effect it's not Halloween it self that makes me cringe this time of year, it's the church dancing around an issue they obviously feel convicted about, but don't want to take a stand on because they might "lose" people. If something like that will make you "lose" people, did you really "have" them in them first place?

If your going to celebrate Halloween then celebrate it, but don't slap a different name on it and try to make it seem like you aren't celebrating it when you are. If you feel the need to call it something else, you might want to take a look at why!

I leave you with this verse: Revelation 3:16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.