This Mom Doesn't Do Halloween
This blog is made up of Moms from all walks of life, areas of the world and ideologies - so sometimes we run up against things that we disagree on. I love it that we can disagree and still have respect for each other and - *gasp* - even enjoy each other!
That being said - I gotta pipe up and say that I don't 'Do Halloween'.
I don't celebrate it, I don't decorate for it, I don't buy candy for it.
I could say it's as simple as the fact that I'm a Christian - but there are a lot of Christians who love Halloween so that can't be enough to explain it.
For me it comes down to what it's all about. For me, Halloween is not a 'Hallmark Holiday'. It's a dark event - despite all of the cute-sey costumes to the contrary.
Do I judge others who do celebrate it? No. But I do challenge them to consider what it is all about and the impact that participating in it can have on their children in the long term.
Ugly masks, scary movies, haunted houses, ghosts and witches... all in good fun. Then we wonder where a child got afraid of the dark or why they're having nightmares.
I know, I know - that can come from all sort of situations.
But three weeks of creepy decorations and eery story telling has more of an impact on some children than most would like to admit.
My opinion isn't popular in most circles and I'm ok with that. Thanks for letting me share it anyways.
That being said - I gotta pipe up and say that I don't 'Do Halloween'.
I don't celebrate it, I don't decorate for it, I don't buy candy for it.
I could say it's as simple as the fact that I'm a Christian - but there are a lot of Christians who love Halloween so that can't be enough to explain it.
For me it comes down to what it's all about. For me, Halloween is not a 'Hallmark Holiday'. It's a dark event - despite all of the cute-sey costumes to the contrary.
Do I judge others who do celebrate it? No. But I do challenge them to consider what it is all about and the impact that participating in it can have on their children in the long term.
Ugly masks, scary movies, haunted houses, ghosts and witches... all in good fun. Then we wonder where a child got afraid of the dark or why they're having nightmares.
I know, I know - that can come from all sort of situations.
But three weeks of creepy decorations and eery story telling has more of an impact on some children than most would like to admit.
My opinion isn't popular in most circles and I'm ok with that. Thanks for letting me share it anyways.
posted by Kelly at 6:38 PM
NEW! 
8 Comments:
I love Hallowe'en and have been a big fan for over 3 decades and counting.
You have challenged us to think of the impact it has on our children, but you haven't suggested what kind of impact it has - other than possible nightmares or being afraid of the dark.
Are you suggesting that if there were no Hallowe'en, there would never be any nightmares and being afraid of the "unknown" (i.e. the dark) wouldn't happen either, are you?
I could come to your challenge if I understood better what your challenge was.
Kelly I thought in the back of my mind that you probably didn't celebrate Halloween.
I also don't celebrate Halloween. I really don't understand the thinking of Christians who do. I'm not being judgmental, but the scriptures clearly say that there is no mixing of light and dark, Christ and Belial.
Maybe it's just a case of not being willing to stand up for the truth? I have a friend who I think is very devout, but she says "I just can't go against the crowd."
Interesting link...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Some quotes:
"Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France as a pagan Celtic harvest festival."
"Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent."
I don't think the observance of Halloween "harms" kids in the sense we usually speak of, but my thought is that participating in Halloween has a religious significance.
I believe what Carrie found on wiki - Halloween is a time when the spirit world can make contact.
But I don't view it as a scary thing at all. Spirits are not scary, they are merely more present.
But I also don't like the idea of scaring my kids. I wasn't allowed to watch scary movies and such when I was younger - my Mom said what was the point of making young minds afraid of stuff. And I admit I was slightly afraid of the dark when I was little too. LOL I don't let my kids watch scary movies and we don't tell scary stories either.
They know about spririts though - but as I said, we don't view them as being scary.
Thanks for sharing Kelly - I only knew a couple of families who did not celebrate and it was for religious reasons.
Alice said: Are you suggesting that if there were no Hallowe'en, there would never be any nightmares and being afraid of the "unknown" (i.e. the dark) wouldn't happen either, are you?
No, not saying that at all. Fears come in lots of ways. It's just that any other time of the year we would protect our kids from being frightened or tormented on purpose.
At least most would, right?
One of my friends ran into a situation two years ago that really opened her eyes to how Halloween affects some children.
Her daughter went to school the week before Halloween and when she went to lunch, the lunch ladies had turned the lights off in the slim hallway that led to the food pick up area.
And they put one of those scary skull things above the door and it lit up and cackled at the kids.
This freaked her daughter out badly and she refused to enter the hallway.
So out comes a lunch lady - dressed as a green faced witch - to tell her that 'everything is alright'.
The little girl burst into terrified tears and ran back to her classroom.
No matter how they tried to explain to her that it was supposed to be fun - she knew better. It wasn't fun at all.
So all kids react this way - no, I know that they do not. But for those who do, I wish that schools would have a little more common sense about what to subject small children to.
I totally agree that if a school is participating in Hallowe'en (although there was a trend here for a few years to do no religious/pagan stuff in schools at all), it should be kept light.
Haunted houses and freaky stuff should be saved for places where people go willingly and hopefully, parents won't force their children. In my family, Nathan loves the scary stuff and Malcolm wants nothing to do with it as we learned when we were going to go to the Haunted House at Disneyland.
But back to the trend of no religious/pagan festivals...that seems to have passed. The reason for it is that we have people with a wide variety of backgrounds around here and they felt to ask them to participate in Christmas, etc. was wrong when they aren't Christian.
Now today, it's much more multi-cultural and I love it. I think it's totally okay to participate in other people's traditions (as long as it doesn't go against your moral values - and for you and Carrie Hallowe'en might) because it helps you appreciate each other better.
For example, on the 17th, Malcolm's school is putting on a Diwali celebration. We're not Indian, but plenty of Malcolm's classmates are. I think it's wonderful that he can learn about his classmates culture...and enjoy some great food at the same time. ;-)
And Indians around here have some of the nicely lit houses at Christmas time. Of course, they aren't celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, but it sure brings a bunch of different people closer together.
I know for religions reasons many people don't celebrate halloween.
I know in our Catholic church it's looked down on and they always hold alternative not scary parties where the kids can dress up but celebrate in a differnet way.
My kids don't like the scary stuff and we had one experience a few years back when some grown up dressed up in the scream costume and hid and when my two kids went up to the door he jumped out at them... it really, really freaked them out. I was so angry!
We don't trick or treat anymore but the kids still dress up although not in scary costumes, we don't do scary.
We look at it as more of a fun and party time and don't associate it to the "spirits" or "evil" side of things, and my kids love carving the pumpkins, decorating the yard and making halloween cookies... I would feel terrible for them to miss out on that side of it....
but I can definitely understand where you Kelly and Carrie are coming from.
It is seen in many cultures as a holiday for celebrating evil and of course some would say that's exactly what it is.
off topic a little, I do have a huge problem with scary/gruesome video games and movies... I don't think they're good for developing minds. Halloween is a once a year thing but seeing these gruesome thing but even very traumatic scary experiences can't be good for you.
Seeing too much violence or gruesome things regularly can desensitize kids to what's acceptable and what isn't... like video games where kids shoot police offers, what's up with that?
This mom is very Christian and I do Halloween. However I don't do all the gore and to much of the spooky stuff. I don't read to much into religion beliefs or cultures.
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