Nope. No Halloween. Yep, I’m THAT family.

Never thought I would be… but I am becoming that mom, and that family who doesn’t celebrate Halloween. ewww.

Well, the correct statement is actually: I don’t want to celebrate Halloween in the commercial sense. In the dress-like-a-witch, go-watch-Paranormal-Activity, begging-for-candy commercial celebration sense.

“Why wouldn’t you just dress your kids up and have fun, get candy? They don’t have to be anything demonic or evil, they could be like.. an angel or a pumpkin. That’s cute, what’s wrong with that???”

…but is it right???

Yeah, yeah… I know. Trust me. I grew up with a mom whose favorite ‘holiday’ used to be Halloween. (in my very young years)

[Notice how the media calls it Halloween, and not “Happy Holidays” like they do for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. As long as it doesn’t associate with a religion, it’s acceptable.]

I dressed up as all sorts of characters. My very last costume was a kissing booth… cuuuute…. .. . I did the trick-or-treating. I went to the Halloween parties. I actually used to participate in being one of the actors who were the scarers in a haunted hayride with a local Theatre community.
I watched the scary movies. One of my all-time favorite movies to this day is Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein… though that’s not the scary, disturbing type of movie I’m talking about. You all remember Blair Witch Project? The beginning of documentary-style, terror-paranormal films… that’s what I’m really alluding to.

I did it all and then some.

In my high school days, I would go to slumber parties where we would attempt to hypnotize each other (instigated by me!) into spilling the beans about who our secret crush was at the time. I even remember there being a ouija board present on one occasion, though I knew enough to stay away from it. It was innocent girl silliness. But inspired out of something very far and away from innocent, little did we know.
And little do most families know when they celebrate Halloween the way our society views it.

So, it’s been uncomfortable when my friends and even family members ask me, “What are your kids dressing up as for Halloween?!” with excitement in their voice.

So far, I’ve been able to shrug it off with the excuse that they’re too young to really do Halloween, and that I don’t have the energy to do the walking and begging for candy with my 2 year old while hauling my 10 month old around.
But the time will come when I have to give the real answer. I just don’t want to make my friends and family feel guilty for their way of celebrating. And I don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable around me when they talk about it. And, seriously, who wants to be that “weird friend” or family member who “doesn’t do Halloween” for “religious reasons”????
I don’t believe anyone truly desires to feel like an outcast.

I do not like, enjoy, get any thrill or entertainment out of dabbling with looking scary or evil or spooky. It’s not cute, it’s not funny, it’s not silly, not even in good humor. It’s not harmless. It opens doors. Doors that, as a fallible human being, I have no business even cracking an inch.

Okayyy, now I’ve come off as a zealous, religious ignoramus who’s blinded by “WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES”, those stuffy, traditional papists.
Whatever. I am where I am for very specific, intelligent, rational and personal reasons. I’ve done my homework and I know better.

I see no reason to whole-heartedly participate in celebrating a holiday in a way that doesn’t give glory to our God.
-especially when society delights in a holiday that glorifies the eerie, the spiritually lost, gory images and scaring others.

That’s really the bottom line.

I will celebrate All Saints day and All Souls day.

When my children get bigger, I think this is a beautiful template of a way we can celebrate All Saints day and All Souls day.

That site has credible links to the origin of All Saints and Souls day.

On All Saint’s Day, I plan to remember Blessed John Paul the Great, Saint Anthony of Padua, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Padre Pio, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Benedict, St. Gabriel the Archangel, St. James, St. Joan of Arc… and all other saints.. especially the unknown, living saints. Those listed are my favorites for very personal reasons.

I cannot look with condescension upon others who do celebrate Halloween and all the tricks and treats that are popular in the hollywood/commercial limelight. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. But I understand it in a very different way. I understand it in a way that most other people would scoff and laugh at me for seeing it.
It’s a truth that I cannot ignore.

You know, it’s like once you learn to drive a car on your own and your parents have taught you, you can’t tell them you don’t want to understand it anymore, because they know you already do.

I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. I’m not. I’m just as flawed as the next person. In many other facets of my life, I am severely lacking. But I’m trying to be a better person. I’m trying to bring good to this world, to my children, to their innocence.

That’s all. How can anyone fault a parent for that?