Holidays are fun, they are meant to be times of families spending time together for a specific purpose. It’s interesting how these can so soon become times of stress and division for so many different reasons.
Today is Halloween and for many people it’s a time where kids and their parents dress up in costume and walk around the neighborhood with a bag or bucket, someone opens the door and hands out candy or treats of some kind. It’s innocent fun.
But for other people Halloween is still considered a ‘pagan’ festival and many judgements are made against families that take their kids trick or treating or who even hand out candy. My children were told by some of their friends they were going to hell because they went trick or treating on Halloween instead of to church. They were also told their parents were going to hell for taking them trick or treating. I asked a woman who agreed with this whether or not she handed out candy on trick or treat and she said yes. I asked her what the difference was and she couldn’t really say.
I just keep thinking how easy it is for people to judge other people based on outward things and I find it comforting to know that God judges people by the motivations of their hearts. I don’t think the Lord minds trick or treating – I think parents can teach children about different traditions and how they’ve evolved and what they are doing. I think the church can explain this Halloween Holiday Tradition of trick or treating if they want to without judgement or condemnation. (Judge not lest you be judged likewise). Children trick or treating is not the same thing as what went on ages ago.
If anything parents and teachers in the church can use this tradition as a way to teach about things like jealousy, pride and greed. No sense bragging about your costume or being jealous about other costumes and no sense complaining about what kind of candy or how much other kids are getting and how not to be greedy and how to ration what they’ve received. That’s not a bad thing – a lot of learning can go on . . . doesn’t have to be stressful . . . The church can also use this as a time to teach about generosity. I remember times of collecting for good causes instead of asking for candy I had a box, received from church, to collect coins for the poor.
God judges the motives of our hearts – always. On Halloween, when our children were young we went trick or treating and we said our family prayers and we remembered those who had died in our prayers. I always told them about the year we ran out of candy and my dad hid behind a bush in the yard and did a super spooky laugh to ward off trick or treaters until mom got home from the store with more candy . . . Anyone who did brave their way to the door in spite of dad’s laugh got some coins . . .
Halloween doesn’t have to be stressful or cause that much division in our hearts or minds or the church or the world, what do you think?
