*Kind of a weird topic for January, but it's been on my mind awhile...
Dear Sofia,
Is it true: conservatives love Christmas and liberals love halloween?
Things to love about Christmas: Celebrating the Savior/acknowledging there IS a Savior(!); corporate worship; singing great hymns of the past (honoring faith of our fathers); time spent with family...
It's no secret, to me at least, why we love Christmas so much. Even "secular Christmas" (meaning, all the fluff without the significance) is celebrated with joy as people sing carols, give gifts and suddenly become quite philanthropic.
Halloween shouldn't even be called a "holiday" since it is not a holy day. There is no "orthodox halloween" and "secular halloween;" it's all secular. In fact, it's all pagan. And why do they like it so much? I think it's for these reasons:
- Dressing in costume symbolizes their belief that man can change himself (free will/God's impotence)
- Romanticizing of death - for those who don't believe in eternal life, death is the ultimate event in one's life
- The excuse to frighten people, especially children - harming children in some way seems to follow a liberal m.o. (see: abortion)
- Handing out candy is a seemingly innocuous easy of enveloping children into the tradition, fixing in their minds the reward for the best participation in the pagan practice
As for me, I'm torn. Does halloween have to be a celebration of death, a spitting in the face of God while baying to the full moon and gorging on sweets? Dressing up in costumes is fun, for goodness sake, and when you're a creative person you need all the outlets you can get! Really, how often does one get to dress up, for any occasion?
Baby, I dressed you as a sushi roll for your first halloween. Was that wrong? Even your dad thought it was cute. But how will we participate in it when you're older? Anyone have suggestions?
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4 comments:
We tend to stray away from "evil" costumes, so to speak. I think people get carried away with it when they cut it out altogether. My kids love it, and we love seeing them so excited about it. The names of our months were derived from pagan gods, but I don't ever think of the names of the months that way. I just think about what the month holds for us!
After our salvation in 1978 we stopped with Halloween. No condemnation for those that do participate, but we just decided against it. Now that they are all grown up they wish we would have let them go trick or treating.(but they are not serving the Lord either, so I take their comments with a grain of salt!) Looking back, I would still make the same choice.
To memory, we always dressed up in something (one time my sister was a green onion!) but never scary stuff either. I think that's the way to go. Then again, Cyn, I wonder how I would explain why we were participating in it? To me it's like hanging up a stocking for "santa" to fill... why do it if you don't know why you are?
Glad I have some time to think about this, since I'm clearly on the fence!
I AM ON THE FENCE WITH YOU!
You summed it up with the "creative people/outlet" thing. I am still waiting for some year to not be fat or expecting and I am going to be the most decadent Marie Antoinette you have ever seen! HA!
I'll probably hop off the fence before that with my "lucK"... I read so many convicting articles on the subject this year... the kids haven't even dressed up in the last two years cause of their lazy Momma. I better get with it before we decide it's a sin! :)
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