My wife went at the beginning of October with my kids and spent 60 bucks on Halloween costumes. In my head, I am thinking, "you did what!?!" And then I begin to realize we would have bought them any how. I know they would dress up for Halloween and last year because we waited so late Cooper had to wear the old school cheesy TV Batman costume. It was bad. So, I moved on. I think part of my problem though is this contradiction I have to Halloween.
As a kid, I knew this was the "Devil's Holiday". I dressed up with stuff we had around the house. A few times, we went to the neighbors and trick or treated. We went to the mall and walked around for candy maybe a couple of times. It was never a big deal enough for my parents to go get us costumes. Then on top of that in the 80's we had the big candy scares. People were putting razor blades in apples and poisoning tootsie rolls. I remember thinking why would anyone even think of doing stuff like that. Then, I was reminded. It was the Devil's Holiday. I knew kids that made a night out of it. Their parents took them to parties, then to trick or treat, and what seamed to be a night of great childhood adventure. It made me jealous to think of the fun they were having. I still always had the fact in the back of my mind, it's the Devil's Holiday. I know I sound like Bobby Boucher's mother in the Waterboy. I can't help it.
Today, we try to have a more balanced approach to this day. We don't glorify the holiday that is Halloween. We let our kids enjoy the fun stuff and not letting the Devil have an entire day to celebrate himself. We send our our kids to the church for Fall Festivals and with games and candy. We understand the joy of coming together and having a good time. We don't let the devil keep us from having a day. It reminds me of once as a young kid's pastor I wanted to have a Easter Egg hunt at my church. I had an adult Sunday school teacher tell his class the evils of this and talked his class into boycotting the event. He was raising a stink that was unbelievable. I didn't understand. I was trying to do an outreach in our community but I had people in our church saying what we were doing was pagan and once again of the Devil. I remember my pastor's response to all of this. He said, "If you believe that then you are not balanced in your thinking of life". I find myself wondering the same things about Halloween though.
I am glad we have events on halloween and we can sit and understand that even if this is a day of celebration for the Devil. It is the day the Lord has made. We need to rejoice and be glad in it. Not because it is Halloween but because it is a day that God made for us to worship him. It is a day we can have a good time and get pay our dentist's bills. It is a day we shouldn't worry about the devil because we know who wins.
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