In one of my previous wards, I knew a man who detested Halloween because he didn’t like the idea of celebrating evil. I can understand his point of view, but I think he and I think of very different things when we consider that holiday.
When I think of Halloween, I visualize jack-o-lantern carving and kids dressing up as their heroes or favorite cartoon characters. I see Halloween as a great excuse to be imaginative, eat tasty sweets, and generally have fun with family and friends. In short, it’s a positive, uplifting holiday that I look forward to each year.
While there are certainly plenty of people who give Halloween a dark slant (costume stores wouldn’t stock all that fake blood and severed plastic limbs unless there was a market for them), but I think that mentality is no worse than associating Christ’s birthday with stress and materialism two months later. In either case, the holiday is as uplifting (or unuplifting) as the observer makes it.
2 comments:
Very astute observations!
Rock On!
I wore a swirly black & red cape all day! When else would i get to wear it (without the slant-glances)? It made me happy. It made the kids happy. And, my kids play dress-up all the time. But, it's different on HAlloween. Woody and Spider-girl were in character and learning about politeness and sweet-rationing and helping others (took bishop's kid's with us ToTing). I love the completely fun nature of this most silly most wonderful holiday.
(But, don't get me started on the school-system!)
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