Living in Texas, as I do, this is one of those holidays that for me has been almost ruined by the Christianists. At some point, while my girls were in elementary school, we went from having a Halloween carnival to a Fall Festival. We went from decorating doors with ghosts and witches to being restricted to pumpkins and fall leaves. Even though the kids were allowed to wear their costumes to the festival it was explicitly NOT about Halloween. All in the name of political correctness.
Someone, and it was probably just one person, complained and ruined it for everyone else. The Fall Festival at church was the same way. We musn't include the witches and monsters. Someone might think we were worshiping the Devil.
What a complete crock of poo.
There is some basic need in human nature to spin tales and try to freak each other out. You can see it on every elementary school playground as little boys try to find ways to gross each other out, or better yet gross out the little girls. It's multi-billion dollar a year business - from horror movies to roller coasters and video games - we get a thrill out of being scared. I'd dare to say that we're hard wired to do so.
And it has nothing to do with worshipping evil.
Whatever the origins of Halloween, in our modern world it's a chance to be someone else, to use your creativity and get a little scare on. If you're anything like me, you can pull together about half a dozen costumes out the detritus that fills your closets. There might even be a few unfinished costume projects hiding in there, too. I once purchased material and pattern to turn my kids into Power Rangers. I think I still have the material in my closet virtually untouched a decade later. (Though I did use some for triangular bandages for the first aid kit. The yellow, of course. Anyone who gets one of my slings is going to be the hit of fashion.)
So, what are you going to be for Halloween this year? Me? I'm leaning towards overweight, middle-aged mom. At least the costume will be easy.
10 comments:
My big sis calls the judgemental new style christians The God Squad. Sorry they are ruining Halloween in your parts.
My kids are grown and 20 year old daughter and I are going to see a matinee of West Side Story at the theatre....
Then going up to a friend who has little ones. We are dressing up our two year old Border Collie as Buzz Light Year and taking him along while we trick or treat with the kids.
I hear ya! I just bought tickets to Sprite's daycare's Fall Festival, but that may be more because she's a little too young to get Frankenstein and such. She's not too young to scream "Monsters!" though!
(At the dog. Before she tackles the dog. My kid does not make sense.)
You're linked!
Sprite will be a princess this year. Because she is one. She tells me so. (Help!)
Trying to get around to all of the Secret Santa Soiree Participants (better late than never, right?)!
I LOVE your blog - and that's just from the first page - I'll definitely be back!
I totally agree with this post - I think it's crazy the way every little secular thing is turned into 'Devil worship'. I'm a Catholic, but I think we've gone WAY overboard with this!
Sounds so familiar. So often we want to celebrate something, but are told that we can't because it may offend.
Perhaps you should have all the scary stuff indoors where the "Fun Police" cannot interfere.
This is a spin so often ignored. Thanks for sharing,
Too bad about the fall festival. My kids' school oddly enough still does a Halloween party. Some parents choose not to send their children to school that day because of religious reasons but the rest of the kids can partake.
We're so excited for Halloween this year. We made costumes for the girls as a family project and they turned out great! Fun stuff! Happy Halloween to you! And I love that you repurposed that old costume fabric, just hope no one should need the sling.. or could it be a possible Halloween costume accessory???
I had to laugh yesterday when I read in our local paper that Halloween was being celebrated at the nursing homes here in town, but the churches were sponsoring a Christian "Hallelujah Night" (you can't make this stuff up)for the kids; presumably to offset the evil wickedness of the old farts who partake in devil worship along with their Metamucil. Ha! Go figure....
That kind of stuff just makes my head spin and leaves me cursing backwards in ancient Aramaic.
What?
I'm going out tomorrow as an unemployed SAHD, so pajama bottoms and a housecoat.
It's not like the kids are sacrificing kitties on their doorsteps. Come on people! They're dressing up and gettin' candy! We love halloween and will celebrate it as long as we can!
We had the best Halloween with the grandgirls!...and the church down the street does "trunk or treat", with people parked in the lot with their trunks open and decorated!!! It's their favorite place to go! Too bad people make it into something it's not!!!!!
we are so much alike...and i dont just mean with our halloween costumes of choice...
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