Edited Version
Every site and every blog is smothered with Halloween content, giveaways, and contests. You may have noticed there is nothing referring to the holiday on Eco-Babyz. I thought it is important to share with you the many reasons why we do not participate in this celebration and you will not see us trick or treating. Now, I don't expect you to read this and ditch the traditions you are used to and comfortable with, but it will give you food for thought.
As many of you know, I am a follower of Christ. Before I was a firm believer, at the tender age of 12 to about 14, I did participate in trick or treating (even though I thought the candy was pretty disgusting). Our relatives who were Christian it seems forever, weren't that opposed to this. Back then I thought nothing of it. None of us really knew much about the holiday. Now I can attempt to explain why we do not celebrate Halloween, but I found that Julie Ferwerda put my thoughts to 'paper' very well in her
article on Crosswalk.com. Here are the excerpts that strongly resounded with me:
To be honest, I really don't care much about the pagan origins of Halloween in ages past. It's not like most of us are even aware of them, and what do they really have to do with current times?
...In every neighborhood of every town of every state of our country during this celebrated week (and a few other countries as well), you'll find dark, scary decorations. Big hairy spiders in webs, hideous green witches donned in black, skeletons, haunted houses, coffins, bats… nothing is too dark or too evil to display. And don't forget the sweet little kids dressed as Grim Reapers, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and Freddy Kruegers.
Type "Halloween Crimes News" into Google, and you'll get 349,000 results. There's a huge influx in alcohol and drug related revelry and crime that police departments far and wide refer to as "pandemonium," requiring increased police reinforcement.
The dictionary defines "hallowed," from which the word, "Halloween" comes, as holy, consecrated, sacred, revered. In my mind, that opens up the question, "Who is being worshiped and revered on Halloween?"
On the Satanic Calendar, Halloween is one of the most significant nights of the year when "attempts are made to break the bond which is keeping the doors to the underworld closed." Sexual rituals are performed in association with demons and blood sacrifices called, "The Blood Feast of the Dead." Both human and animal sacrifices are included, with the focus placed on children ages seven to eighteen.
In college I heard an ex-Satanist tell a story so horrible, it became the deciding factor for me. In his account, the FBI had hired him to help them investigate a case during Halloween involving several child abductions and murders involving the worst of tortures such as group rape, and then being hung and burned on a cross. One little victim was an adorable girl of only eight.
It was then I realized that, even if I could somehow rationalize participating in this dark holiday promoting intoxicated revelry, overt evil, and pet cruelty, albeit under the guise of "innocent celebration," I could not rationalize participating in a holiday that at any level victimized children.
...Caryl Matrisciana shared her views. "…[Halloween] is a time that there are sacrifices. My question is, if we know that this is a holiday of vandalism, death, cruelty, abductions, poison, mayhem, why do we as Christians celebrate this kind of a holiday?"
Now whether this occurs or not, perhaps we will not know. But in our often cruel world it is no surprise that this is possible. There are many sick people out there and yes, satanists are real just as Christians are. Moreover I feel that the Bible is very straight forward about how we are to approach such a matter:
"What fellowship can light have with darkness? Therefore come out from them and be separate," says the Lord. 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Romans 12:2
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, rebuke and expose them. Ephesians 5:11
So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. Leviticus 18:3
When the LORD your God destroys the nations...do not be trapped into following their example in worshiping their gods…These nations have committed many detestable acts that the Lord hates, all in the name of their gods. They have even burned their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods. Deuteronomy 12:29-31 (selected)
Those are not my words. I personally don't want to be part of something that celebrates death and to any extent victimizes children. We decided we don't want to be part of this seemingly innocent holiday, in our personal life experiences the spiritual world is very real and to us this is no different. Not even candy can make me take part.
Speaking of candy - that is yet another reason we abstain from these celebrations. Let's face it, candy today is loaded with toxic ingredients. A child's developing immune system is vulnerable and just one day of sugar overload can wreak havoc. I do not want to support the billion dollar candy industry in any way and that's the choice we make (there are alternatives if you still choose to participate, one of them is fruit!). There are children even here in the United States, never mind third world countries, who will go without a meal the whole day - but most of us feel alright spending $20 to $100 on toxic candy. Am I missing something here? In addition to sugar we should be especially concerned about candy from large manufacturers that often contains melamine (mostly in candy from China, results in kidney failure and even death), mercury, cadmium, lead contamination, and plenty of genetically modified beet sugar that has never been proven safe and uses heaps of pesticides to grow. I'm not even going to go into PVC, off gassing, and chemicals in the costumes.
If you're not a Christian, ignore my ramblings if you wish. If you are, I suggest you read the Bible and listen to your conscience. What you choose is ultimately between you and God. It may be a gray area to many of you, but to us it happens to be black and white.
I think role playing and dress up is important for a child's development, but I don't need a special holiday to play dress up with my baby. It's a perfect rainy day activity! Moreover, I don't think it is healthy to expose a child to scary goblins, witches, skeletons and the like if they do not yet have the capacity to differentiate between real and fake. I've read numerous pleas for help from mothers online whose children wake up from nightmares for weeks after seeing something scary or watching a scary movie. Please be considerate, especially with babies and toddlers.
Sure, I like pumpkins - but I prefer them in my soup or other culinary dishes, not with a scary face on my porch (even if I had a porch). :)
If you haven't yet, check out numbers 1 through 9 of our Glimpse into Eco-Babyz:
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Wow you are completely ignorant on the origins of Halloween just as most protestant Christians are. Funny how most pagans know the origins of Christian holidays more than most Christians do.
ReplyDeleteHalloween is the eve of All Saints Day aka All Hallows Day. It is a Christian Holiday. Trick or Treating comes from the mid 19th century Catholic practice of Souling (begging)where it was acceptable for beggars to go door to door on All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
To be honest I wholeheartedly disagree with this.
ReplyDeleteI am not fully christian as I disagree with much of the bible
In my opinion Halloween is a day where kids go out, dress up and have fun.
The so called "evil" of Halloween is nothing more than a hoax.
As for the candy, Halloween is the one day where it is fine for most people, in fact I am waiting for the trick-or-treaters right now to show up at my door and ask for candy and I will gladly give them some.
Halloween is not evil, it's scary (in a good way)and just plain fun.
Dear Anonymous #1, I don't need to beg for my soul from anyone, mine belongs to Jesus. Whatever day it is, if it was made up by the Catholic church, not Jesus Himself - I don't need to be celebrating it. It's not in the Bible and I want no part of it. It was made up by religious people and has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous #2, there, you said it. You're 'not fully Christian'. You've just justified and pacified your own belief system. Of course if you don't agree with much of the Bible just go on your merry way celebrating. If you do not know Christ, none of this will bother you. So you're saying that Halloween related rape and murder of children falls into the category of 'just plain fun'? Not in my book, thanks.
Thank you both for stopping by Eco-Babyz! :)
Hello, I disagree as well. Children could remain ignorant if you try to make them as so...and once they do discover 'the horrors' of Halloween will be even more shocked than ever. But there's plenty of ways they could learn of such things like what people do in history otherwise.
ReplyDeletePeople are crazy, the psychology of human beings is complicated. Those crazy things you said people do may be true, Though, watch over them and let them have fun with their friends as they please, have to have a healthy balance. I believe having kids grow up frustrated with these limited teachings will only have then growing gray hair and getting wrinkles faster than you know it. Trying to block the world from them will only make them ignorant and even more scared of growing up. If I ever have children, I will let them grow up celebrating Halloween, so they could at least have fun with their friends. The world is damned frustrating enough as it is. Just keep a good watch on them and don't castrate their curiosity as growing human beings.
Dear Anonymous #3. Thank you for posting a comment voicing your disagreement. I knew that the majority of people would disagree with me, but I wanted to post my views anyway. I guess our idea of 'ignorance' differs. In my opinion it is ignorant and hypocritical to make compromises on what you firmly believe. Following the majority is just not something our family does. My daughter has already been called 'different' because she behaves well, eats healthy food, is polite, and has no fear. I must be doing something right.
ReplyDeletewell that's a slippery slope you stepped on. Religion. But what seems strange to me is the aggressiveness of other people. Merely expressing your own opinion should not sparkle such emotions. But then again I can be wrong. Here is my two cents on this. Having a 16 months old baby and realizing that all of my friends with babies,toddlers going trick-or-treating, I decided to skip this time and figure out by next year. First of all let me just tell you that I'm not religious (no church), but I do believe in God. But that's another debate. I didn't want to participate because I see a lot of really scary costumes out there. And I'm not even talking about adults. Kids have blood, pus,wounds, deteriorated flesh on their skin. Nice!!! I have nothing against seeing Vinnie the pooh, zebra or a fairy. But unfortunately I can't control what my baby sees. I partially agree with what anonymous #3 said "Trying to block the world from them will only make them ignorant and even more scared of growing up." That's where I'm afraid, she is right. I think that growing up "different" in this country is just asking to be bullied. I bow to your courage, that you can stand for you own believes. Only time will tell if they are right or wrong.Putting my thought "on paper" helped me realize that I will probably try to find the golden middle. Candy is another thing that I want to win my battle with. And it's a hard one to win. There are a lot of articles on how dentistry spike after Halloween. Why would you want to destroy your kids teeth? OK not intentionally but it does happen. Nothing wrong with kids dressing up and having fun, but sometimes aftermath of this is devastating. About satanists, I think that this could happen on any day, not necessarily on Halloween. But you're right, there are a lot of sick people out there. But that's what parents are for - to protect and to teach.
ReplyDelete