Halloween fun

[Jenamarie]

I'm with Skippy... I HATE halloween!

I grew up celebrating halloween, and when my kids were young were participated. But one year I read a report on the roots of halloween. Amazing.... jackolanterns come from turnips the druids used to hollow out and carry around, believing a spirit lived in them. Trick or treating came from a feast that was held, the druids would go door to door asking for food for the feast... if they got food, they were happy and went on, if they didn't get food, they placed a curse on the house. This was the night the dead walked the earth. All the "scary" traditions we have come from roots... real beliefs and practices from an earlier, pagan culture. Why the heck are we celebrating them?

When I was a kid, a halloween party at church was more than an activity than the "trunk or treating" so many wards do today. Lots of games... bobbing for apples, a cake walk, a fish pond, etc... stuff to do all night, and yes you ended up with sugar, but not like today.Besides being a celebration of evil, halloween is an excuse to overload your body with sugar. One OUNCE of sugar suppressing your immune system for 5 hours. How many days will our children run around suspectible to ever sneeze or cough, every toy at their daycare center... all because they are eating sugar at every turn?

I'm for alternate celebrations.... harvest parties, with costumes from the scriptures, maybe, games and activities for the whole family that feature a small amount of sugar, instead of an invitation to illness. So that sounds stuffy.... sobeit. I want my family healthy.

And I'm sorry if this seems crazy, but on halloween I imagine satan rubbing his hands with glee... even the saints are celebrating with him.

Sister of Jared

Uh. I don't think most children are even thinking about Satan when they celebrate Halloween. Christmas has a lot of Pagan elements to it as well (bringing a tree into the house, celebrating it around the time of the Winter Solstace, Yule Logs, etc) but I doubt if most Christiatns see anything other than a pretty tree in their living room, a crackling fire in their fireplace, and snow falling out their window when they celebrate Christmas. Whatever their original origins are are lost on most people. I don't think I'm falling further into Satan's grasp by celebrating a holiday with pagan origins. All I'm celebrating is a fun night out with my kids, all dressed up in cute costumes, and doing fun things with pumpkins.

Edited October 22, 2008 by Jenamarie

[Naomi3]

Don't you think you are going a bit over board! If Halloween is pagan, then we shouldn't be celebrating Christmas either. Christ wasn't born on Christmas, and we are more concerned about our Christmas tree and presents than we are about Christ. I'm sure Satan likes that too. It is all in what you make of it. If you don't want your kids to celebrate Halloween then that is okay. That is your choice, but don't ridicule those of us that think it is fine.

The pioneers hollowed out turnips for lanterns are Halloween, and I don't think they were concerned about all Hallows eve.

[RachelleDrew]

My son is going as a penguin in a costume I made. My husband and I aren't dressing up this year, but we generally do. We just didn't really have the time to think about it this year.

As for the egging and TP-ing, it's never bothered me when my house got it. Maybe it's because I did it as a child, i'm not sure. So long as my cars don't get caught in the crossfire, I could really care less. It takes all of an hour to clean up, so it's usually a good excuse to do the last yardwork of the year before winter anyway.

Our town has a tradition where kids can sign up ahead of time to do "After-Festivities Cleanup" where they go around town the day after Halloween on a trailer with hay and clean up whatever house needs sprayed down from eggs or pumpkins or whatever. I always thought that was nice, because some of the people that get targeted are older and have no way of cleaning up the mess themselves. They ride around on the trailer all day drinking cider and cleaning up houses, and a lot of kids do it.

[Jenamarie]

Maybe I live in Utopia, but the most "vandallism" I've ever see done in my neighborhoods on Halloween was pumpkin smashing. And the pumpkins were usually in the middle of the road where it was up to the city, and not the owner of the pumpkin, to clean it up.

[Guest SisterofJared]

I know, Jenamarie... I understand clearly that my feelings about halloween are clearly not in agreement with most peoples... either in or out of the church. I don't know about comparing the pagan rituals of christmas with those of halloween though.... Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birthday.... and we don't dress as witches and ghosts and vampires at Christmas. I'll admit I don't know where the roots of the Christmas tree came from. But I do see that Christmas has a worthy reason for celebration.

I didn't even know people egged houses! Is that common? I've heard of smashed jack-o-lanterns, and thought that was mostly unusual!

TPing is something we did growing up in the southwest.... it was like a stamp of approval...lol.... it had nothing to do with halloween, and you only TPed someone's house if you like them. It was like a little sign of popularity. Now I live in the Pacific NW, and people here consider it a terrible offense. I think that is so wierd!!!!! But it never had anything to do with halloween, and was more of a summer thing when I was growing up. Even as an adult, I've TPd a few homes. In fact, I'm going on two week vacation to AZ, I think we'll TP some people when we're down there. LOL.

Anyway, I know the little kids aren't thinking of satan.... and I know one of the reasons people like halloween is because the kids can looks so darn cute in their costumes! I still think it would be MUCH better to just have parties at church that are harvest parties with costumes that are out of the scriptures or something.... even ordinary costumes that have nothing to do with grusome or scary things or the occult. Then everyone could have the opportunity for fun dress up, and none of the traditions of halloween.... including way too much sugar!

I'm a hopeless fuddy-duddy! LOL. For those who choose to celebrate halloween, be safe, x-ray the candy, and be warm! for many, it's a chilly time out trick or treating! BTW, most of my own children DON'T agree with me on this one.... they do take their children to celebrate halloween.... but only at private parties.

Sister of Jared

[Naomi3]

I totally agree with the gruesome garbage that comes out with the Halloween stuff. I hate that stuff, and wouldn't let my children dress as something scary. I don't think I was really comparing Halloween with Christmas except that they are both pagan holidays, and Christ really wasn't born that time of year. I have just found that we really need to find the good in all we do. If you are looking for the bad you will find it. I don't like fanatical mormons that all they can do or say is something negative. We moved from Utah to the NW, and fanatical mormons are in abundance in Utah. People in the NW don't judge others, I believe that their testimonies are stronger, and they are just better people. That is not to say that there aren't good people in Utah. It is just different. It is hard to explain. I grew up in Utah, and love it there, but here Mormons seem to be stronger because they have to. It's not the culture here, where as in Utah everything revolves around the church. I'm not saying it is bad, just different.

[Misshalfway]

Well, if Halloween started out being something evil, I sure think we have turned it into something fun.

My parents used to throw the best Halloween parties! Each year a new theme and they would invite the whole neighborhood. And each costume was an attempt to make everyone laugh! And that is really what it was all about....even the years when my brother and I would wait on the side of the house and scare the guests. It was all good fun!

And that is what I do with my kids. If they want to be scary, we create something scary and we have fun with it. It isn't a big deal and the spirit in our home isn't corrupted one bit. And for those who opt out, sweet. The liking or disliking of Halloween is such an unimportant issue in the grand scheme of things, I must say.

And to Naomi, I find it interesting when I read posts like yours that speak against being judgmental and in the very next statement judge some group harshly.

[skippy740]

Don't you think you are going a bit over board! If Halloween is pagan, then we shouldn't be celebrating Christmas either. Christ wasn't born on Christmas, and we are more concerned about our Christmas tree and presents than we are about Christ. I'm sure Satan likes that too. It is all in what you make of it. If you don't want your kids to celebrate Halloween then that is okay. That is your choice, but don't ridicule those of us that think it is fine.

The pioneers hollowed out turnips for lanterns are Halloween, and I don't think they were concerned about all Hallows eve.

Naomi3,

I didn't sense that anybody was being ridiculed.

And I KNOW that I act like an old fuddy-duddy myself (and that works for me).

I posted my original post because I knew that SOMEONE out there would share my point of view.

Just because I may want to cut myself off from the rest of the world every October 31st doesn't mean that I'm telling you to do it too.

Let's not try to take everybody so seriously. I'll try to do the same. (I think that we as LDS people tend to make things more serious than they should be.)

[Wingnut]

I don't like fanatical mormons that all they can do or say is something negative. We moved from Utah to the NW, and fanatical mormons are in abundance in Utah. People in the NW don't judge others, I believe that their testimonies are stronger, and they are just better people. That is not to say that there aren't good people in Utah. It is just different. It is hard to explain. I grew up in Utah, and love it there, but here Mormons seem to be stronger because they have to. It's not the culture here, where as in Utah everything revolves around the church. I'm not saying it is bad, just different.

There are "fanatical mormons" everywhere, just as there are non-judgmental members of the Church everywhere. You said it best: "If you are looking for the bad you will find it."

[skalenfehl]

Boy some of the posts went left field. Anyway, thank you to those who shared pictures of their Halloween fun and shared positive comments.

[Heavenguard]

Skalenfehl -- Great costume!!

I'm going to go to work only mildly costumed, with a bandana (with a skull and crossbones on it), an eyepatch, and my fencing foil (sword). Arrr!

I love halloween because I think the dress up is fun. I'm pretty goofy most of the time anyway, but it's the one day that society not only accepts, but encourages it

As for the darker origins of hallowe'en ... it's just about as secularized as Christmas is to non-Christians. If you ask people (not Christians) what the true meaning of Christmas is, I bet they'll tell you it's about giving, it's about being with family and the people you love, and that kinda warm fuzzy stuff. You ask people the meaning of Hallowe'en, they'll probably tell you it's about dressing up, having fun, and getting to eat the goodies they otherwise know they shouldn't have.

[Honor]

I couldn't get enough of this costume idea. My year old nephew was dressed as Michael Phelps in a little Nike warm up suit, white beanie "swim cap" with a US flag on the front and a few pacifiers hanging around his neck like medals.

[Jenamarie]

That is too cute!!

[ZionWoman]

I prefer to think of it as an extention of Thanksgiving and I approach it in that light. A time to be generous and share fun and bounty (even if it is in the form of candy).

I don't like dressing but the kids are just too cute. I also don't like the focus on the macabre. Very upsetting.

[Naomi3]

I couldn't get enough of this costume idea. My year old nephew was dressed as Michael Phelps in a little Nike warm up suit, white beanie "swim cap" with a US flag on the front and a few pacifiers hanging around his neck like medals.

One of my good friends last name used to be Phelps. Her first name is Shelley and lived in Utah, now she got remarried and lives in Rigby Idaho. I wonder if it is a relation.