Holidays or Holy Days?
I couldn't get my comment to post on Beth Young's site, so here goes. Unorganized and unedited.
I grew up in a Christian home and my dad even pastored a church, but my parents were not legalistic about Halloween, Christmas, or Easter. In the little town of Alden, Kansas,everyone knew everyone, so we walked door to door dressed up with friends. I was Marilyn Monroe one year and Miss America the next. (Used L'eggs eggs for boobs when I was Marilyn Monroe; bobbing for apples I lost one in the water bucket and have since called the game "boobing for apples.") When older we lived way out in the country and it would have been a hassle (and not cool in middle school then) to trick-or-treat. We have never let our kids trick or treat because we see it as celebrating Satan's holiday and had a hard time saying, "Okay , we'll celebrate Christ 364 days a year and Satan on one." We thought it was confusing at the very least. (Even though I didn't mind them dressing up around the house on that day cuz I love costume parties. ) We had tires slashed on both cars one Halloween night and only money to replace them on Paul's for a while. Chesapeake has had Hallelujah Night--lots of fun. Youth have Harvest Parties, and some dress up; I have no problem with that. My angst as a parent of teen? I am always a bit leary about who is sharing the road late on Oct 31. Easter eggs don't bother me; I like to color them. They are a symbol of life, and we talk about life in Christ not the Easter Bunny. We've also done Resurrection Eggs from Family Life Today. Everyone loves a good hide and seek game.
Christmas is a holiday I am wrestling with. I have intentionally made it more and more simple the past few years, and have come out feeling more peaceful. My parents started keeping Hanukkah two years ago, which I first got really angry about because it was a huge, foundational change in tradition for us. But I have come to appreciate how much more deeply religious it is than Christmas per se. Christmas never seemed like a truly Christ-focused holiday until two years ago. Sad, but true.
Changes? I would like a costume party in July, Christmas presents in September, simple nativity celebration in December, and keep Passover as we've done for many years that really makes my heart ready for Easter!
I grew up in a Christian home and my dad even pastored a church, but my parents were not legalistic about Halloween, Christmas, or Easter. In the little town of Alden, Kansas,everyone knew everyone, so we walked door to door dressed up with friends. I was Marilyn Monroe one year and Miss America the next. (Used L'eggs eggs for boobs when I was Marilyn Monroe; bobbing for apples I lost one in the water bucket and have since called the game "boobing for apples.") When older we lived way out in the country and it would have been a hassle (and not cool in middle school then) to trick-or-treat. We have never let our kids trick or treat because we see it as celebrating Satan's holiday and had a hard time saying, "Okay , we'll celebrate Christ 364 days a year and Satan on one." We thought it was confusing at the very least. (Even though I didn't mind them dressing up around the house on that day cuz I love costume parties. ) We had tires slashed on both cars one Halloween night and only money to replace them on Paul's for a while. Chesapeake has had Hallelujah Night--lots of fun. Youth have Harvest Parties, and some dress up; I have no problem with that. My angst as a parent of teen? I am always a bit leary about who is sharing the road late on Oct 31. Easter eggs don't bother me; I like to color them. They are a symbol of life, and we talk about life in Christ not the Easter Bunny. We've also done Resurrection Eggs from Family Life Today. Everyone loves a good hide and seek game.
Christmas is a holiday I am wrestling with. I have intentionally made it more and more simple the past few years, and have come out feeling more peaceful. My parents started keeping Hanukkah two years ago, which I first got really angry about because it was a huge, foundational change in tradition for us. But I have come to appreciate how much more deeply religious it is than Christmas per se. Christmas never seemed like a truly Christ-focused holiday until two years ago. Sad, but true.
Changes? I would like a costume party in July, Christmas presents in September, simple nativity celebration in December, and keep Passover as we've done for many years that really makes my heart ready for Easter!
posted by Zoanna at
9:00 AM
9 Comments:
Hey! My wordpress site isn't the same as my old site on blogger, it's www.bethyoung.wordpress.com that may be why you were having some trouble earlier. Now, onto my comments on this particular post.
"We have never let our kids trick or treat because we see it as celebrating Satan's holiday and had a hard time saying, "Okay , we'll celebrate Christ 364 days a year and Satan on one." We thought it was confusing at the very least."
Before I move forward I want you to picture me asking these questions with a smile on my face and remember, they are just questions and I'm sure that they will stir up some intersting conversations!
How are you celebrating Satan's holiday on Halloween?
Why on this day can you not be celebrating your life with the Lord?
Just two questions....
AFter posting this and hearing a little snippet quoted from it at Game Night, I was wishing I'd never written it. Part of me wants to just gloss over the whole Halloween controversy and let convictions and preferences just be what they are without risking offending some. But I have never been really good at keeping quiet on subjects that rub me the wrong way. There was a time (pre-children) when I was wishy-washy about Halloween. I like the non-gory/nonghostly/witchy costumes. I like the idea of going door to door for candy from people you know and giving it out to people whether you know them or not. The problem came when I started putting together the stories of people who had been involved in Satan worship. They say they got into it very subtly and quite young. First it was "innocent" with cute Halloween stuff. Then came fascination with the dark side. Then came ouija boards. My own husband was badly influenced by ouija in his youth and wishes he had NEVER played around w/ it. I had a friend whose basement was exclusively a hangout for guys to play Dungeons and Dragons. Her house always made me feel creepy even though I never went near the basement. I didn't know much about D&D and of course my friend always made it sound like just a guy's innocent board game. But I could feel the spiritual darkness in their house and I wasn't even trying to be an "on fire for Christ" person at the same. I was actually in a vulnerable time of life. Anyway, I would say do some research into the history of Halloween and if you want, ask me the name of someone who could give you his testimony if you haven't heard it.
Now that I've said this, I don't feel so apologetic, but I hope I havent' offended you either. I just don't want to look the other way on an area that has the potential to turn people (young'uns especially) from Christ if left in the "innocent and cute" category.
I'd like to continue this and have anyone else jump in. And thanks for telling me there was a smile on your face. I probably wouldn't have "seen" it if you hadn't told me and then I would have been REALLY afraid to continue the conversation.
I am definitely not offended, so don't even worry! I can't really relate to anything you have said above being that I don't know anything about Satan Worship, Dungeons and Dragons and the such. I am sure that if I looked into the meaning behind Halloween and studied a little about Satan Worship I would be able to associate the two together. Since I only associate Halloween with Pumpkins, dressing up, getting candy and making fun memories, I'll just keep it that way and enjoy the Holiday. Thanks for your input and I love to hear different opinions from women, it's fun to chat back and forth about it, too. If my heart wasn't right and I was upset, I wouldn't have even written the post to you in your comments :-)
hey, I just saw that sentence and realized that you heard someone quote it at game night? I hope that you didn't think I quoted anything you said, because I didn't. What did you hear that made you think you were quoted?
I was regretting at the moment taking a strong (maybe self-righteous-sounding) stance in my blog, and when I heard words that resembled something I wrote, got gnarled about it. I'll talk to you about it in person if you want, but we could just agree to disagree about what Oct 31st looks like to each of us. Ultimately it's the dad's responsibility to choose what their family will and won't do anyway, right?
Zoanna, it's just a blog, not the Bible and we have the freedom to type whatever we want and have opinions. It's all fun! See you Sunday.
Hi Zoanna! If I may just jump in here and agree with you? My girls are 25, 18, 16. We stopped observing Halloween right after I saw a commercial for one of the horror movies that said something like this ... "You dress your kids up and send them out begging and never even question why or what you're celebrating." It really made me start thinking and the Truth is? There is really nothing that glorifies our Lord about this so-called 'holi-day'!
The 'church' has continued for centuries now to incorporate pagan rituals into the experience of the church so as not to offend and to make it's members happy.
It is a good thing to THINK about what you are doing - what you are encouraging your children to participate in and the history and meaning behind ANY celebration!
I'm with you, Sweetie! And we are NOT alone! :o)
Hugs to you - my newly found Sister!
Bea
If I may interject here without causing too much ruckus....can someone please explain to me how dressing up in costumes and getting candy is not glorifying to God and is a modern day pagan ritual? I'm having trouble with this whole Holiday if you can't tell. Bea: to respond to your comment about the church and pagan rituals...
I meant to actually ask Bea what she meant by churches incorporating pagan rituals. I also wanted to add that I truly am not trying to offend anyone, I'd like to really understand the problem with Halloween according to some Christians. The basis for everything that I do and I instill in my children's lives revolves around the Cross. If I can find a reason that Halloween for my family could be pagan-istic, I would never do it. The problem that I have is that a long time ago, this ritual began and it's been completely transformed into something different. Yes, there lies a history behind it, but I couldn't even tell you what that history is and I have no desire or interest to dig it up for any purpose whatsoever. If we focus our eyes on Jesus everything should fall into place.
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