It’s one of those controversial topics. Halloween. Do we celebrate it? I don’t want to spend a ton of time of it right now, but it’s worthy of a few minutes. It’s one of those questions where people draw hard lines and either fall into the camp of “why in the world wouldn’t you?” or “of course you shouldn’t!” There is a line somewhere between between legalism and a healthy respect for our beliefs, for God, refraining from compromise.

I don’t want you to miss out, but I want you to understand that there is a line somewhere that shouldn’t be crossed. Where is that line? The spiritual world is real. The occult is real. As real as God. And Satan is not a little dude dressed up in a red suit with a pitchfork who hangs out around a bonfire with a bunch of unsavory (but fun) characters drinking beer. He is the enemy of our souls. It’s a discussion – a lot of discussions most likely – we’ll have as you grow up.

I grew up not celebrating Halloween. Mima and Papi felt strongly that it wasn’t something that they wanted their kids exposed to.  Instead of participating in the holiday, we had our own family holiday where we turned off all the lights in the house and hung out in Mima and Papi’s room with candy and movies. Their room was in the back of the house so when we were all in there with the door closed, it would look  to people on the street like we weren’t home and no one rang our doorbell. We had a family night. They made it secretive and fun. I think some people think that sounds depressing or like we missed out on something. But I can honestly say that I never felt like I was missing out. Those family nights were really great. And we never actually celebrated Halloween. I respect my parent’s decision. I understand it. I’m glad they cared enough to find an alternative without compromising their beliefs.

Not everything about Halloween is inherently bad. Dressing up isn’t bad. Candy isn’t bad (well, not in moderation). Pumpkins and spiders and even black cats and a little make-believe aren’t necessarily inherently bad. I know the basics of Halloween’s pagan history, and I understand the pagan/occult heritage surrounding black cats. As many are so quick to point out, Christmas day has a pagan heritage as well. That doesn’t mean we’re celebrating its pagan roots. Yes, most of us educated Christians do know and understand that Christmas day isn’t actually when Jesus was born. Does that mean we aren’t going to celebrate it? Of course not. Some pasts are redeemed by the thing they’ve become, and Christmas is a beautiful day that represents and celebrates the foundation of our faith – that God became man and lived a perfect life on earth so he could die in the place of sinful man, conquer death, and restore us to a right relationship with himself. I am not a fan of legalism. I am also not a fan of compromise. I’m still trying to figure out how that works out when it comes to Halloween.

Every year Halloween becomes more evil, at least in appearance; that’s just the honest truth. It isn’t completely innocuous anymore. There are as many bloody body parts for sale (to eat, decorate and wear) as there are kitten ears and I’m not really okay with that. I don’t have any desire to celebrate or encourage the glorification of gore, violence, serial killers. And all of that has become part of the “fun” and humor of Halloween. Is that really funny? Those are the kinds of things I don’t want you to believe are okay, just because it’s what lines the aisles in Walmart.

And the occult aspects of Halloween are as real as they’ve ever been. Does that mean that everyone who dresses up and trick-or-treats is worshiping the devil and/or sacrificing animals? Of course not.

But it is our job as parents to educate you about the evil that is associated with this day (on a maturity-appropriate timeline), to give you a discerning mind and sensitivity to your own conscience. And yes, to empower you to have a good time too! It is my desire as your mother to raise you up with an ability to wisely decide about some of these grey areas for yourself while still protecting you from the decisions you’re not yet old enough to make. But the goal is not to give you rules and legalism and another reason to feel guilty. I want you to be sensitive to what God calls you to do. I want to keep an open dialogue with you to keep you on that path of sensitivity and discovery. Basically, what we’ve decided is to have honest conversations with you about these things and attempt to help you develop a mind that can one day decide for yourself. Turning our heads the other way doesn’t solve anything; it’s irresponsible parenting. Fully embracing everything that this controversial holiday has to offer – I think that’s irresponsible too. I pray God gives us wisdom to discern where the line is and not cross it.

The debate is much bigger than the couple points I’ve touched on. There are a lot more points to be made. It’s one of those debates that will never be resolved this side of heaven. There will always be people who disagree with any given stance.  This is just a discussion of where our minds are currently at on the subject. I’ll try to wrap it up for now.

We dressed up this year and went to the Harvest Festival our church puts on every year – an amazing, generous event attended by hundreds, maybe thousands of people in our community, for free. The community comes to church on this one night of the year for a TON of free candy, carnival games, and contests. It’s a fun, safe night – an alternative to trick-or-treating on the streets. Although they sneak through, evil and inappropriate outfits are strongly discouraged. I think I’m okay with all that. But I honestly don’t think that changing the name to “Harvest Festival” actually changes anything. And the last thing I want is to be seen as duplicitous – of having my cake and eating it too, a kind of self-justified hypocrisy. It’s still Halloween, just sans evil (at least as little evil as possible.) But so far, I think I’m okay with that.

So without further ado, here are the highlights of our Harvest Festival (evil-free Halloween) night in photos. You sure made a cute kitten. Love you, baby.