Happy Halloween!

It is October 31st and there is a slight chill in the air. Halloween is here. I love Halloween! Even as I write that statement I feel that somehow I have to defend it. Here is what I love:

I love that we take a day to dress in costume. How fun is that? When else can you pretend to be your wildest fantasy? Then you walk around with a sack and people willingly dump loads of candy into it. It is every kid's dream!!! Our family always scrunches together on the couch in the days preceding, and watches Linus once again wait for the Great Pumpkin to rise from the pumpkin patch while sipping cocoa or cider.

My father grew up in a very strict home and did not get to participate in many fun childhood experiences--including Halloween. When he became an adult, he made sure that we got the full Halloween experience. He would drive us from neighborhood to neighborhood, often in the cold and rain, until his watch showed 9:00pm, and we fell into an exhausted heap in the back seat of the car. He would then look back at us, grin really broadly and say, "Just one more!" We would trick-or-treat until every porch light was black! Those memories are some of my favorite.

Within Christendom there is a terrible disagreement about this particular day. I understand the idea of not promoting Satanic things. But I don't believe that dressing in costume and getting tons of candy is doing that. This holiday, like almost all others we celbrate, has been changed from its pagan origins. Do you have a Christmas tree or only a nativity scene? What about being in the world but not of it? Taking bad and turning it into good?

We were never allowed to wear scary costumes. My children don't wear scary costumes. They enjoy the dressing up as silly, idealized, or historical character--anything they want to be. We go to our church festival then ring doorbells until, as me with my father, all of the porch lights are black. At that point we go home, sort candy, and drift off to sleep with wonderful new memories of time spent celebrating childhood with the people we love most.

In the timeline of life, I have few years with my children. Already, my eldest two want to spend the evening with friends instead of family, and that's ok. I want their memories of childhood and growing up to be full of celebration. I want the time I have with them to be remebered as good and celebratory.

Wherever you are and whatever you believe, I hope you have a safe, fun-filled night.