Autumn and Personal View of Halloween

In the fall of the year, the color orange pops out at you everywhere, but none as vividly as a host of pumpkins all stacked together in a pile. Autumn is my favorite season. In Hawaii, we don't experience the beautiful changes in the leaves of the trees, or the crisp smell of fresh air, and October blue skies like you do in the hills of West Virginia. However, you feel the end of October approaching as children prepare for Halloween parties, and Harvest gatherings. The excitement they feel as they dress up as their favorite character, and knock on doors for treats has been a tradition in our country for a long time.
However, as parents, it's a celebration that often concerns us for our kids.

Halloween is a focus on the macabre, vampires, witches and goblins. It highlights the scary, the underworld, the evil that is already permeating our society at a rapid rate. It is not a focus that most families wish to pass on to their children as "fun" and "alluring." As Christians, we need to be aware of how the celebration of this one day affects the thinking of our children and is it something we want them to pass on to their children in the next generations to come? I admire churches and communities that are trying to guide this tradition in a new direction by offering safe and fun outings for children in an environment focused away from the evil that underlies the Halloween tradition. Satan loves to draw the children into his realm by luring them with sweets and seemingly harmless "tricks." We, as parents, need to be aware of his ploy and counteract it with firm convictions and right decisions for the safe future of our children.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." Col. 2:8

Let the kids enjoy their candy, and the fun they can have together with games and fellowship, and let them know that their time together is a celebration of the good gift of each other!

Happy Autumn!
Sandy