Just wanted to draw your attention to the poll I am doing on my blog. (see the right margin). I am wondering what people celebrate October 31st as. It is Isaac's birthday that day. I've been discussing it a bit with people at work and they all take their kids out and dress them up so they can go around the neighborhood and collect candy. None of them really know the history of Halloween and I'm just curious what others think of "Halloween" or what reformed people also call Oct. 31 - "Reformation Day". What should we be celebrating that day?
1 week ago
7 comments:
Hi Rachael, Great poll question!Personally, we do not celebrate Halloween. We've done Harvest Festivals with friends from church in the past - carving pumpkins, reading the book "The Pumpkin Patch Parable", hot cider, etc. (The book is a little old for Isaac, yet, though). We love to celebrate fall and harvest and give glory to God and talk about the Reformation as well. Our kids know that Halloween is not something that we celebrate because of the non-Christian aspects, even though we have explained to them that there are Christians we know who do celebrate Halloween and that is something we should not judge them about. There are things about Halloween that are just "fun", even if not redeeming in any way. :) So, that's this mom's perspective, whether it's right or theologically correct or whatever, I don't know. But it works for us.
Thanks for your opinion Julie. I really appreciate it.
Rachael,
We celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, we claim that day as our own. We also didn't take part in Halloween dressing up fun and trick or treat. My kids didn't miss what they didn't know about!
In years past at church we've had Reformation Night at our church celebrating some of the great reformers of the church: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, etc. We have games, food, singing. Always fun. We won't be around here for Oct 31 this year, we'll be in Hawaii!!
I LOVED A Thousand Splendid Suns. Great book!
So, do you guys hand out candy if you are home that evening or no?
We don't celebrate Halloween, and don't answer the door for trick-or-treaters. Usually our church does something for Reformation Day so we often are out of the house to make not answering the door easier. :)
One tradition I do have, is buying discounted Halloween candy on November 1st. There's nothing like a good bargain!!
No, we don't hand out candy. We haven't been home for Ref. Nite for a long time. I seem to remember buying candy one Halloween and nobody knocking at the door. We kept the porch light off and that, I guess, is one way of keeping T or Ters away. I sound like a scrooge, don't I? We do buy candy for ourselves and at least enjoy all the discounted chocolate!!
See..I'm wondering about the candy because our neighborhood gets close to a hundred kids knocking at your door and they knock even if your porch light is off... our local area churches have a reformation day lecture, but it's usually an hour away and with Isaac it's hard to get a sitter and be gone all evening. Thanks for your answers. I really appreciated it. Oh and yes...we enjoy the candy also.
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