Posted by Eliza on: 10.18.2006 /
It’s getting close! Just wondering what Hallowe’en is like in your neighborhood & for your family:
Do you have any plans for Hallowe’en? Do you dress up? Do you get many trick-or-treaters, and if so what do you like to give out?
If you have kids, do they dress up & go out? Are there any Hallowe’en events at their school?
If you go to church, does your church have any comment on Hallowe’en (or, do you remember any comments at church from years past)? Does it host events, or ignore Hallowe’en, or speak against it?
Comment by: Julie Marie
1 10/18/06 8:12 AM | Comment Link |I love to hand out candy and see all the kids in their costumes. I remember sorting my candy as a child, and wishing I got more M&Ms than pixi sticks, so I only give out the “good stuff.”
Which now that I have a 4 year old I wonder about…I can tell when the sugar hits his system; its almost like flipping the “I cannot control myself” switch on. Cody will be Builder Bob this year, and it will be his first trick or treating experience.
many in my old church preach against halloween. I came soooo close to piously refusing to participate a few years ago, but the memory of the harmless fun of my childhood kept one foot grounded in what I consider a realistic perspective.
I think if we didn’t live in the neighborhood we live in, with kids zooming out of every driveway, we’d probably go the halloween party route.
school isn’t having halloween per se, but the children are allowed to dress up as their favorite storybook character (no Disney costumes they say…what in the world does that mean? aren’t Cinderella and Snow White storybook characters???)
Comment by: Pastor David
2 10/18/06 8:37 AM | Comment Link |I grew up dressing up for halloween, and certainly will do the same for my children.
My church has no position on halloween. My position … its fun, its not serious, lighten up and enjoy it.
Churches that host those houses of horror that are a trip through hell really get under my skin. So … dressing up like a princess is not ok, but scarying the heck of kids with images of fire and punishment are? Somehow that just doesn’t make sense to me.
But, it points to that larger set of “culture wars” that some who bear the name of Christ feel the need to wage against the world. I think it all goes back to that image of the church as a castle to retreat into.
Comment by: Mike O
3 10/18/06 9:49 AM | Comment Link |Well, this is one where my conservative views hold. I participated as a kid and didn’t become a Satan worshipper, so … whew! Lucky for me, huh?
Of course I’m kidding. But as an adult, I wish it wasn’t a holiday. I know it’s all innocent, but there are satanic groups that use hallowe’en as a key day … much like Christians do with Christmas and Easter.
My personal opinion is, we don’t participate, we always did the church party thing. But I don’t have a problem with other people participating. The kids love it. Speaking against Hallowe’en would be like non-Christians speaking against, say, Christmas. Oh, my gosh, people DO speak against Christmas!
OK that was a little tongue in cheek, but I think you get my point. Hallowe’en does have religious origins, so we don’t participate. Just like we don’t participate in Ramadan or Rosh Hashana either. But I understand that in a secular fashion, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s the same as non-Christians giving presents at Christmas time.
I said all of that to say this … I happen to see it as a religious holiday, and I’m not that religion. But I get it and I don’t fault anyone else. It’s fun. My wife and I stand alone on this position in our families. Neither of us were raised having issues with Hallowe’en. We came to this position on our own.
Comment by: Mike O
4 10/18/06 9:51 AM | Comment Link |Oh, one more thing … we live in the country, so trick-or-treating isn’t really an option. Everything is pretty much group party events (church or otherwise), unless you live in town.
Comment by: David H
5 10/18/06 10:05 AM | Comment Link |We live way out also. I doubt many would want to make the quarter-mile hike up our driveway for a stinkin’ candy bar.
Through my life I have known people who fall all around this “issue.” I like Mike O’s attitude. There really is little to be gained by being beligerent about Halloween.
Comment by: Doreen
6 10/18/06 10:05 AM | Comment Link |I love to see the kids dressed up. I don’t give out chocolate since I learned almost half of the world’s cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast and several hundred thousand children between 9 and 12 are used to harvest it.
I miss working someplace that has a pumpkin carving contest. I used to always win; my “visualize world peas” was a big hit one year….
:)
Comment by: Marty
7 10/18/06 10:19 AM | Comment Link |When I was a senior in high school, my church allowed me and a friend to do a haunted house at the church carnival. I won’t go into details but it was so scary many of the kids left crying. We did some minor damage to the (empty at the time) parsonage. Needless to say, it was the last haunted house ever done at that church.
I love Halloween and churches who get all bent out of shape about it chap my fanny. The church we are attending now is having “Trunk or Treat” where folks decorate their cars and hand out candy. I am looking forward to it.
PS: Churches that have “Fall Festicals” and announce that only Bibical costumes are allowed are opening up a can of worms I hope to witness one day. Imagine, if you will, children costumed as Satan, the Whore of Babylon, Legion, the Antichrist, or any number of scary biblical characters. I want to be there when it happens.
Comment by: Mike O
8 10/18/06 10:38 AM | Comment Link |Most of the people in my church wouldn’t have a problem with it, I suspect. Knowing my pastor, I can see him with a knife through his head and one eye hanging out.
Comment by: Julie Marie
9 10/18/06 10:50 AM | Comment Link |I look forward to carving a pumpkin with my son this year. My mom was sooooo creative, I always loved her pumpkins. She could do awesome scarey scowls. I’m afraid the best I can do is imitate her old designs ;)
Comment by: Eliza
10 10/18/06 11:39 AM | Comment Link |We get a fair number of trick-or-treaters. It’s neat to see the kids dressed up and excited. The past few years, we’ve offered a choice of Satsuma tangerines or some kind of candy, & have been pleasantly surprised at how eager the kids are to grab a tangerine. (We’ve run out of the tangerines each year!)
Our dog is on high alert on Halloween & barks at everyone who comes to the door. He’s getting deaf, so I’m hoping this year he won’t notice!
I’m not enchanted by the high school kids who come around at the end of the evening without costumes, carrying pillowcases for all their loot. On the other hand, I don’t want our cars egged, so thus far we just go ahead & give them candy (& sometimes say things like, “great costume!”). If they don’t take the candy, it’ll just be left over, then we’ll have to eat it…!
My son doesn’t get all that excited about Halloween. I’ve made his costumes the last few years, & luckily he keeps it simple. Last year he was a ghost (old white sheet, a few seconds with a pair of scissors, and voila!). This year he wants to dress all in black and be “nothing”. (A goth nihilist already, and he’s just turned 8!)
Comment by: David H
11 10/18/06 12:10 PM | Comment Link |Eliza, I hear the military has paint that is 97 percent black (I find this fascinating since my work is with light and colors). Grab a can of that to paint your son’s costume and he truly will disappear.
Comment by: Eliza
12 10/18/06 1:10 PM | Comment Link |David H, :-) I’ve been thinking of his costume as “dark matter” or “black hole” so that paint would be just perfect!
Julie Marie, I wonder whether the ban on Disney characters might be to limit “store-bought” costumes? But there are so many non-Disney characters these days, spiderman, spongebob, etc, so that eliminating Disney characters wouldn’t really make a difference.
Comment by: Julie Marie
13 10/18/06 1:47 PM | Comment Link |I think they are trying to limit store bought costumes, b/c they also nixed cartoon characters.
If my mother in law hadn’t made the very very cute builder bob hat/utility belt/velcro on tools, I’d be in a pickle. all I have to do is buy a flannel shirt. I know he’s not exactly a literary character, but I do have builder bob books, and I’m sending him to school with one of them!
For Cody’s first year I made him the most adorable dragon costume. I made it big so he could wear it for the second year too. Somehow, I don’t have time to make costumes like that any more.
Next year, if I’m lucky, he’ll want to be a ghost or a hobo ;)
Comment by: benjamin ady
14 10/18/06 2:07 PM | Comment Link |uhhh… Isn’t bob the builder a cartoon?
Marty–loved your “chap my fanny” Hadn’t heard that before. Americans very innocently using the word “fanny” always tickles my funny bone more than most because in Australia and England “fanny” means something *very* different from what it means here, and it’s way way higher up the taboo scale.
Other funny quotes with “fanny” (if you don’t know the Aussie meaning–see especially under synonyms here)–an American tourist in Sydney in a tourist shop overheard asking the salesperson if they sell ‘fanny packs’
An american baseball announcer on the radio talking about the stadium being very full thusly “what we are talking about here, ladies and gentlemen, is fannies in seats!”
Comment by: Julie Marie
15 10/18/06 2:16 PM | Comment Link |yeah, I think so….but I have Builder Bob Books so by golly, I’m counting him as a literary figure.
‘m such a rebel.
Comment by: benjamin ady
16 10/18/06 2:47 PM | Comment Link |ahhh. but disney and the cartoons have taken 90%+ of their characters from … books!
Comment by: benjamin ady
17 10/18/06 2:52 PM | Comment Link |I was raised with the “witches and evil magic are *very* real and very bad and very scary, so therefore making light of them at halloween is dangerous!”
I have left that behind.
I am being enchanted by Christine Wicker’s “Not in Kansas Anymore” in which she examines magic in America from a (for me) new perspective. She’s speaking at revolution conference nov 3-4.
Comment by: Marty SB
18 10/18/06 4:44 PM | Comment Link |There is a new Marty here (welcome). I will go by Marty SB (Santa Barbara) - but I would be there if you have a party for Adults in Biblical costumes.
Comment by: Eliza
19 10/18/06 5:35 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Marty! (Thanks for explaining what was up, Marty SB - it did seem a bit out of character for you to express this sentiment :) but for Adults in Biblical Costumes, yes I can see that. Bathsheba sunbathing, or Salome dancing, anyone?)
Benjamin - do you suppose Fanny Flagg ever went on a book-signing tour in Australia? :-0
Julie Marie, flannel shirt + mother-in-law’s Bob the Builder accoutrements, sounds like a winner! I sewed a clown costume one year, a snake costume another year, one year we did a store-bought Clifford costume. *Wow* was the ghost costume last year, & the “dark matter” costume this year, a welcome break!!
Comment by: Paul
20 10/18/06 5:35 PM | Comment Link |It’s not really so big in the UK so guess some kids will come knocking but not many. In the past have done some treat no tricks which is basically going out and giving chocolates (candy) to folk as a way of showing God’s love is free with no strings attached - after all that giving out its good to give back :)
Something new for me this yr will be celebrating All Saints day at church and looking at a Saint from the past but also the life of someone who we as a church new and celebrating that - i don’t really know more than that, but sounds fun :)
Comment by: Eliza
21 10/18/06 5:39 PM | Comment Link |Julie Marie said:
There’s a church in Seattle I pass every day on my way to work, that has a “Pumpkin Patch” event for kids on Halloween evening. I don’t know exactly what entertainment they offer for the kids, but it has long seemed to me that they have basically said, “OK it’s Halloween, kids expect something - let’s have the church offer something nonscary & fun.” Sort of going with the flow, & directing the kids away from any devilish kind of activities.
Comment by: Helen
22 10/18/06 6:26 PM | Comment Link |Growing up in England, we didn’t do trick-or-treating. I think we had “Halloween parties” at brownies (Glrl Scouts).
When we were first in the US we lived in apartments/condos downtown and had no trick-or-treaters come by.
Then we moved to a house in a suburb (I mean, ‘village’ ;-)) and trick-or-treating is huge here. I was quite Christian when we first moved here but I didn’t see anything harmful or ’satanic’ about it. As my children got old enough to go trick-or-treating I found out there’s something very neat socially about it - neighbors you never normally see open their doors with a smile to your kids and you get to say ‘hi’ to them. And if your kids want to go around with other kids you get to walk around with the parents of their friends.
I’m glad my kids end up not eating all their candy - it would be too much.
I guess it is reflective of how affluent we are as a society that we can have events like this. We probably should give the money we spend on candy our kids don’t need to people who don’t have enough to eat. But given where we live, I expect I’ll just join in again and be glad it’s basically a social event rather that anything ‘evil’ that I can detect.
Comment by: Helen
23 10/19/06 2:49 AM | Comment Link |This year my daughter is going to be a ‘Whole Foods’ person - we bought the apron and cap that people wear who work there. And my son, who is past the age where he gets really excited about costumes, but not past the age where he wants to join in any social Halloween-related activity, is going to wear a ‘dementor’ costume I made him a couple of years ago. It’s a long black robe with a hood. Yes, it is a somewhat evil costume, but it was what he wanted, it was somewhat easy and it took care of his need for a costume ;-). I might be worried if it was anything more than a costume for one day a year, but it really isn’t.
My daughter has never gone for any costume thing at all evil or death-related. Her recent choices of costume have been Heidi (based on the Shirley temple movie), a prairie girl and Cinderella as a maidservant. I made these costumes (sewed them) which was an unusually ‘real Mom’ like thing for me to do ;-)
Comment by: Mike O
24 10/19/06 6:45 AM | Comment Link |I just remembered a story from when I was a kid … when I was really little, me and my brothers and sisters were all dressing up. We all had painted faces, except my sister had a pricess mask on … the old plastic ones with the little eye holes and a slit for the mouth. It freaked me out! I don’t know why, but devils and goblins and axe murderers never bothered me, but that supid princess costume … man, that was so scary to me. Does that happen to anyone else? I don’t like clowns either.
Comment by: Marty G
25 10/19/06 8:21 AM | Comment Link |Wow. Seems I was having a typo day. I’m not sure what a “festical” is but it sounds dirty.
Hey there Marty SB. I’ll use Marty G so we can tell ourselves apart and in case another Marty rolls in. I have a friend named Marty in NC and he is “Marty, the other white meat.” I’m “Marty, the evil twin.”
Benjamin - got that “chaps your fanny” stuff from my wife. Don’t know where she picked it up. Read your interview…very cool and interesting.
Sorry there’s nothing here about Halloween. Uh…BOO?
Comment by: Helen
26 10/19/06 9:28 AM | Comment Link |Marty G, welcome to Conversation at the Edge. The more Martys we have in the conversation, the better, as far as I’m concerned!
Benjamin, I recommend another of Christine’s books too: God Knows My Heart. I think you’ll find you can relate to a lot of her thinking about conservative/fundamentalist Christianity.
Comment by: David H
27 10/19/06 10:48 AM | Comment Link |Clowns seem to elecit a wide variety of responses, hence the movies (some serious and some not) where they are the featured villans (Stephen King’s “It” leaps immediately to mind but his bad guy worked better on paper than it did on the screen).
However, my youngest daughter gets most freaked about things that change or morph. We rented Eddie Murphy’s version of “The Nutty Professor” and she had nightmares for days over how he went from fat to thin and back again. She still doesn’t like to see people change into something else on TV or in movies.
The Princess thing, though, that’s a little weird. ;-)
Comment by: NCxian
28 10/19/06 11:27 AM | Comment Link |I really hate ventrioloquists dummies. I think it came from that old Twilight Zone where the dummy was alive. It was turned into a really creepy movie, with . . . I forget his name. Silence of the Lambs guy.
Actually, I’m not crazy about lifelike dolls, either. They look like they should be breathing, but aren’t.
Comment by: Mike O
29 10/19/06 11:37 AM | Comment Link |Ooh, porcelain dolls … yuck.
And those stuffed monkeys with the red vest and cymbols that clang together! I won’t be sleeping tonight. Thanks for that.
Comment by: Doreen
30 10/19/06 2:18 PM | Comment Link |I don’t mind clowns.
Mimes and stilt men scare me, however. (And if I ever see a stilt man who is also a mime, I may become hysterical.)
How come you never see stilt women?
Comment by: David H
31 10/19/06 4:57 PM | Comment Link |Stilt men are probably trying to compensate for something. Women, perhaps, don’t have that issue.
Comment by: benjamin ady
32 10/19/06 5:42 PM | Comment Link |Clowns are megacreepus, in my book. As you said, Mr. King captured this perfectly in IT. He was tuning into something very much already there–but of course that is exactly how he creeps us right out. Reminds me all the nightmares I had as a kid with all the creatures from the wizard of oz movie.
David–did you know men are brain damaged during gestation. I bet Eliza could tell us more about this. So we are always trying to compensate (hehe)
Comment by: David H
33 10/20/06 5:56 AM | Comment Link |My wife would strongly agree that at least one man she knows was seriously brain damaged at some point.
Strangely, I not only like Stephen King as an author, I find many of his books very spiritual. He seems to be someone who is searching for a deeper meaning to things. (I have to qualify that I don’t think SK is a great writer, but he doesn’t claim that. However, he has written about writing and I have found his thoughts on that subject quite useful.)
Comment by: Helen
34 10/20/06 6:08 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin, here’s a quote referring to what you said regarding male brains and gestation:
Comment by: benjamin ady
35 10/20/06 1:26 PM | Comment Link |yeah–I was mostly talking about the idea in this quote from the same story
I do tease my wife with this “Honey, we men are just emotionally stupid because the connection between our left and right brains is smaller (damaged)(severed). That’s why I can’t multitask or find things I’ve lost like you can” etc.
David, you might want to check out Christine Wicker’s “not in kansas anymore.” she is talking a lot about how people in the magical community, like stephen king, are there because they are very spiritual. I’m finding it fascinating. Just watch out, there is some stuff you may find pretty wierd in the first chapter. if you can get through that, it starts to get very readable, in my opinion.
Comment by: Helen
36 10/22/06 1:20 PM | Comment Link |The following notice came home from school with my children this week. As you will see it includes comments about what type of costumes are and aren’t appropriate.
Comment by: Rachel
37 10/22/06 4:22 PM | Comment Link |Every year we get together on Halloween evening with my best friend and her daughter. Her daughter is a year older than mine and we have raised them like sisters. We have a big, hot dinner and then my hubby takes the girls trick-or-treating, while we moms stay at the house and hand out candy. This year my friend’s financee will be joining our tradition.
My daughter is planning to be Dobby the house elf from the Harry Potter series. That should be an easy costume because Dobby just wears a ridiculous combination of mismatched clothing and assorted items, like a tea cozy on his head.
Also the girls will be trick-or-treating for UNICEF this year. My daughter got really excited reading what the different small amounts of money could do - for example, 3 cents provides a child with Vitamin A for a year! I had her read the passage in Matthew 25 where Jesus says, “If you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it to me.” She thought that was pretty neat.
I really don’t think of Halloween as a religious holiday, pagan or otherwise. I just think of costumes and trick-or-treating as an American cultural tradition that is fun for kids. But we do stay away from the scary, evil aspects of Halloween. Both my daughter and I hate to be scared anyhow so we wouldn’t think a haunted house or anything like that was fun, although hubby might enjoy it.
Comment by: Rachel
38 10/22/06 4:29 PM | Comment Link |Regarding scary clowns…When my husband and I were first married, we went to his great aunt’s house for a visit. Her small, cramped living room was filled with dozens and dozens of clown dolls and clown figurines. The room was very dimly lit and she had candles scattered around on the various shelves. I can still see the candlelight reflecting on the garishly painted faces of the clowns. It was very traumatic!
Comment by: Helen
39 10/22/06 4:53 PM | Comment Link |Rachel wrote:
That’s how I think of it too.
Comment by: Marty G.
40 10/23/06 10:53 AM | Comment Link |Last year, I had a resurgence of my love for Halloween (that had been repressed by the church for so long). I ended up writing some poems in celebrations. Here’s one if you want to check it out.
http://renzntzman.blogspot.com/2005/10/halloween.html
I’m thinking of writing more for this year and trying to get in the mood to do so.
Comment by: Siamang
41 10/23/06 4:38 PM | Comment Link |Cool, Marty.
My 3 year old daughter helped me write this halloween song (to the tune of Itsy-bitsy spider).
The very scary ghost flew in the haunted house
something said BOO! But it was a tiny mouse
EEEEK! said the ghost and he flew right out the door
and then the haunted house wasn’t haunted anymore
Comment by: David H
42 10/23/06 7:23 PM | Comment Link |Your daughter has a gift with lyrics.
Comment by: Marty G.
43 10/24/06 8:22 AM | Comment Link |That’s very cool, Siamang! You guys have me beat hands down.
1 more week until Halloween!
Comment by: benjamin ady
44 10/24/06 11:11 AM | Comment Link |Regarding costumes, helen said her school said
Is this possible?
Comment by: Siamang
45 10/24/06 3:17 PM | Comment Link |*Snort*
Funny, Ben.
Thanks, David and Marty…
I’m hoping to get it to catch on. Halloween songs are pretty scarce, compared with how kid-oriented Halloween is as a holiday.
Comment by: David H
46 10/24/06 4:17 PM | Comment Link |The songs from the Nightmare Before Christmas are very nice, but aren’t quite catchy enough. So there may be a mnarket.
Comment by: Helen
47 10/25/06 4:26 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin - yeah, now we’re wondering if Esther’s plan to dress up as a person who works at Whole Foods is Whole-Foods-employee-ist.
We’re hoping not!
Comment by: Helen
48 10/25/06 4:27 AM | Comment Link |Siamang and Marty, great poems - thanks for sharing them!
Comment by: Meg
49 10/27/06 1:13 AM | Comment Link |My dear sister Seren,who lives in Australia, made Eowyn (4) and Cosette (2) the most gorgeous bumble bee costumes, and sent them to us, in the USA. They have been wearing them pretty well ever since!!!!!
Comment by: Meg
50 10/28/06 1:09 PM | Comment Link |Helen–”whole-foods-employee-ist”
Perfect!
Comment by: Julie Marie
51 10/30/06 11:04 AM | Comment Link |Meg,
I’m trying to figure out how to prounounce Eowyn. Is it U-win? Does it have any special meaning? I think it is very pretty; when I look at it I think of gentle breezes and butterflies.
Comment by: David H
52 10/30/06 4:58 PM | Comment Link |Ay-oh-win seems to be the accepted pronounciation. Eowyn is the name of a character from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings triology.
Tolkien had a background in linguistics (the concept of the triology began with the Elvish language), and the people of Rohan all have essentially Welsh (or Welsh-derived) names. According to references I have found, Eowyn is made up (i.e. not a real name). However, it is now ilisted on Behind the Names and has a meaning.