Pastor's
Study
The
Pastor's Pen
The
question has been asked, "Do you celebrate Halloween?"
The answer I give, "that depends on what you mean by the
term CELEBRATE." Do I sound like a politician? I don't mean
to, but at 52 I no longer celebrate my birthday, but we do note
its passing on the calendar; my mom sends me a card; and Caren
makes me a favorite dinner. At 52 it's not as much fun as it was
when I was 7.
In
a very real way the Church exists to celebrate the life of Jesus
Christ. The Lord's Supper is properly called a "CELEBRATION."
In my mind Halloween may be a holiday, but it is no holy day.
HOLIDAY is a corruption of the term HOLY DAY. Today the first
has a secular use, the latter a religious one.
Halloween
is itself a corruption of a holy day. Halloween was the Eve of
the Feast of All Hallows. Today All Hallows is All Saints, the
day on which the Church celebrates the life and death of all her
martyrs and holy ones-those who gave everything for the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. We rightfully celebrate their gift.
Halloween
on the other hand is anything but holy. Before you forbid your
kids to participate in the 'trick or treat' fun, remember that
it is possible to make much ado about nothing. Forbidding the
quest for candy and other goodies only makes it a forbidden fruit
and therefore more enticing. Consider how much fun getting dressed
up can be for a child, and the value of pretending.
By
celebrating Halloween at home with your children you can actually
reshape the event into something more desirable. Have a party,
everyone who comes brings something for the food pantry. Have
a pumpkin carving contest. Reintroduce your children to Charlie
Brown and his search for the Great Pumpkin. Visit your local library
for other suitable children's stories which might help to downplay
the emphasis on the supernatural. You can take some of the fright
out of Halloween by having the children make up their own ghost
story. Or, have them tell about a frightening event in their life
and how it all worked out in the end.
Let
costumes emphasize super heroes, cartoon characters, or animals-downplay
witches and things which would especially frighten little ones.
Before your kids go out for supervised trick or treating, have
a family prayer; ask for God's blessing and the protection of
his angels. Give thanks to God for the gift of fun and merriment.
As
you can tell, my attitude says, "why let the devil have all
the fun?" By-the-way, take pictures! Your scrapbook needs
to have photos in it of your children all dressed up and ready
to go. Your children will pass this way only once, you will want
remembrances. And you will thank God for these photos in the years
to come.
Holiday
or holy day? Actually for Lutherans it is a little of both. October
31st is Reformation Day. In 1517 Luther posted his 95 Theses on
the Church door; it was the eve of All Saints Day, so everyone
at the university was invited to the debate on the way to daily
prayer and Mass.
God
has given us a lot to be thankful for. All of life should celebrate
God's gifts to us of family, children, shelter and food-and let
us not forget the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Savior.
That should be reason enough to celebrate every day of our lives.
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