Post by Blaque on Oct 10, 2006 13:29:40 GMT -5
Things you can do instead of celebrating Halloween.
Halloween is a holiday previously known for harmless fun trickery that has now become a day that many people wish they could ignore. For people who see no problem with the holiday itself, they worry about potential dangers to their children. It is the perfect opportunity for someone to prey on children, and possibly even steal and harm them. It is also very likely that someone may put a razor in your child’s apple, or poison in his or her candy. No parent in his or her right mind would let a child eat Halloween candy without first inspecting every single piece first. Even if your child survives these dangers, there is an elevated chance of being hit by a car or having a major accident while trick-or-treating.
Halloween can also be a scary day for people of all ages. Small children are sure to have nightmares from seeing all the ghost and demonic costumes and hearing horror stories in the days and weeks before. School aged children imagine the creatures of horror movies coming to life, and pre-teens and teens have to worry about mischievous gangs pelting them with eggs and toilet paper. Even adults have good reasons to worry about the incidents of childish pranks increasing.
One of the biggest reasons one might want to avoid Halloween is because of religious convictions. Christians especially, believe that Halloween has connections to the occult, and to Satan, and therefore want nothing to do with the holiday.
That being said, with Halloween being one of the biggest party days of the year, with New Years Eve and the Super bowl grossing bigger sales, it is difficult to tell your children that you will not be celebrating the day that all of their other friends will. Even the age-old saying, “If your friends were to jump off a cliff, would you jump?” will not convince them you are making a wise decision. Therefore, instead of trying to reason and beg with your children, it would be wise to offer a safe alternative to Halloween.
• Instead of a Halloween party, throw a fall festival on the closest Saturday to October 31. Since many churches are already planning these, you may just want to attend or to assist in throwing the party.
• You can have a Christian party known as a “Hallelujah Party” where kids can dress up as biblical figures, and other non-scary characters.
• You can take the opportunity to have a reverse trick-or treating outreach event. Your church group can go door to door and hand out treats instead of accepting them. Give each person a small prayer card or tract and a small inexpensive gift. You can even hand out inexpensive bibles or crosses from the dollar store.
• You can also decide to have a quiet evening with your family and friends watching wholesome movies and eating pizza. If you choose to give out treats to visitors, you can have special wrapper made up that says, “Jesus Loves You”, or another touching message.
Halloween is a holiday previously known for harmless fun trickery that has now become a day that many people wish they could ignore. For people who see no problem with the holiday itself, they worry about potential dangers to their children. It is the perfect opportunity for someone to prey on children, and possibly even steal and harm them. It is also very likely that someone may put a razor in your child’s apple, or poison in his or her candy. No parent in his or her right mind would let a child eat Halloween candy without first inspecting every single piece first. Even if your child survives these dangers, there is an elevated chance of being hit by a car or having a major accident while trick-or-treating.
Halloween can also be a scary day for people of all ages. Small children are sure to have nightmares from seeing all the ghost and demonic costumes and hearing horror stories in the days and weeks before. School aged children imagine the creatures of horror movies coming to life, and pre-teens and teens have to worry about mischievous gangs pelting them with eggs and toilet paper. Even adults have good reasons to worry about the incidents of childish pranks increasing.
One of the biggest reasons one might want to avoid Halloween is because of religious convictions. Christians especially, believe that Halloween has connections to the occult, and to Satan, and therefore want nothing to do with the holiday.
That being said, with Halloween being one of the biggest party days of the year, with New Years Eve and the Super bowl grossing bigger sales, it is difficult to tell your children that you will not be celebrating the day that all of their other friends will. Even the age-old saying, “If your friends were to jump off a cliff, would you jump?” will not convince them you are making a wise decision. Therefore, instead of trying to reason and beg with your children, it would be wise to offer a safe alternative to Halloween.
• Instead of a Halloween party, throw a fall festival on the closest Saturday to October 31. Since many churches are already planning these, you may just want to attend or to assist in throwing the party.
• You can have a Christian party known as a “Hallelujah Party” where kids can dress up as biblical figures, and other non-scary characters.
• You can take the opportunity to have a reverse trick-or treating outreach event. Your church group can go door to door and hand out treats instead of accepting them. Give each person a small prayer card or tract and a small inexpensive gift. You can even hand out inexpensive bibles or crosses from the dollar store.
• You can also decide to have a quiet evening with your family and friends watching wholesome movies and eating pizza. If you choose to give out treats to visitors, you can have special wrapper made up that says, “Jesus Loves You”, or another touching message.