A Celebration of ?

I want freedom for my children.  I feel privileged to live in a country where my lifestyle and my choices are not hindered by the government.  But there's more to life and freedom than just our civil liberties and our rights in any country.  There is the emotional freedom that comes with being free from all the corruption that surrounds us.  So much is at stake for my children, and I want to encourage them to live their life abundantly, not just to get through the day.  I want them to be able to laugh and sing and jump for joy when the days get hard, and I want them to be free from fears that would seek to hold them down like a boulder on their shoulders.

I know that for most children, this time of the year is all about ghosts and goblins, dressing up in costumes to get free candy from the neighbors and stores.  It's a "season" where witches, spiders, cobwebs, and grim reapers hang outside windows and are propped up by telephone poles for all to see.  But my children don't like them, and neither do I.  Unamerican, you may ask?  Not I, for the freedom to express my dissension with Halloween is one of the most American facets at this point in time.  My children are frightened by these visuals, and I don't want to foster their fear and allow it to bind them up like some mummy in graveclothes.

No, I want to be a part of loosing those shackles over their hearts.  I want them to be free to run, to dance, to live in joy!  I want them to be able to lift their hands and wave them in the air.  I want my little ones to be able to conquer all their fears and dreads so they can live life to the fullest!

What does all that have to do with Halloween?  I mean, as far as most people are concerned, it's just a simple holiday for children that allows them to be silly and dress up and go out at night and get enough candy to last the year.  What's the problem with allowing them to have a little fun?  Why am I being such a spoil sport?  What's the big deal?

I went trick or treating as a child, so it's not like my parents "trained" me to think anything badly about it.  I remember the last Halloween for which I dressed up.  I was a Panda Bear, and I loved my costume!  I even had a mask.  I carried around a bucket to the neighbors saying, "Trick or treat!"  I came home with a year's supply of candy.  I was 5 years old.

But the theme of Halloween started to change.  Instead of children dressing up as fairies and Batman, witches and Darth Vader became the desired costume.  Instead of simple jack-o-lanterns, grim reapers and ghouly spiders and ghosts began to line the doorways of houses and the windows of the stores.  I felt a darkness that bothered me.  I saw children screaming in fear of the scythe laden faceless masked robed ones and realized that this was no holiday for them, and it was nothing I wanted to be a part of perpetuating.  It sickened me, actually, and I suddenly realized I didn't want to be a part of it.

I realized that Halloween had been like this all along throughout the years since it had come into existence, but that we had tried to sugar coat it, literally, with candy.  But the reality of the holiday slowly started seeping back into our society.  The mere words of "trick or treat" made sense to me...all of a sudden, I realized it meant, "You'd better give me a treat or I'm going to play a mean trick on you."  That isn't very nice now, is it?  Yes, I was only 6 at the time, but I was a very precocious child.  I knew how fear could cripple someone, and I didn't want to celebrate a holiday in which the main intention is to see how much someone can be frightened.

The next year, my parents asked me if I wanted to be Princess Leia or Snow White or some animal, but I refused.  I told them I didn't want to have anything to do with a holiday that was designed to frighten people into giving.  It was the antithesis of Christmas, which, coincidentally enough, happens to be my favorite holiday.  They tried to persuade me that there was nothing wrong with trick or treating, but I would not be swayed.  I had made up my mind.

The more the years go by, the darker the season gets.  We can't even turn on the television through the entire month of October because of movie trailers shown all hours of the day for the latest supernatural thriller or serial killer.  Those movies are rated R for a reason...they are not intended to be seen by children because of the content.  The entire month is filled with the commercialization of death.  My children ask me why there are so many yucky decorations around.  They love the idea of getting candy, but they don't want to parade around the neighborhood.  It's interesting, because my 6 year old daughter told me yesterday that she doesn't want to go trick or treating, but she does like the candy.

Now, as a parent, I stand behind my decision from 30 odd years ago.  I don't let my children watch Alien, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Night of the Living Dead because of the images they put in their minds.  I don't want to have my children getting afraid from the zombies in the windows.  I don't want my children waking up in the middle of the night from nightmares from all the scary images to which they've been exposed.  I am already having to deal with that one as it is, just from the decorations they have seen at Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, or the mall.  Why would I want to expose them to more to feed their fears?  I don't want to have to worry about digging through their candy to make sure it's never been opened or poisoned.

We are never home on Halloween.  We find other things to do as a family.  My first married year, we went to see Remember the Titans at the theater and loved it.  Last year, we went on a hayride and toasted marshmallows, ate hot dogs, and drank hot chocolate beside a bonfire.  This year, we're combining the two.  We're going to watch a movie and then go out on a hayride.  At the end, we will give our children each a bag of candy.

We're not celebrating the darkness around us.  We are celebrating the light of love and family, of peace and security with one another.  We are not celebrating death.  We are celebrating life and togetherness.  We are not celebrating the coldness of fear that feeds off people for years.  We are celebrating the warmth of a fire, of warm bellies and hearts and hands.

The Jews have a holiday that they celebrate in a slightly similar way.  They dress up and have fun and give children candy.  The holiday is the Feast of Purim.  It is a celebration of life.  It is the celebration of the day they were delivered from the hand of Haaman, a wicked adviser to a king, who tried to annihilate them.  Fortunately for them, the king's wife was a Jew herself, Esther.  She faced the greatest fear of all to expose Haaman's plot; she risked her life.  When the plot was revealed, Haaman was hanged and the Jews were allowed to defend themselves.  Ever since then, they have celebrated Purim.  It's a feast of freedom and life.  Now THAT is something to celebrate.