Halloween...the holiday I celebrate in secret. No, I'm not a closet Wiccan. I just like free candy. Thanks to the evils of All Hallows Eve, I was never allowed to go trick or treating as a kid. I did, however, get the fine job of handing out the candy to all the other lucky kids. Sometimes our church had a Harvest Party where we could dress up like a Bible character. Try going as Eve and see how quickly they nix that idea.
I grew up reading books like What's Halloween Really About? And the Evils of a Jack O'Lantern, Unveiled! And then we had Mike Warnke espousing the horrors of the Satanist cult. But, that didn't work out so well...Although I do remember going to a Mike Warnke concert and it being pretty funny.
Usually I get this response when my conservative Christian friends find out I actually went trick-or- treating: "You celebrate Halloween and exposed your kids to evil spirits?"
First; if evil minds its manners and only emerges once a year, then maybe. I'm thinking evil is out everyday and it doesn't just emerge on the days when my kids are dressed as Legos.
Secondly, what other time during the year are my neighbors sitting on their porches or in their driveways just waiting to talk to our family? Even though we live in a subdivion, I don't know all my neighbors. People are guarded and private. An occasional wave, a "Hey, you left your car lights on" and that's about it. Unless you're talking about our neighbors next door, who tell us that our car is too loud and can we please push it down the street before starting it? Yeah, they don't celebrate Halloween.
Anyway, people are actually waiting for us to walk up and share brief conversation over provided donuts and cider or in the case of the one neighbor dude, jello shots.
I can boycott other community nights to make a moral statement: Underage drinking Night, Pot Heads Against Pot Holes and maybe that Boy Scout Food Drive. But, trick-or-treating is a time of connecting, fun and interaction. I don't want to be the one sitting in the dark, peering through the curtains.
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