Contemplating Halloween

Contemplating Halloween

In addition to laundry, laughter, and jammies on this Friday, (now afternoon and still no shower), I have been contemplating Halloween which is around the corner.  I know many families who do not "celebrate" Halloween and I respect them for that choice.  Bruce and I have allowed the boys to dress up and trick or treat that past few years because, let's face it, to them the only meaning it holds is that they get to dress up and  get candy.  

Having said that, I feel that this will be the last Halloween that we won't have to think about what Halloween actually is or means.  So I have been thinking about that alot lately.  I have heard some who claim that Halloween, which actually means "Holy Eve", has it's tradition as the Eve of All Saint's Day and there is nothing wrong with celebrating the traditional Halloween.  After all, we celebrated Halloween when we were children, right?  I guess what is eating at me or disturbing my peace about all of this is that while Halloween is fun with the candy, treats, dressing up, and a little spookiness, the underlying premise of Halloween is that it has become a celebration for what is evil.  However, the scariest part of all is that it is packaged to children as fun.  It makes me almost want to cry when I see a child (or baby) dressed up as the devil or a witch. I mean there is no such thing as a good witch.  How can a person reconcile serving Jesus Christ and being a witch?  It's like oil and water.  Wicca is real.  There are real witches.  Some may say I am making too big of a deal.  Maybe so.  However, I DO know that we exist in the midst of a spiritual world which is in a constant battle for our souls.  One side is working to assure our salvation and that our eternal souls are spent in the kingdom of God while the other is NOT.  It just seems prudent to do all you can to NOT give the other side any advantage.  Is celebrating Halloween opening a door that we don't want opened?  I'm not 100% sure of that, but I am certainly going to pray and discern over the next year.