Halloween—we can do more

Halloween—we can do more

“What is wrong with how we’re doing Halloween?” a trusted and valued colleague from my seminary days in Boston recently asked me. The question came with a picture of his family’s house in New England that is thoughtfully and creatively decorated for October 31st.

The family’s house is the parsonage in town. It has been decorated by his family. He writes that it is admired by the community.

My colleague admires and participates in what he sees as the intelligence, imagination, creativity and cleverness that surrounds Halloween. In fact, his congregation along with the local Girl Scouts host a community Trunk or Treat. He says they find so much imagination, joy, creativity, and positivity in this season.

Sounds like fun. Communal inclusivity that inspires and invites creativity, costumes and candy? Um, hello? What’s not to love?

Another colleague from another era in my seminary education would agree. Together, this colleague and I graduated with our doctoral degrees. Along with her husband, this trusted and valued colleague also sees Halloween as a great event for the neighborhood. When we were students together, she pointed out that this time of year, like no other, brings neighbors together. Doors open. People meet in the streets. The fun of Halloween is shared in a good, positive way.

I agree that anything with Girl Scouts included is good. I also agree that it is good when doors open and people gather as one in a community to celebrate. I do hold and practice the mantra that if you can find a reason to celebrate, do so. I am the biggest fan of putting candles in desserts to acknowledge a milestone, a victory, or just one really good day with a cake with or without the Happy Birthday song.

Light those candles. Eat that cake.

And I get the party. I get the fun.

But what are we celebrating? I am not popping the Halloween my colleagues participate in and enjoy. Instead, I keep suggesting—and this is the third and final column on this—that we shift from the holiday that includes darkness and gore. We can keep the fun and the joy of meeting in the street or in parking lots, oh yes, but I am not keen on normalizing death. I am also not accepting that we welcome the fear of death, or participate it in some pretend “scary” way.

There is the cutesy Halloween out there. Everyone loves a kid in a superhero costume. The princess, the doctor, the farmer, and even the toddler in the pumpkin costume? Who does not love this?

There’s the other Halloween out there, too. It’s that of the dead walking.

Christians don’t do dead walking. Jesus took death away when he walked to the tomb that was empty three days later.

Cutesy Halloween and gory Halloween are distinct by only a thin line. House number 337 on Cherry Street has a front yard display of corn stalks, gourds, and adorable little ghosts. House number 338 on Cherry Street has a front yard display that I won’t describe here beyond the word creepy.

Do we just see house number 337? Do we look the other way or accept house 338?

Local fire companies and other community-based organizations are doing Trunk or Treats. Great! They also bring Santa in on a fire truck after Thanksgiving and/or host a ho ho ho, fa la la la la winter party in mid-December.

I was a kid. I get Santa. And a party in mid-December sounds like fun, too.

But can there be more to the party?

Yes.

Imagine Christmas with eight reindeer and North Pole accessories only. What would it be like if there were no mid-December play or pageant with an angel, Mary, Joseph, an innkeeper, and a half dozen four-year-old children dressed as sheep. And no Christmas Eve service.

Can we do in late October what the world needs in late December?

Yes.

I want to get back to the words mentioned earlier—intelligence, imagination, creativity and cleverness. I invite the October 31^st house decorators that are also the open door, let’s-invite-the-neighbors-inside Christians to do more. With intelligence, imagination, creativity and cleverness, let’s be more.

And yes, we can do this.

I will write about All Saints’ Day next week. This date falls on November 1^st each year. Not a lot of our neighbors know about All Saints’ Day. Like me, you probably have not seen All Saints’ Day decoration anywhere, including any home on Cherry Street.

But that’s 2022.

2023 is coming. Christian Treat, which I’ve been writing in the last two columns, can be a way in the near and distant future to celebrate what we really want to celebrate with cake, candles and more—and that’s Jesus, life, and hope.