For years, I considered Halloween as one of the lesser holidays, in that my family never really participated in it, but everyone else around me (at school, at church, etc) did. Growing up, it was a day to dress up in costumes for fun and, depending on the school, have a party. The only things that really separated it from, say, Thanksgiving or Christmas was the spooky element (which again, growing up, it was considered not to be such a bad thing), and that we didn’t get any days off from school for it. As a child and into my young-adult years, the most I ever got into it was from participating in school events or school parties, and I did go trick-or-treating once (interestingly, when I was a sophomore in high school a classmate had found out that I had never participated and set out to change that). But it was never part of my culture or anything.
I suppose the other element related to it that is at all noteworthy is that my churches growing up (as well as my college’s church) had a feast day on November 1st titled “All Saints’ Day” which, to them, allowed them to put Halloween on the calendar as “All Hallow’s Eve.”
I’m feeling led to blog about this now because, after having had some of my views changed over the last decade about all sorts of things that are and have been embedded in our culture (including no longer truly believing in the Santa / reindeer / “magic” aspects of Christmas), I realize I’ve never written about Halloween. I’ve become much more aware of how there’s been a war on the “Jesus” Christmas to the point that December 1st through Christmas Eve has been the focus of the Holidays rather than December 24th, 25th, and perhaps even the 26th (Boxing Day / the Feast of St. Stephen, etc). And if you have followed this blog regularly over the last few years, you’ve noticed how I’ve made it a point each June to comment afresh on the evils of “Pride” month (which includes but also goes well beyond the homosexuality issue). October is yet another month where it has been taken over by not just Halloween but the spiritual aspects of it as well, especially over the last 5 to 10 years where I have noticed the whole month being engulfed in it (and not just last few days like it used to be when I was growing up). The point is, there’s been a trend: all of June celebrates homosexuality and tries to force others to, all of December worships Satan Claus and tries to snuff out Jesus’ birth, and all of October worships the devil. (Former) Satanists themselves have commented on how October 31st is their high holiday of the year, more than any other day. This isn’t just from the mouth of Bible-believing Christians who have been trying to warn people.
To be honest, I’ve rarely enjoyed October, except for only a
few select years. I do love the fall foliage colors, but my enjoyment of them quickly
gets snuffed out by 1.) the rapidly-shortening days of sunlight, 2.) the fact
that fall foliage really only lasts about two weeks (plus a few more weeks
where the trees just look like garbage before the last of their leaves finally
hit the ground), and 3.) the weather getting colder. This October thankfully
has been different, 1.) because I got married this year and therefore this my
first Fall season with my new wife, 2.) it’s taken until now for me to finally really
feel settled in our apartment (we finally had our first guest the other day and
it felt nice to be able to show our place to them), and 3.) after having some
real struggles with some different situations around us, things are finally starting
to calm down to where we can relax and really begin married life beyond just
the survival / setting-up aspects of it.