I’ve seen a lot of anti-Halloween things today from my friends. My family never “celebrated” Halloween with scary things… but it was another chance to spend time with family and eat and have candy. So we did. And it was great.
We’d go to my dad’s mom first and hang out. Everyone from the church came over at some point. We’d trade candy because my friend liked Mallow Cups – those nasty candies masquerading as the more delicious Reese’s Cup – and didn’t like Skittles. Then we’d take off to my mom’s mom’s house and she’d have bags with apples, oranges, one mini candy bar and $5 for each of my cousins and me. I got to see my whole family most Halloween evenings which, growing up, was one of the best days ever.
Admittedly, family can be dark and scary sometimes – but it was great. It occurs to me that that is not everyone’s experience and the past Halloweens for some are just reminders of scary times (in which case, I get your hatred for the day), but I’m not sure the darkness is more at work during this one day than any other day.
For me, there is a lot of darkness other times – kids with parents who don’t care about them, families broken up by alcohol and addiction, students who feel like they can’t live up to what their parents want them to do so they never feel good enough, girls that crave attention from boys because they don’t think anyone else loves them. And that’s the dark and scary that I’m worried about.
