If you have been following my site for a while, you know I LOVE Halloween. It’s one of my favorite holidays. Yes, I consider Halloween a holiday and have been known to take a day off from life to celebrate it. Since this is one of my favorite holidays, I’ve decided to take a trip down memory lane and revisit a few Halloween memories.
I was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church and one of the international ministries we supported was UNICEF. Not every Halloween, but occasionally we would sacrifice going door-to-door for Halloween treats and instead go door-to-door collecting money for UNICEF. Coins, bills, the type of currency didn’t matter. Some of the adults who opened the door to us were so impressed that we sacrificed our Halloween to campaign for others that they would give us candy any way.
In addition to collecting money for UNICEF, we were given small, thin, cardboard squares with blocks printed on them. Imagine BINGO cards but with a slot carved in each block where you could slip in a coin. We kids were encouraged to fill each block with a quarter, dime or nickel from our allowance. I never did fill one of those cards. Oh, I’d put a few coins in, but there were just too many temptations for me to stay committed to helping those kids in developing countries.
No holiday is complete without established customs or traditions. Every Halloween in our house, it was a standard to watch, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Even now, as an adult, I set my recorder to record Charlie Brown and before the season has passed I’ve watched it at least once.
Another tradition I enjoyed, again church related, was the party our church would sometimes host for the Young People’s Department (YPD). The basement of the church was dark, spooky and home to spiders as well as other creepy crawlers. The adults were excellent at transforming all that spookiness into a good time. Each section of the basement became a mini hive of fun…games, refreshments, music, entertainment. Of course, now churches have taken this idea to a grand level and call it “Fall Festival,” but during those simpler Halloween parties, I fell in love with games like bobbing for apples, pinning the tail on the donkey, bean bag toss and musical chairs. I enjoyed nibbling on caramel apples, popcorn balls, hot dogs, cookies and drinking punch. Now, as an adult, I still love those games and for your information, I still reign as the bobbing for apples queen.
Yet another tradition related to porch lights. The African-American culture leans toward extreme privacy and even though law enforcement tells us to use outdoor lights as a part of crime prevention, we don’t. No lights mean darkness which equates to privacy. Just like closed curtains and closed doors equal privacy. However, the one time the porch lights rule was relaxed was at Halloween. As a sign that your house welcomed trick-or-treaters, the porch lights came on when adults arrived home from work and didn’t go off until 10:00 pm’ish. I was always a bit sad when Mom turned the lights off because that meant the end of Halloween…except for the candy-eating fest that followed.
What’s your favorite? Mine is anything that has chocolate in it, on it, or nearby. Second choice after chocolate…Twizzlers (strawberry flavored, of course).
By the way…if you happen to be in Dallas, Texas, Halloween weekend, stop by these events. I’ll be there celebrating.
I have a confession to make. I am a Christian who loves Halloween. Okay, maybe love is too strong a word but I thoroughly enjoy it. I admit this because recently a friend commented that she did not like Halloween. She, too, is a Christian and feels that by “celebrating” Halloween, it sends the wrong message to the impressionable and places too much emphasis on the dark side. And she’s not the only Christian who feels that way. This last part I say simply based on the number of churches that now offer an alternative to Halloween.
Well, to each his own I say.
When you have survived a face-to-face encounter with a dark spirit as I have, when you have seen God’s power effortlessly destroy a demonic spirit as I have then the perceived threat or power behind Halloween disappears. Gone is the focus on the occult and dark forces. Instead, the focus turns to fun and enjoyment.
Yep, to me, Halloween is fun. I love riding through certain neighborhoods and viewing the elaborate displays. See the photos below.
I enjoy buying and eating Snickers, Milky Ways, M&Ms, Skittles and the like. (Unfortunately in our neighborhood we do not have trick-or-treaters. There’s just not enough young families. But does that stop me from buying candy and hoping that one year someone will ring our doorbell? Nope!) I really like (when I have time) to drive around Halloween evening, scoping out and rating costumes. The creativity of some of the parents and children is amazing. And then there’s the children’s excitement! They be-bop up and down sidewalks, proudly displaying their costumes, eagerly ringing doorbells and yelling those magical words that produce more candy than any dentist would ever allow. And let’s not forget the homeowners. The tricks they sometimes play on the trick-or-treaters, the smiles on their faces as they give–priceless. And finally, don’t we all enjoy watching Charlie Brown and Linus in the pumpkin patch?
Yeah, okay, so I change my mind. I do love Halloween! One of these years, I am going to have an adult Halloween party and see if we “grown folks” can re-capture some of the innocence and excitement of an adolescent Halloween. We’ll bob for apples, collect for Unicef, pin the tail on the donkey, dance, fish for candy, eat hot dogs, popcorn balls and marshmallow treats, carve pumpkins. What fun that will be. Oh, and yes, costumes will be required!