Will You Choose Death or Life?

Is Halloween really harmless? In a culture that increasingly glamorizes and commercializes evil and death with TV programming titles like “Lucifer” and “Evil,” horror shows about the Walking Dead, and video games consumed with violence and killing, do we really want to continue “celebrating” Halloween?

May I make a new suggestion this year? Instead of Halloween, how about Happy Harvest? How about taking your child to a pumpkin patch where they can decorate pumpkins, enjoy the challenge of a corn maze, or feast on homemade cookies and apple cider? How about dressing them up to represent a specific career like farmer, fireman or police woman? Or maybe a much loved book character… who has nothing to do with wizards or witches. How about going to a nearby church for their fall festival in lieu of Halloween? And how about refusing to reward death, darkness and evil with candy treats? How about going out to dinner, or turn your lights off and stay inside, or simply ignore the holiday?

Maybe if the stores didn’t make so much money on costumes and candy and we began new traditions, Halloween would simply fall by the wayside and that joy of celebrating harvest, God’s provision of abundance in crops and the delight we receive in His creation’s brilliantly colored garb and beauty could become our new October future.

It only takes one person to change the world. You could lead the way!