FACT: I Love Halloween
4th grade, Anna Maria Island Elementary. My teacher was Mr. Swank and I’ll never forget the day that his tall frame and glistening bald head announced that the school was putting on a costume contest … I won’t forget it because after I left class to meet my sister for bus-riders … we had the same reaction. “Mom’s gonna make us dress up like dice again!”
Let me rewind a few years. My mom is one of the most creative, inspiring women I know … Halloween came around and she thought us kids would have a blast at this community trick or treat at the Manatee Civic Center (where there was also a costume contest) She had this adorable idea of sending the two of us out as a set, a match, a pair … of dice … all dolled up in white shoe polished faces, red circled cheeks, plastic black derby, giant cardboard boxes with holes cut out for our arms and legs … oh …. and leggings …. white leggings. I was horrified
Fast forward back to the 4th grade costume contest! I decided, I wanted to be a vampire, a few days before the contest, we put together what we thought to be an excellent vampire costume for a 4th grader. I was so excited … no white shoe polish, no cardboard, no leggings! The transformation begins … first the pants (black) … then a white ruffled button up shirt my mom found at goodwill (thinking back it must have been a ladies blouse) … after the shirt gets buttoned, she adds just a small layer of white makeup to my face. Then comes a sweet cape we found, a necklace with a cross and a nice pair of fancy black shoes!
Out comes the black shoe polish … I could see it now, instead of giant red cheeks … she’s thinking giant black eyes or something hideously nerdy!!
“this is going to be the widows peak, just a small V on your scalp hun” I fought her in my mind, as she draw this “peak” on my once cool looking pale vampire-like face …
She pulled away so I could look in the mirror ……………. cool ……………….. that’s pretty cooI! I was satisfied, maybe she knows what she’s doing after all! To complete the hair, my mom used something that had the word SAP in it … like tree sap … but for your hair.
It was finished (mwahahahahaha) … the transformation was done and there I stood, in my room, surrounded by Ninja Turtle pillows and Dave Justice posters … I was a vampire (a cool looking one too)
Needless to say … I won first place in the Anna Maria Island Elementary costume contest … and it took about a day or two to get that sap out of my hair … but it was worth it. It was worth being excited and creative with my mom. It was worth working and being together. It was worth it.
That was not the end of my reign as “Costume King”. I would later go on to win best costume at King Middle School for my 6th grade costume of an old woman … btw … my mom helped me out with that one as well … and again … it was worth it.
Halloween has never been about ghosts, ghouls, demons/evil, for me. It’s always been about quality time with my family, using our imaginations, being creative, and candy … that’s all (especially candy) …
The Christian World View is based on Christ’s commandment to “Go into all the world” (Mark 16:15) and “The light shines in the darkness … and the darkness has not extinguished it” (John 1:5) even “Let your light shine before men …” (Matt 5:16) Let’s take that last verse (Matthew 5:16) and pair if with a quote from D.L. Moody, which says, “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining … they just shine” “To the pure all things are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted and unbelieving” (Titus 1:15)
Dressing up like a vampire, even an old lady … wasn’t a moment of impure motivation for me. I was a character attempting to win a costume contest and bring home that glorious sweet tasting bacon (… candy really) … Not some dark force.
It seems as if we’re loudest when we’re “against” something. When our own ignorance gets the better of us. When we don’t fully understand something and possibly even fear it … we’re loudest. Yes, Halloween has a weird history, but so does Saturnalia … er I mean … Christmas. We don’t celebrate Saturnalia, we celebrate Christmas … the “birth” of Christ (other possible Christmas days: March 28th, September 11th, November 18th) and as such, we don’t celebrate Halloween, we celebrate “National Costume & Candy Day!”
I love Halloween because I love the memories it’s given me. Hiding in the bushes in my ninja outfit to scare my sister, who was dressed as Princess Jasmine. Even getting caught egging my friends house … yes we cleaned every square inch of it afterwards.
So for me, Halloween isn’t the occult, Celtic holiday it once was, just as Christmas isn’t the week long, lawless, pagan celebration IT once was ….
Happy Halloween, be safe and eat candy!
