HALLOWED EVE

Teaching children has been so good for me.  With dwindling brain cells, my attempts to translate big concepts into little people's words causes new insights.   

Halloween has long frustrated me; I hate it that Halloween has developed into such a huge "holiday".  I really hate it that little ones cannot even go to WalMart without getting scarey dreams from the motion-activated, life-sized Freddie Krueger on the end caps. 

But on the other hand, who likes to dress up more than moi?

This year in working up a couple of lessons for Kingdom Kids (kindergarten/early elementary age children) we talked about the dark holiday.  I asked "what is the day before Christmas called?"  They knew that one.  Christmas Eve!   "Well, for a long time November first was a day for celebrating GOOD.  The good people were called 'hallowed'.  The day before Hallowed Day would be 'Hallowed Eve'.  The people celebrated GOOD on November first, but on the day before (on Hallowed Eve)...BAD was celebrated."

Then we talked about how we don't celebrate being bad.  We talked about the creepy things associated with Halloween like spiders and bats.  We talked about the things we see at Halloween such as ghosts, vampires, skeletons and zombies.  I asked them what all those things were?  "Dead things!" one little boy said.  Children are so wonderfully direct.  We talked of how the dead things seemed to be coming back and roaming around.  Then I asked them who came back from the dead.  They got that one right away...Jesus!  Jesus and the good people (the saints) are raised.  We talked about how all these other things are POSERS that pretend to come back.  Our God is the only One with power to raise from the dead.  The others mock God.

The week before Halloween, each child in Kingdom Kids was given five little booklets (see below) and were asked to pray and ask Jesus for five names of friends or neighbors who might want to know more about Him.  Then during that week, they were to turn the tables and 'give' instead of 'take'.  They were to dress up and either make treats or take candy to those people as they gave away their little booklet.  And I figured if you gave an assignment, you should have to carry it out.  So here's Miss Susan on a neighbor's porch.  Wanna wind up my nose?  My eyebrows and mustache wiggle.

                                                                                                                                                 

Without all the darkness, there is a lot of fun to be had in dressing up.  Here are some pictures of great examples of creativity in costuming...

This family lives in Florida and so it is perfectly natural that they would be an "under the sea" family.  Ariel and her brother (an amazing jellyfish who lights up) even have their little sea turtle on a leash.

Here is a Louisville family endorsing their local hero.  
It's the Colonel and the box of chicken who is his wife...with their little peep.

Gotta love these chefs and that little lobster!

These girls get high marks for creativity in a low-cost budget.

These youthful two on the left are frozen in a nostalgic time zone.
The wannabe Queen Esther may have swerved into more of a gypsy.

This mother is dressed as a flapper, but doesn't her face look like Snow White?
Can you guess who her real-life daughter is?  Barbie!

What a sweet family with all their costumes from the Mouse's House.
We have Jasmine, Mulan, Minnie...and the precious Mickey.

 The church cannot ignore Halloween.
These days, it is second only to Christmas in money spent and hoopla.
We do our children a disservice if we do not explain the "holiday" to them.
But then let's use it for good with costume creativity.

Jesus is the Light in the darkness.
Our costumes can be, too!