a tricky holiday

Oh, Halloween. It's such a tricky holiday, isn't it? Here are my thoughts on Halloween. You can take'em or leave'em.

I didn't really do Halloween as a kid. My parents were influenced, at the time, by the church's stance of it being totally evil and that it wasn't something we should participate in (they have since told me this is something they would think through differently now). Anyways, I didn't grow up doing it every year, and I can only remember a few years when I actually did dress up. What I mostly remember is turning the lights off and going upstairs to watch a movie so that we didn't have to answer the door every time someone knocked. Patrick's family grew up trick-or-treating every year. And now that we have kids, Patrick and I have come to these conclusions about why we celebrate Halloween:

• Let's use it as an opportunity to redeem the holiday by being salt and light and not withdrawing from the culture.
• We don't want to give our kids a false sense of sin; Sin isn't necessarily about what we see and do as much as who we are.
• Let's meet our neighbors instead of hiding in our homes. And let's give them high fives for the costumes that they come up with. ;)
• Let's remember that Christ has won and that we shouldn't be afraid.
• Instead we should use it as an opportunity to mock the devil, because he knows the truth and as Martin Luther said, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.” 
• In 2011 it seems to be more about dressing up and getting candy. As adults, let's not use this as an excuse to be immature and dress up in sexy costumes, engage in gluttony by eating all the candy we want and go to haunted houses just to feel alive. 
• Instead, let's teach our children that Christ has overcome the Enemy, to use their imaginations for His glory, and that this is an opportunity to engage in our community and share the good news of the gospel.
  

"What if we ran Halloween through the grid of the gospel and pondered whether there might be a third path beyond naïveté and retreat? What if we took the perspective that all of life, Halloween included, is an opportunity for gospel advance? What if we saw Halloween not as a retreat but as a kind of gospel trick—an occasion to extend Christ’s cause on precisely the night when Satan may feel his strongest?" Read more here.

 
Here are some good articles that I have found helpful.

• Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission
• What Christians Should Know About Halloween
• Tim Challies: My Halloween Theory

What are your thoughts? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?