Not since 1995, when our oldest was a mere 2 weeks old, have we not gone tricks or treating. Then it was my wife briefly taking him around to other apartments in the stairwell of the seminary housing we lived in. The next year he was old enough to be taken about to houses that were just down the street, since by then we were at the first church I pastored. It was in the country, and a string of late built houses were around, enough for our oldest to get a nice batch of goodies. But since 1995, we've gone out somehow with tricks or treats - until now. Old youngest is in high school, and announced last year that we were at the end of the run.
Odd. We're not quite sure what to do. Owing to not a few reasons, we've not done as much this year as we have historically, perhaps because we know the kids are moving on. Jobs and obligations mean the boys and our daughter-in-law won't be around during the tricks or treats hours anyway. They said they'd be by tonight afterwards. I guess they're going to bring some movie I've not seen before that has something to do with spooky. We'll see. Sounds interesting.
We'll still hand out candy. Though not as much this year, times being what they are. I suppose we'll still watch old silent films during the actual tricks or treats time. That's holdover from when my sister, her husband and my parents would come down on Halloween once we moved to Ohio. My mom would go out with my wife and the boys. The rest would stay and talk. Hence silent movies. It had the atmosphere, but didn't interfere with conversations.
We'll still have cider, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin seeds, and nibbling off some of the candies. But as I get older, I have to be mindful of my dad's diabetes there. On the whole, we'll see how it goes. Funny how things change in life. Anyhoo, when it comes to Halloween, I wrote on my thoughts back in the day. You can read that old post here. My thoughts are pretty much the same, only more so.
And with that, a very Happy Halloween to all!
Just means you have a bit of a break before you get to take the grandkids out trick or treating! ;)
ReplyDeleteThat's what life is all about isn't it?
"Mom, Dad, thanks for life and raising me." -Child
"Thank you for the memories." -Parents
That's what you hope for. And yes, we like to think we're in a transition period right now, with the next wave of crazy fun coming down the tracks!
DeleteBlessed Feast of All Hallows! I have to say, in the 16 or so years we've been Trick or Treating, the gore and deliberately scary, not fun scary, but actual scary has gotten to a level of disconcerting. Even my nice older lady neighbor put up gruesome faced characters this year, creepy clowns, etc...my kids immediately noticed them and not in a good way. Last night there was a nice man handing out really good chocolate candy to kids while his wife, I presume, stood next to him in a super demonic looking get up, cackling at the little kids who came to get it. She had elongated fingers, false teeth, ugly face paint... she gave ME the creeps! This was the first year I had everyone pray over the candy when we got back.
ReplyDeleteThere just seems to be a level of wrongness in the celebration for some people. Evil is ugly and should be scary, but it's not to be celebrated, and that's where I fear a line has been crossed in what should be a rather benign holiday.
There seems a level of wrongness in many things today. That's what comes from going back to the World's pagan roots. I don't think people realize just what the Christian Gospel brought to a rather savage and unhinged world. I fear future people will, but it's going to take a lot of suffering and darkness for them to realize what was lost.
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