Monday, November 2, 2015

My Least Favorite Day of the Year

Hands down, Halloween is my least favorite day of the year. Every year.

We don't celebrate Halloween. We (as a family) never have. Frankly, I only remember doing Halloween a few times as a very young kid. So, like, not for the past 30 years.

I'm not going to get into the why's and wherefore's of our reasons here. That is not the point of this post. Plus, I know there are really good people who celebrate Halloween. That is their choice, and I really don't feel like it is any of my business.

If I genuinely feel that way-and I do-then why is Halloween my least favorite day of the year?

Two words...parental guilt...

Parental guilt warring with a genuine annoyance with all things Halloween, and disgust with some things Halloween.

I want my kids to not feel like their parents deprived them of all the fun things because we were Christians. So we try to do something fun with them. Usually that takes the form of eating out, or getting together with friends for a bonfire, or watching a movie.

But, even in doing those non-Halloween things, our senses are still barraged with Halloween paraphernalia. Halloween's everywhere-I can't get away from it-and that annoys me. Restaurants are decorated. Employees are dressed up. There's a plethora of minions and Star Wars characters walking about.

Even though we don't celebrate it, we can't get away from it. Which is part of life, I suppose.

But what really bothers me is the yuck decorations. The weird decorations all over the place.

Severed hands and heads in yards.

Cob webs.



Fake gore.

Violence depicted with dummies and such.

It's the obsession with death and darkness from all the people who aren't doing the "innocent" costumes and decorations.

It's there on my morning runs. It's at all the stores. It's on social media. (severed finger sugar cookies-what?!!) It's there as we drive from point A to point B. It's inundating my life-from September often well into November.

And, it just weighs heavy on my spirit. I can't really put it much better than that. Except that darkness seeps and creeps into my soul, and it weighs me down.

As October runs into Halloween, I just want it to be over with. To call it a wrap for another year.

Saturday morning some friends called to invite us to their house for the evening. And we spent the time talking, laughing, eating, singing, and watching a movie. It was good and wholesome, and just the prescribed antidote.

Then, I was so happy to wake up yesterday, and to realize that it was Sunday, and November, and sun-shiny.

Happy to once again have made it to the other side of this season.