Know Why You Do

October. My favorite month since I can remember. What made it so wonderful to me as a kid was the holiday we celebrate at the end of the month (I feel like I'm speaking about Voldemort) - Halloween. I have always LOVED dressing up. I still love dressing up and look for excuses to do so. Something about that day was just the best to me - until a few years ago. I loved that Halloween felt like a break from normalcy. Everyone gets excited about the weather and the season and the parties and the outfits and the candy and it can be a great environment. Neighborhoods even seem to come alive with neighborliness. Oh, the irony, that it takes a holiday revolving around evil, to bring us together.

Please don't write me off as a skeptic. A few years ago, I really started to wonder why I do the things that I do. After having a conversation with a friend about her faith and realizing that she had no idea why she believed what she believed, I really felt God nudge me to better understand not only my faith but my traditions as well. In this journey, God convicted me to stop celebrating Halloween. I researched its origins and found myself unable to justify participating anymore. It still stings my flesh, honestly, because I have to fight the comfort of what that day's traditions brought to me.

Halloween was adapted from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. Most seem to agree that it was brought to the US in the 19th century. Samhain centered around the idea that dead souls would come back to their homes and therefore, people would dress up in costumes and carve scary faces into produce to keep the spirits away. Some may think that these traditions are harmless and maybe they are (I believe God does look at our hearts), but I would just encourage you to know why you do what you do and why you think what you think. This is a great lesson for our kids as well. There is so much deception in the world and we are easily tricked.

As for Halloween, I think it has gotten darker and much less innocent than ever. There is much evil wrapped around that observance. This is not to shame you if you still love Halloween. I completely get it and we are all on different journeys. Just be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit tells you and maybe take a few moments to research things like jack-o-lanterns.

You can bet that I won't let Satan steal my joy. I will still dress up (and eat candy). My Where's Waldo costume will just be put to use on Purim or for a classy dinner out.