Friday, October 31
Friday Five
Happy Halloween!
1. What was your first Halloween costume?
Okay, I've mentioned that my mom didn't allow us to do the Halloween thing. It was all very fundamentalist and sad, especially since our church never did any sort of alternative activity either; my brother and I just ended up sitting on our couch in the dark, peering out between the blinds at all the other little boys and girls laughing their way up and down our street. Tragic.
Anyway, Mom never let us participate in school Halloween activities, either; she sent notes to school asking that we be excused and given an alternative assignment in place of in-class activities. We colored turkeys in October, we did, while everybody else had pumpkins. I can remember sitting in the back of my kindergarten classroom, crying softly so as not to be embarrassed and hugging a big Clifford dog while the rest of the kids watched a movie about a shy little ghost.
In middle school, I got more daring. Mom didn't know when dress-up day was, so I tried to do an end-run around her by costuming myself subtley. I'd wear a plaid shirt, jeans that could be rolled up, and stuff a straw hat in my backpack. Voila! A farmer! I think that was my first one. I believe I also did a few Saturday Night Live characters that way, too; a white shirt, black pants, and a black blanket that could be tied over my shoulders later transformed me into Opera Man.
2. What was your best costume and why?
Once I got into high school, I made no bones about the fact that if Mom wasn't going to celebrate Halloween, then I was going somewhere to be with people who did. One of those years, I packed up a long white negligee that I got from my aunt, along with an old bedsheet, and headed to my friend Tanya's. I donned the nightie, ripped up the bedsheet and spattered it with fake blood, and I was an awesome banshee. A little cold, but I looked great. Man, I wish I still had the figure to do stuff like that.
3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat?
Nope. Rebel to my mother or not, I was a good girl. My brother got arrested for smashing pumpkins one year, though.
4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.)
Not yet. As Sam gets older and cares more about things like this, I want to do more.
5. Share your favorite scary story...real or legend!
All of my scary stories are of the "Oh, that was an awful day" kind of scary: I rolled a car, my mom got cancer. Sorry, no ghosts here.
Posted on October 31, 08:42 AM
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Yeah, it was religion. No ghosts, no goblins, no witchery, or anything even remotely related in the vaguest sense. I wasn't even allowed to watch Scooby-Doo. :-/
Kelly - interesting! Actually, both of those statements you cited sound in line with Mom's thoughts.
Just because my degree is in Religious Studies, I wanted to point out that while "fundamentalist" has become synonymous with "conservative Christian" originally a Fundamentalist was someone who agreed with a statement of beliefs called The Fundamentals which was written in the late 1800's. The Fundamentals contained statements like "The Bible is the inspired inerrant word of God" and "The Bible alone is the sole authority."
For this reason there can be no such thing as a "Islamic fundamentalist," even though you often see that phrase used in the media. Your history lesson for the day!
Heh - raised Catholic (and have returned to the church, left for a long while) -- we celebrated Halloween too, it was carving pumpkins, running around outdoors to collect goodies -- can not recall what the school(s) did. But now, we celebrate in other ways too -- in that it just is NOT safe to wander house to house any longer. My son's school has a huge event - Carnival, and we do pumpkins, and special foods/dessert, video -- but will not hand out candy either (I think at the most - 3/4 kids would come anyways).
I have never gotten into or understood the people who think it has to be *sinister* ...but it is also, for us the prelude to ALL Saints/and All Souls days...
Happy Halloween!
Tina - many fundamentalist Christians don't celebrate Halloween because they believe it's the "Devil's holiday." I.e., celebrating Halloween means glorifying the devil.
My mother is an elementary school teacher, and at her last school they could not observe Halloween because there were some families in town who practiced witchcraft as a religion, and they were offended by the secularization of the holiday. (I.e. kids dressing up as witches.) So, they threw a big fuss about Halloween parties, costumes, etc. and my mom's school does a "Harvest Festival" instead. (These same parents were also angry that my mom had Harry Potter books in the library because the witchcraft portrayed in the books wasn't like the witchcraft they practiced.) Crazy, huh?
IMO, Halloween is what you make of it. If you spend the night drawing satanic diagrams and worshiping Lucifer, then yes, it is the Devil's holiday. If you spend the night running around dressed as a fairy and getting candy (or taking your child out to get candy), it's a fun holiday.
As a protest to all the fundamentalists out there, I'm dressing up as Hermione from Harry Potter for Halloween. :-D
Hope Sam has a wonderful night!
My family, Catholic, never had problems celebrating Halloween.
But now that I have my own child, I prefer alternate activities.
My son's Catholic preschool had a parade yesterday to celebrate All Saints Day (technically it's Saturday but the school doesn't meet Fridays or Saturdays). All the kids had to dress up as saints. My son went as St. Patrick.
We tell him that Halloween is the night before All Saints Day.
Can I ask why your mom doesn't celebrate Halloween? I'm assuming religion. (I had a best friend who was a Jehovah Witness who couldn't celebrate the mainstream holidays, so that's the only one I can think of.)
I ask because my mom was all for me with costumes and trick or treating when I was younger, but ever since she got really deep into religion, (although she's always been religious) and found out what Halloween really meant, she's completely against it.
I believe it's what people make of it - we as a family don't focus on the scary or witchy side of Halloween, but as a fun excuse to dress up, etc.
Just curious I guess. :)
