Halloween -- updated 10 Nov 2017
Halloween.
It used to be one of my favorite holidays. I had quite the elaborate setup, with a tunnel, dragon, smoke machines. At times I had a dementor hanging overhead. The last several times I set things up, I used a projector to projector flames on the side of the house. My brother would often come to help out. We had a lot of fun.
The beginnings happened years before my mission. Our family would get into the fun of decorating, and making a fun spook house. We (and I) have never been into any of the horror, terror, blood, etc. so it was all about having fun, with a little bit of a scare.
It continued after I graduated from college. First as I helped make a corn maze into a more Halloween event. Then it started to really grow when I was taking care of my parents home while they were overseas. I came up with new ideas and built new things. This continued through the early 2000's
After getting married, the first couple years was as I described in the first paragraph. I'd usually set everything up in a day, and then take it down after the trick-or-treaters were done for the evening. It was like the house, particularly the front, transformed for the evening.
It was fun to hear the comments from neighbors. I also had fun setting things up. Creating new things was also enjoyable.
When the kids were really little, and didn't do any or much trick-or-treating, I would still set things up, although as time become more limited it was not as elaborate.
Last year was the first time I really didn't do anything. We wanted to spend time with the kids trick-or treating, and it didn't feel like it would be worth the effort to do anything if nobody was home to greet trick-or-treaters.
However, over the past few years I've been feeling a little more concerned with Halloween.
I've noticed over the past 10 years or so, there seems to be an explosion of interest. Every year more and more people decorate and celebrate the day. At the same time, the darkness of the celebration has increased. Death, horror, terror, and the like have been increasingly celebrated, and even promoted.
Now when I see Halloween decorations in stores, while some of the animated ones are interesting, I find many of them to show the very dark side of Halloween, and sometimes there is an uneasy feeling.
I want my children to have fun. For most costumes, I do not see the harm in playing dress up and pretend.
However, there are costumes which flirt with the dark side, the horror, and terror. Even costumes that shun virtue and goodness.
So, where is the line drawn?
I had not really considered this before, but according to this video (which is long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1593&v=yTlDWMR4Nh4
the sister mentioned that she was told Halloween would not be celebrated in the Millennium. She and her family used to be very much into Halloween, and this movement to not celebrate Halloween has been fairly recent.
Halloween is not a holiday (which is a misnomer since Halloween is not a "holy day") appropriate for when the Savior reigns on the earth.
The same video referenced a former satanic high priest, John Ramirez, who left satanism for Christianity. I watched one of his videos and he advocates no celebration at all, not even a harvest celebration, to be done on Oct 31..
I do not agree that harvest celebrations would be equated to Halloween. The Hebrews have several holidays that focus on various harvests, planting, and similar events. But how those celebrations take place could be a factor. If you have costumes and Halloween-like decor, but call the celebration something else, it's still basically Halloween.
The video also mentioned how problems with addictions often increase around Halloween time, when people have openly invited evil spirits into their homes through various Halloween activities and even decorations.
Personally, I'm not convinced a simple decoration can be an open-door invitation to a righteous home. But there could certainly be other factors involved. And the types of decorations in and around the home can be indicative of the type of spirit the people entertain. But, this is not to say there could not be some power represented in certain symbols.
Many of the tings John Ramirez talked about--the occult, sacrifices, cursings, etc.--are very real. I think most people do not understand how real they are, because of the increasing number of movies and TV shows which desensitize us to them, but most people like the Halloween aspect of it, the haunted houses, and fake terror, horror, etc. that gets their adrenaline pumped up.
I am not planning to put up the Halloween decorations this year. My wife is very supportive. She was never as interested in Halloween. For now we can continue to use the excuse of not being home because we'll be out trick-or-treating with the kids. But my kids are asking about getting the dragon and cave set up, and sometime in the future we won't have the easy excuse. But to completely go cold turkey and drop Halloween might not go over so well without some preliminary work and preparations.
Last week in our family home evening lesson, I decided to talk about making our home more like a temple (an idea which I did get from the video). Today I plan to take the family to the distribution center to pick out pictures of temples they can put in their rooms. I'm hoping when they want to put up decorations we can ask them if the decorations will help our home look and feel more like a temple or not.
What we need is to get a new focus. Some have suggested service activities. Maybe we need to go out to do something fun (non-Halloween) for that evening.
As a side note, for awhile now (several months, maybe a year) I have been pondering the dangers of refined sugars. There are health risks, particularly with too much sugar. There may also be a correlation between sugar and cancer growth.
But what I've been wondering is, does excess sugar impair our abilities to feel the guidance of the Spirit? Can it dull our spiritual senses? Might it prevent us from receiving more or greater revelations because of the effect it has on our bodies?
I have not found any doctrinal basis for any answers to any of those questions.
I wonder, is there a correlation between the amount of candy (and sugar) that is given out and consumed on and around Halloween, a day whose origins are not even close to being holy, and the increasing acceptance of the darkness, death, terror, and horror that are related to Halloween? Does increased sugar dull our senses and numb us spiritually?
It seems like a real possibility. Satan uses addictions to enslave people. Sugar is addictive. Sugar could certainly cloud some our senses. Would we be able to be more spiritually sensitive if our bodies didn't have as much sugar? This is not to say sugar is completely bad. Obviously there are some sugars (such as naturally occurring fructose, honey, and agave) which are better. It's the refined white sugar that is mostly in question. I'm not convinced it is all bad, but I think the "good for you" threshold is probably a lot lower than we are led to believe.
A few interesting facts:
Most people in Utah probably just see Halloween as a fun holiday to celebrate. A way to be actually be a part of the world, to show others Mormons aren't boring sticks in the mud. Candy isn't forbidden, like alcohol, tea, or coffee, so it's easier to justify its use. And we haven't been counseled to not celebrate the day.
However, I think Satan has been working hard at numbing people to what Halloween is, to become accepting of "harmless" evil, and to open our homes and expose our families to more darkness. It's origins are in superstition, darkness, and the occult. But since the 1950's it has evolved into an apparent family-friendly, children-oriented holiday.
I used to think Halloween was harmless as long as you didn't get into the darker aspects of it. And it was fun. Mostly I think that view is still valid, but it is getting increasingly harder to avoid the darker parts of Halloween because the dark parts are presented in an apparent "harmless" format.
As I've watched it grow and expand in popularity, from the trick-or-treaters and being more oriented towards children, to the multiplicity of the haunted houses, houses of terror, and the popularity of putting the occult on display, I have grown more concerned.
Generally speaking, I don't think carved pumpkins, costumes, and various decorations are portals or invitations for evil spirits to enter into our homes, unless we are already welcoming to those spirits. However, the thoughts and actions we put into these Halloween activities do have the potential to open ourselves, our homes, and our families to increased attacks. When we accept a witch, zombie, ghost, vampire, the occult, or other Halloween horror, terror, or fear to decorate our homes, we teach our children to become more curious about these things. Our examples show whether or not these things are accepted in our home. It can give someone the idea, and even an assumed permission, to explore and experiment with the darkness, evils spirits, and the occult. This is what opens our homes and exposes vulnerabilities to those who follow the adversary. If evil spirits were not already trying to get into our homes, then you can consider a pumpkin carved with an evil-looking face would certainly be an invitation for evil spirits to try harder to find a weakness into the hearts of those in the home.
Regarding the carving of pumpkins, while there are possible origins to other traditions, it seems that carving a pumpkin in early America was associated with harvest time, and wasn't associated with Halloween until the late 19th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Whether or not Halloween should be celebrated is debatable. As mentioned, I'm fairly certain it won't be celebrated during the Millennium. It is very much a telestial celebration. I'm not aware of any general authority saying we should not celebrate Halloween, and I've never heard any say it's okay to celebrate it. I have heard a few mention something along the lines of Halloween not being their favorite holiday. Maybe we should take that as a clue that we could do something better.
And then there's the view of, does it match what is described in Article of Faith 13? Halloween is generally not "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy." Based on that, it would probably be better to not celebrate Halloween.
What to do for this year is still a question, without an absolute answer. Like last year, I am not putting up my Halloween decorations. I miss the fun, but I don't miss the time involved. I will probably end up getting rid of those decorations which cannot be repurposed. As for the children, we will probably take our kids out trick-or-treating this year. But we will be looking for alternatives for the future, and we may just continue to deemphasize and minimalize Halloween. I want our children to have a buy-in to the alternative and not feel like we are just trying to keep them from having fun. Maybe we'll start getting more Thanksgiving oriented earlier.
It would be great if there was a big storm that day and evening, and the kids wouldn't want to go out.
--update, 10 November 2017
As it turned out, an aunt passed away and we went out of town. We were expecting to be back before, or at least early on, Halloween. It didn't work out.
The only trick-or-treating the kids had was in a Walmart store we stopped at while driving back home. They got some candy at the various departments in the store.
When we originally told them on Monday that we probably would not be back in time for trick-or-treating, there was some outright disappointment. But the took the opportunity on Monday to do some things as a family which we probably won't get a chance again to do. That set us back, and got us home late...actually it was about 4 AM Wednesday morning when we pulled into the driveway.
I don't recall much of any complaints about missing Halloween. Yes, the kids missed some Halloween activities at school because we were out of town. But, the kids got to experience some things they wouldn't have otherwise.
It used to be one of my favorite holidays. I had quite the elaborate setup, with a tunnel, dragon, smoke machines. At times I had a dementor hanging overhead. The last several times I set things up, I used a projector to projector flames on the side of the house. My brother would often come to help out. We had a lot of fun.
The beginnings happened years before my mission. Our family would get into the fun of decorating, and making a fun spook house. We (and I) have never been into any of the horror, terror, blood, etc. so it was all about having fun, with a little bit of a scare.
It continued after I graduated from college. First as I helped make a corn maze into a more Halloween event. Then it started to really grow when I was taking care of my parents home while they were overseas. I came up with new ideas and built new things. This continued through the early 2000's
After getting married, the first couple years was as I described in the first paragraph. I'd usually set everything up in a day, and then take it down after the trick-or-treaters were done for the evening. It was like the house, particularly the front, transformed for the evening.
It was fun to hear the comments from neighbors. I also had fun setting things up. Creating new things was also enjoyable.
When the kids were really little, and didn't do any or much trick-or-treating, I would still set things up, although as time become more limited it was not as elaborate.
Last year was the first time I really didn't do anything. We wanted to spend time with the kids trick-or treating, and it didn't feel like it would be worth the effort to do anything if nobody was home to greet trick-or-treaters.
However, over the past few years I've been feeling a little more concerned with Halloween.
I've noticed over the past 10 years or so, there seems to be an explosion of interest. Every year more and more people decorate and celebrate the day. At the same time, the darkness of the celebration has increased. Death, horror, terror, and the like have been increasingly celebrated, and even promoted.
Now when I see Halloween decorations in stores, while some of the animated ones are interesting, I find many of them to show the very dark side of Halloween, and sometimes there is an uneasy feeling.
I want my children to have fun. For most costumes, I do not see the harm in playing dress up and pretend.
However, there are costumes which flirt with the dark side, the horror, and terror. Even costumes that shun virtue and goodness.
So, where is the line drawn?
I had not really considered this before, but according to this video (which is long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1593&v=yTlDWMR4Nh4
the sister mentioned that she was told Halloween would not be celebrated in the Millennium. She and her family used to be very much into Halloween, and this movement to not celebrate Halloween has been fairly recent.
Halloween is not a holiday (which is a misnomer since Halloween is not a "holy day") appropriate for when the Savior reigns on the earth.
The same video referenced a former satanic high priest, John Ramirez, who left satanism for Christianity. I watched one of his videos and he advocates no celebration at all, not even a harvest celebration, to be done on Oct 31..
I do not agree that harvest celebrations would be equated to Halloween. The Hebrews have several holidays that focus on various harvests, planting, and similar events. But how those celebrations take place could be a factor. If you have costumes and Halloween-like decor, but call the celebration something else, it's still basically Halloween.
The video also mentioned how problems with addictions often increase around Halloween time, when people have openly invited evil spirits into their homes through various Halloween activities and even decorations.
Personally, I'm not convinced a simple decoration can be an open-door invitation to a righteous home. But there could certainly be other factors involved. And the types of decorations in and around the home can be indicative of the type of spirit the people entertain. But, this is not to say there could not be some power represented in certain symbols.
Many of the tings John Ramirez talked about--the occult, sacrifices, cursings, etc.--are very real. I think most people do not understand how real they are, because of the increasing number of movies and TV shows which desensitize us to them, but most people like the Halloween aspect of it, the haunted houses, and fake terror, horror, etc. that gets their adrenaline pumped up.
I am not planning to put up the Halloween decorations this year. My wife is very supportive. She was never as interested in Halloween. For now we can continue to use the excuse of not being home because we'll be out trick-or-treating with the kids. But my kids are asking about getting the dragon and cave set up, and sometime in the future we won't have the easy excuse. But to completely go cold turkey and drop Halloween might not go over so well without some preliminary work and preparations.
Last week in our family home evening lesson, I decided to talk about making our home more like a temple (an idea which I did get from the video). Today I plan to take the family to the distribution center to pick out pictures of temples they can put in their rooms. I'm hoping when they want to put up decorations we can ask them if the decorations will help our home look and feel more like a temple or not.
What we need is to get a new focus. Some have suggested service activities. Maybe we need to go out to do something fun (non-Halloween) for that evening.
As a side note, for awhile now (several months, maybe a year) I have been pondering the dangers of refined sugars. There are health risks, particularly with too much sugar. There may also be a correlation between sugar and cancer growth.
But what I've been wondering is, does excess sugar impair our abilities to feel the guidance of the Spirit? Can it dull our spiritual senses? Might it prevent us from receiving more or greater revelations because of the effect it has on our bodies?
I have not found any doctrinal basis for any answers to any of those questions.
I wonder, is there a correlation between the amount of candy (and sugar) that is given out and consumed on and around Halloween, a day whose origins are not even close to being holy, and the increasing acceptance of the darkness, death, terror, and horror that are related to Halloween? Does increased sugar dull our senses and numb us spiritually?
It seems like a real possibility. Satan uses addictions to enslave people. Sugar is addictive. Sugar could certainly cloud some our senses. Would we be able to be more spiritually sensitive if our bodies didn't have as much sugar? This is not to say sugar is completely bad. Obviously there are some sugars (such as naturally occurring fructose, honey, and agave) which are better. It's the refined white sugar that is mostly in question. I'm not convinced it is all bad, but I think the "good for you" threshold is probably a lot lower than we are led to believe.
A few interesting facts:
- Halloween spending is at a record high
- Utah is among the top 5 states for Halloween spending.
Most people in Utah probably just see Halloween as a fun holiday to celebrate. A way to be actually be a part of the world, to show others Mormons aren't boring sticks in the mud. Candy isn't forbidden, like alcohol, tea, or coffee, so it's easier to justify its use. And we haven't been counseled to not celebrate the day.
However, I think Satan has been working hard at numbing people to what Halloween is, to become accepting of "harmless" evil, and to open our homes and expose our families to more darkness. It's origins are in superstition, darkness, and the occult. But since the 1950's it has evolved into an apparent family-friendly, children-oriented holiday.
I used to think Halloween was harmless as long as you didn't get into the darker aspects of it. And it was fun. Mostly I think that view is still valid, but it is getting increasingly harder to avoid the darker parts of Halloween because the dark parts are presented in an apparent "harmless" format.
As I've watched it grow and expand in popularity, from the trick-or-treaters and being more oriented towards children, to the multiplicity of the haunted houses, houses of terror, and the popularity of putting the occult on display, I have grown more concerned.
Generally speaking, I don't think carved pumpkins, costumes, and various decorations are portals or invitations for evil spirits to enter into our homes, unless we are already welcoming to those spirits. However, the thoughts and actions we put into these Halloween activities do have the potential to open ourselves, our homes, and our families to increased attacks. When we accept a witch, zombie, ghost, vampire, the occult, or other Halloween horror, terror, or fear to decorate our homes, we teach our children to become more curious about these things. Our examples show whether or not these things are accepted in our home. It can give someone the idea, and even an assumed permission, to explore and experiment with the darkness, evils spirits, and the occult. This is what opens our homes and exposes vulnerabilities to those who follow the adversary. If evil spirits were not already trying to get into our homes, then you can consider a pumpkin carved with an evil-looking face would certainly be an invitation for evil spirits to try harder to find a weakness into the hearts of those in the home.
Regarding the carving of pumpkins, while there are possible origins to other traditions, it seems that carving a pumpkin in early America was associated with harvest time, and wasn't associated with Halloween until the late 19th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Whether or not Halloween should be celebrated is debatable. As mentioned, I'm fairly certain it won't be celebrated during the Millennium. It is very much a telestial celebration. I'm not aware of any general authority saying we should not celebrate Halloween, and I've never heard any say it's okay to celebrate it. I have heard a few mention something along the lines of Halloween not being their favorite holiday. Maybe we should take that as a clue that we could do something better.
And then there's the view of, does it match what is described in Article of Faith 13? Halloween is generally not "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy." Based on that, it would probably be better to not celebrate Halloween.
What to do for this year is still a question, without an absolute answer. Like last year, I am not putting up my Halloween decorations. I miss the fun, but I don't miss the time involved. I will probably end up getting rid of those decorations which cannot be repurposed. As for the children, we will probably take our kids out trick-or-treating this year. But we will be looking for alternatives for the future, and we may just continue to deemphasize and minimalize Halloween. I want our children to have a buy-in to the alternative and not feel like we are just trying to keep them from having fun. Maybe we'll start getting more Thanksgiving oriented earlier.
It would be great if there was a big storm that day and evening, and the kids wouldn't want to go out.
--update, 10 November 2017
As it turned out, an aunt passed away and we went out of town. We were expecting to be back before, or at least early on, Halloween. It didn't work out.
The only trick-or-treating the kids had was in a Walmart store we stopped at while driving back home. They got some candy at the various departments in the store.
When we originally told them on Monday that we probably would not be back in time for trick-or-treating, there was some outright disappointment. But the took the opportunity on Monday to do some things as a family which we probably won't get a chance again to do. That set us back, and got us home late...actually it was about 4 AM Wednesday morning when we pulled into the driveway.
I don't recall much of any complaints about missing Halloween. Yes, the kids missed some Halloween activities at school because we were out of town. But, the kids got to experience some things they wouldn't have otherwise.
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