Harvest Party or Halloween?

This is a hot topic these days in light of Halloween.  Are you worshipping Satan by going trick or treating?  Are you a good Christian if you hand out tracts instead of candy?  Many churches are doing alternative things for October 31st.  If you go trick or treating are you hurting someone who is weak in the faith and thinks doing anything like that is pagan?  What are you doing?

My understanding is that God looks on your heart.  God healed an Assyrian pagan who came to him with leprosy.  Then He sent Naaman right back into the pagan temple to walk the King of Assyria to his favored seat in the middle of that worship service and... Naaman was a baby Christian. 

God really is Lord of all.

What do you do on October 31st and why do you do it? 

You won't get any judgment here from me so please feel free to post.  And we all may find some new things to do.  You do have to be careful about hurting a brother or sister who thinks anything associated with Halloween is evil.  You are not evil but they may assume you are.  If you have such a brother in your midst, ask God how to speak to him, understanding he is weak in the faith as the scriptures say.  And ask Jesus to shore him up so he can walk free from fear.

Our tradition is to visit our neighborhood.  We don't do this to celebrate Halloween but to take advantage of the time when the community has their doors open to visit and our children know the difference. 

Many of the people we live with see us only at this time of year.  With all of our busyness, it's not always convenient or prudent to have coffee together.  Halloween is a time to chat for a minute.  The children get candy and we make a point of praying for each of our neighbors as we walk by their homes.  The girls dress up but not as anything scary.  I wouldn't get too upset by that if they did (as long as they weren't scaring someone else) because it can be a safe way of processing fear; it takes the power out of it.  We also teach them about the wiles of the Devil and how to avoid his religious and not so religious traps.

I've just finished publishing two horror stories for the Muse blog.  One is a tween story that is a helpful way of processing fear, as I mentioned earlier.  That really is the fascination with scary stories.  It takes fear that can paralyze us sometimes and makes it larger than life so we see how powerless it is.  The other story I wrote is a memoir story that is about a time a devilish entity tried to attack me and my friends and shows others how to deal with such a thing.  Reading the Bible is far more scary than most people realize because God educates His people about evil spirits and how to handle them.

Practicing Halloween as a pagan holiday, of course, is not appropriate for us as Christians, and we don't do that.  We also don't play Tarot cards, gaze into crystal balls or read tea leaves.  Our oracles come from God, not these other things.  But would I speak to someone who practices devination?  Yes, in order to bless them, not follow their craft. 

I'd love to hear what you do on October 31st.  Please post anonymously if you'd like to. 

Thanks everyone!