Halloween?

[Aaron Wake]

I have already spoken with my Priest concerning this. I was curious to find out what other Orthodox Christians do for halloween. This will be our first halloween as Orthodox Christians. We also have our first born which will be her first halloween as well. My gut feeling is to not have her dress up or have her take part in any of the activities that night (Really not going to go well with our families!). What do other parents do for halloween? And if you do not let them dress up or go trick or treating, do you also keep them out of school when the rest of the kids dress up? How far do you take it?

On the other hand, I know she's gonna have to deal with it someday. Maybe just not at such a young age. What are your thoughts?

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

I have already spoken with my Priest concerning this. I was curious to find out what other Orthodox Christians do for halloween. This will be our first halloween as Orthodox Christians. We also have our first born which will be her first halloween as well. My gut feeling is to not have her dress up or have her take part in any of the activities that night (Really not going to go well with our families!). What do other parents do for halloween? And if you do not let them dress up or go trick or treating, do you also keep them out of school when the rest of the kids dress up? How far do you take it?

On the other hand, I know she's gonna have to deal with it someday. Maybe just not at such a young age. What are your thoughts?


One thing that's helpful is that the feast day of St John of Kronstadt always falls on that day. So in some parishes Vespers or Vigil is done on this evening.
I was going to say that this would only apply if you're on the Old Calendar. But now I remember a New Calendar parish that also did the service to St John on this day.

Your idea of speaking with parents about this sounds excellent.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Panagiotis]

Question:

SOmewhere I read in the last few years that the presentation of skeletons and most of the acts done in the Western Practice of Halloween a blasphemy of the Holy relics?

Blessings,
Panagiotis

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Question:

SOmewhere I read in the last few years that the presentation of skeletons and most of the acts done in the Western Practice of Halloween a blasphemy of the Holy relics?

Blessings,
Panagiotis

In the west this is still All Saints eve (thus Hallowed evening: Halowe'en) on the Roman Catholic calendar. I don't know that the distortion of Hallowe'en is related to relics. From what I've heard it's more an old superstition that the spirits of the dead would come out on this evening. Combine the externals of this superstition with a large dose of commercialism and you have Hallowe'en.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Chrissi]

Father Bless.


I have already spoken with my Priest concerning this. I was curious to find out what other Orthodox Christians do for halloween. This will be our first halloween as Orthodox Christians. We also have our first born which will be her first halloween as well. My gut feeling is to not have her dress up or have her take part in any of the activities that night (Really not going to go well with our families!). What do other parents do for halloween? And if you do not let them dress up or go trick or treating, do you also keep them out of school when the rest of the kids dress up? How far do you take it?

On the other hand, I know she's gonna have to deal with it someday. Maybe just not at such a young age. What are your thoughts?

Addressing the point concerning what other Orthodox Christians do for Halloween:

We have never "celebrated" it in my immediate family. For us, Halloween is when the young children in our area get aggressive and it's not such a good idea to go out at night. Although, it has become less recognised over the past few years and we have been able to relax.

We try to go to church on that night when we are able. I've been brought up not really paying attention to the night anyway :D

In Christ,
Christina

[Chrissi]

In the west this is still All Saints eve (thus Hallowed evening: Halowe'en) on the Roman Catholic calendar. I don't know that the distortion of Hallowe'en is related to relics. From what I've heard it's more an old superstition that the spirits of the dead would come out on this evening. Combine the externals of this superstition with a large dose of commercialism and you have Hallowe'en.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

Father Bless.

I've heard too that this is an occassion for the "spirits of the dead" to rise and the "witches" (and other things) of the world to celebrate, or something thereabout. November 1st became a holy day in the Roman Catholic calender in about 835AD to honour all the saints (All Saints Day), and years later November 2 was made a holy day to honour the souls of the departed. This mixed with festivals from various other regions to create Hallowe'en. I think that this distortion may have something to do with the " blasphemy against the holy relics" as mentioned by Panagiotis.

In Christ,
Christina

[Irene]

We are lucky enough to have daily services available to us so we usually can go to Church. This way we feel we are doing the opposite of people around us and in my mind counteracting it a tiny bit. ...In Christ, irene

[Chrissi]

We are lucky enough to have daily services available to us so we usually can go to Church. This way we feel we are doing the opposite of people around us and in my mind counteracting it a tiny bit. ...In Christ, irene

I hope that on "Hallowe'en" we are all able to either attend church, or serve a molieben at home.

In Christ,
Christina

[Kris]

Hi,

I found this article on Father Alexander's website. The first part speaks about Halloween (the second is a rather hysterical take on Harry Potter). Just thought it might be of interest:

The feast of the pumpkin (http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/halloween_e.htm)

In XC,
Kris

[Herman Blaydoe]

While I agree it is entertaining, it still propogates some rather disconcerting myths. There is no Feast of Samhain. Never happened. You can find out more here: The Myth of Samhain (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm)

[Aaron Wake]

Thank you all so much for your advice. Family is already asking us what we area going to dress the little one up as. I am hoping we will have a service that night we can attend instead.

[Aaron Wake]

I read the article of feast of the pumpkin on Fr. Alexanders website. Very nice. I don't know that I could possibly keep my kid out of school for the entire month of October though. I think that might be a bit overkill. I don't know. I'm getting so many differing opinons over this.

Peace

[Irene]

I don't know that I could possibly keep my kid out of school for the entire month of October though. I think that might be a bit overkill. I don't know. I'm getting so many differing opinons over this.
Peace

Dear Aaron, So much for you to think about!

Is Halloween a whole season, a whole month and not just a day? I guess we are still lucky here.

I don't think it is just we, the Orthodox, who object to this celebration. I am sure I have heard other Christians complaining about it too. Maybe there are enough parents that somehow you can avoid it, if that is what you decide to do.

Of course everything is so hard on our poor children, confusing, conflicting messages.

I never did any Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny things with my children. I believed that encouraging them to believe in these fantasies would later tempt them to be cynical about the truth of our faith. We generally can't see what we believe in, can we.... ("blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed")*

......and, in our modern world, with TV, some books (that schools make children study), magazines, newspapers, talk from worldy friends etc... our childrens minds are absolutely swamped by messages that not Christian, not Orthodox and that stays in their minds their whole life, it just sits there like a small amount of toxin that we are not aware of and maybe it only hurts us when a little more is added to that and it becomes something more serious, a spiritual sickness.

Do you know Dr David Suzuki? He recently talked (again) about how frogs can sense temperature change if it is sudden, but put a poor frog in a saucepan over a low heat and it won't notice the temperature rising, the poor thing would happily sit there until it died. Dr Suzuki was comparing human beings with frogs in terms of the environment. I wonder if we are like the boiling frogs in terms of letting the little things add up in our lives and in our childrens lives.

How wonderful are the parents who are home schooling their children, giving them a strong grounding in their Orthodox life. (Though what a hard job that must be.)

Anyway even though I deprived my children of all these modern fantasy figures like Santa they never seemed to miss them the stories of the Saints and miracles with in our Church were plenty to keep them spellbound.

In Christ
irene

[Patrick Lee]

I read the article of feast of the pumpkin on Fr. Alexanders website. Very nice. I don't know that I could possibly keep my kid out of school for the entire month of October though. I think that might be a bit overkill. I don't know. I'm getting so many differing opinons over this.

Peace


I think that would be some level of overkill. We, too, just recently became Orthodox, but have never celebrated Halloween. The one thing I can tell you is to be prepared for a fight. My mom was the worst (but fortunately is located on the East Coast). We've told the teachers that we don't want the kids coloring witches and skeletons and the like. Unfortunately they also end up doing projects with bats and spiders and the like. Can't do much about that, as it is generally science focused, and so we would be forced into a complex argument with the school about their intent in studying bats. Not worth it really.

We don't give out candy or anything, but we don't get many trick or treaters in the neighborhood. We've also explained to our children over the year our two biggest objections to the holiday. The first is that it is a holiday which glorifies evil and death - I don't care if your child dresses us up as a bunny, that is what the holiday does. The second is that the whole trick or treat thing, while it has mellowed, is rooted in a thinly veiled form of extortion. So, as our children get older they don't seem as bothered about missing out. I think being Orthodox will only help as they will develop an appreciation of holiness and beauty, and the need to make that a part of their daily life, far beyond that we could do as AngloCatholics.

Now, I should conclude by noting that I am merely a layperson, neophyte, and sinner, and not necessarily in that order. Therefore, my comments should be taken for what they're worth. I've developed a habit of getting in trouble with my views on Halloween on numerous online discussion fora over the years, so I won't be surprised about getting in trouble for it here. :)

[Patrick Lee]

Is Halloween a whole season, a whole month and not just a day? I guess we are still lucky here.

Of course everything is so hard on our poor children, confusing, conflicting messages.

I never did any Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny things with my children. I believed that encouraging them to believe in these fantasies would later tempt them to be cynical about the truth of our faith. We generally can't see what we believe in, can we.... ("blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed")*


Thank you for these words.

First of all, Halloween has become one of the most popular holidays here in America. If you ask a lot of adults, it is their favorite. An excuse for heavy partying and questionable attire. And in the schools it does pretty much occupy the entire month of October.

I will concur with you on the other fantasies, for exactly the same reasons. We celebrate St. Nicholas on his day, the Lord's resurrection on Pascha, and have (but not consistently) given money to the children, not from the tooth fairy, but as rather a gift in honor of St. Luke. I'm not sure if the focus is quite right, but its better than tooth fairies.

[Olga]

What is the significance of gifts in honour of St Luke? Very interesting!

[Patrick Lee]

What is the significance of gifts in honour of St Luke? Very interesting!

This was something we just made up as he was a physician. I realize that there are other saints having more to do with dentists, but when we first started this some 6 years ago, that's what we hit on. Gave us an excuse to do the tooth fairy routine while not introducing fantasy characters that we would have to admit didn't really exist down the road.