Halloween Eve

Ok - by definition, Halloween is the 'eve' for All Saints Day, which makes it a bit odd to have a Halloween Eve, but we did. The Westminster Children's Center celebrated its 20th anniversary operating a quality day care center in downtown Beaumont. We had a fall festival this evening, inviting current and past families and staff to come out for fun and games and hotdogs, chips, and drinks.

Children in non-scary costumes wandered through the building, getting their faces painted, "fishing" for candy and what turned out to be real fish, bowling for toys, making brightly colored masks, walking in circles for cakes and cookies, popping ballons by sitting on them, and other games.

The biggest draw was the hayride. Putt-putting along behind a four-wheeler, the kids and their parents went on a ride in the parking lots around the church. But it's not a real Halloween hayride if you don't have at least one scary moment, right? So a couple of the adults took turns stepping out from behind the trees and saying "Boo!" *smile* The requisite screeches were a hoot!

I remember my first haunted house was in the basement of the manse next to the church we belonged to in Ft. Worth. The members prepared a mildly scary spook house with all the traditional elements - "eyeballs" and "brains" and some guy who came up out of a coffin loaned by a local funeral home. You entered the basement through a window and came screeching out the door at the other side. Afterward was a feast of hotdogs and marshmallows roasted on an open fire. (ummmmmmmm.....no, I didn't put the marshmallows ON the hotdog. *chuckle*) The temperature was a bit cooler than it is here in Beaumont right now, so that fire was a real blessing!

I have never truly understood those who have a problem with Halloween. I have a much more difficult time with churches setting up "Hell Houses" to "scare the Hell out of" those who come through. There's not only sloppy theology involved, but the premise strikes me as being emotionally violent. Halloween and it's generally tame visiting of homes and stores to shout "Trick or Treat" and say "thank you" when receiving candy from those places is a much more benign event. I'll admit it's changed mightily since I was a child, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that dressing up in a costume (even if it does wander over into witches and ghouls) for one day out of the year will imperil one's soul. God's much bigger than that, and certainly filled with a grace and love which transcends our annual attack of silliness and camoflauge.

Trick or Treat!