It’s the holiday season y’all!!….One that brings excitement to most American kids (mine included) but also brings along lessons from diehard enforcers of certain traditions and morals.
Most jews don’t celebrate Christmas, they have Hanukkah..most muslims have Ramadan, and Hanukkah has no significance for them,…. for us Christians?, well we have Christmas!! the real day, and anything else is “shoulder-shruggable”… and if you’re in America, there’s a day around the last week of November that is tightly held as Thanksgiving….I mean how dare you not give thanks for everything the Lord has done for you all year? ..( I work any Thanksgiving I can so my coworkers can spend it with their families)…

So you see, we all have holidays that mean everything and seem almost sacrilegious to skip….Even Halloween in some households is put above any other holiday. But… I don’t know why…. for some reason, Halloween gets the most criticism from almost all corners….the loudest reason “it’s evil!”

Whether it’s the ancient celtic festival of “Samhain” or the pagan ritual of ancient Britain (think Jack-o-lanterns) or western Christian “all hallows day/eve of Hallows “. Whichever side you feel Halloween emerged first, its significance with the ghoulish costumes and horror depictions cannot be missed.
Understandably, the more pious crowds have strictly forbidden any ounce of participation and continue to preach as morally obligated…some not so pious cautiously partake in it by choosing mild and benign costumes like angels or fairies and make sure to decorate modestly so as not to be mistaken whose side they’re on.

And then there are the enthusiasts…the ones whose homes you’d swear are haunted long after Halloween because they spare no imagination as they decorate their house of horrors…God bless America (I had to say that).
If you’re looking for the right answers on this blog, there are none…so you can stop reading now…for the rest of those who wonder why year after year I deck my home in moderate horror and indulge the kids in costumes of their choosing…read on.
Growing up in Africa, the only mythical figure I can remember was father Christmas..no tooth fairy, no Easter bunny, nada..zilch….so obviously Halloween is a major stretch for me.
I have always declared that I am a Christian by faith, but I shy away from the fanaticism attached to proving to the world that I’m a good one. My household partakes in almost everything standard on the holiday calendar…why? because it’s fun,..pure and simple …after all, ain’t they all pagan holidays?…Easter, Christmas, Halloween..all of them!. Their real meanings have either evolved to suit the times or lost in translation(you can look it up).

p.s, I know my daughter has figured out that there’s no Santa,  but she cleverly hides this knowledge so she can tactfully ask “Santa” for exactly what she wants 😋….mama didn’t raise no fool 💪🏿.

I don’t put energy into trying to decide every aspect of what to partake in. I, however, do expend energy into teaching the kids right from wrong, how to be decent human beings, how to have faith in him who’s greater than them and how to make informed decisions…key word being “informed”. Kids are curious by nature because everything seems new to them, ….I cherish this time when questions are asked but I also know that I don’t have all the answers. I’m not afraid to say to them “I don’t know” because every question is an opportunity for me to find out as well, not just them.
Maybe they’ll grow up and I’ll find out I did it all wrong,… or all right, …or as most parenting, I won some and lost some…. I’m okay with that, …all the parenting books of contradicting information I read got me nowhere.., so I choose to lead with love.
Happy Holidays, don’t take life too seriously, as they say, you won’t get out alive anyway.
afromomma says.