In my early days as a follower of Jesus, in the churches I associated, having a beard or long hair was preached against. This was a reaction to cultural movement that was taking place during the 60s and 70s. Though beards and long hair had been a part of mainstream culture through out history, it was now a sin to wear a beard or for a man to have long hair. During that time, many churches stopped celebrating the Americanized version of Halloween. Instead they started having Harvest Parties. They discouraged their members from participating in Trick or Trick, the wearing of costumes or just wearing costumes that were benign in image. I started studying church history and as I dug deeper, I became aware that so much of what we practiced as traditions were result of knee jerk reactions by the Institutional Church. So, many of you will have your Harvest Parties or whatever it is that you do in place of Halloween or Trick or Treat”. That is fine. Many of you have varying and different reasons for celebrating or not celebrating this tradition. But, before you look down your nose at those who may celebrate Halloween because your church is having a Harvest Party, just remember Samhain was a celebration of the harvest by the Celtic people of Scotland, Ireland and England. It is okay to celebrate how you choose. Just watch how you judge others. Because you never know where the roots of your celebrations originated.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:59:16 +0000
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