While many people’s children dress up in costumes and trick or treat door to door, others enjoy harvest festivals with all the fall trimmings and fun activities like corn mazes and bobbing for apples.
Halloween is a favorite holiday and time of year for many children here in the Dallas area. However, some families choose not to celebrate Halloween, mainly for Faith-based reasons. Those who do not believe in ghosts and spirits are not usually big fans of Halloween. If so, then what do you say when your child asks about Halloween? Instead of saying negative things about Halloween and imputing that upon people who celebrate it, try explaining to your child the history of Halloween and that everyone celebrates times of year in their own way. While many people’s children dress up in costumes and trick or treat door to door, others enjoy harvest festivals with all the fall trimmings and fun activities like corn mazes and bobbing for apples.
Telling children about the History of Halloween
It is important to spend quality time with your children and talking about holidays and their histories is a great opportunity to talk about something interesting, other than daily life. It can be fun explaining to children how holidays like Halloween developed over hundreds of years of traditions that adapt and change over time.
The History Channel does a good job telling the story of early celebrations of an ancient Celtic festival on All Hallows Eve, and how in other times November 1, All Saints Day was celebrated with many of the old Celtic traditions including costumes. Carving jack-o-lanterns and trick or treating are traditions that developed over time and are more modern elements of present-day Halloween.
Celebrating fall and harvest season on October 31
Regardless of your personal beliefs about Halloween, holidays are all about the children when you have younger ones. On October 31
st you can certainly create a modified Halloween-Harvest celebration or something similar, to incorporate pumpkins and traditional decoration without the ghosts and goblins if that is not your preference. As the History Channel video suggests, holidays and how they are celebrated are up to the individual and there is no way to do it wrong. Have fun and enjoy the time with your children.
