Celebrating Halloween Despite Food Allergies

Why do I personally think Halloween is such a pain-in-the-butt holiday?  Not religious reasons.  I dread it because it is the first event in the Fall Feasts Triathalon, one of the worst times of year for families with food allergies.  (The other two legs are Thanksgiving and Christmas, with their huge food offerings to navigate.)   What is the quintessential fall food image?

Photo credit: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives

Yep. It's everybody gathered around that groaning table, fork in hand, while Grandpop carves the golden cornbread-stuffed turkey and you anticipate the gorge on Aunt Susie's candied pecan pie.  And the sideboard holiday images: enough candy to rot an entire village's worth of teeth, and the cookie swaps that must include Great-Auntie Sophie's sour cream spritz recipe from the Old Country.  What do we associate with holiday memories? Food.  Even the current outrage over opening stores on Thanksgiving Thursday night instead of waiting until what barely passes for Black Friday morning is so that store employees can stay home and eat dinner with their families. Not watch Thanksgiving football, not watch a Thanksgiving parade, but eat dinner.  It's about the food.

Food allergic families I know are absolutely THRILLED when people give out something beside candy, like pencils or bubbles or stickers.   (Including our family.)  Most of us aren't inherently anti-sugar. We just like our children alive and breathing at the end of the party.   Forget the razorblades of lore -- I'm inspecting for ingredient labels.  Every label, every time; no label, no go.  My kids know that they're not really collecting candy for themselves -- most of it winds up being put in a "not safe for us" bag and given away. They want to participate in Trunk-or-Treat at school, and not have to explain why they aren't attending yet another food-based event, or repeat  "No, thank you, I can't have that, I'm just here to be with my friends..." over and over.  They don't want to have to list all of their allergies to well-meaning neighbors who say "Well, you can have this one -- there's no peanuts!" when it's soy or egg will actually make them experience anaphylactic shock.  Did you know that candies made in holiday "fun" sizes often have different ingredients than the year-round "regular" sizes? 

Add in the endless rounds of school parties (for all three holidays), and it sounds like Halloween in this house isn't all that fun and not worth celebrating.  But yes, we still celebrate it.  And people ask, why would you celebrate something you don't get anything out of? Isn't the point of Halloween to gather massive amounts of candy?

I'm sharing Matthew's essay from last week as to why our family celebrates Halloween.  Many people refuse to acknowledge the holiday because Halloween is a Christianization of a "pagan" ritual.  On the other hand, so are the traditions of Christmas trees and Easter eggs; even the monk's tonsure that we associate with saints like Francis of Assisi comes from the Greek and Roman tradition of shaving slaves' heads to indicate subservience.  Sure, All Hallow's Eve co-opts the festivals of Samhain, but often I wonder if modern Halloween has been so commandeered by commercial confectioners and chocolatiers (not unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas!) that we've lost sight of the original point of ANY former interpretation of the holiday.

Matthew summed up our "religious" and "family" reasons for celebrating.  We trick-or-treat to spend time together.  In the past, we have gone to the neighborhood where I grew up.  My parents would give out treats we brought to share, and we would visit with old friends we don't often get to see.  This year we will be celebrating with our school family at the HSA-sponsored "Trunk or Treat,"  and giving out non-food treats so that everyone can have something special in their baskets.  As for the treats my children receive -- well, yes, we trade the younger ones a small gifts in exchange for anything unsafe.  The older ones simply give it away, learning a lesson in that what seems a trial to them is a blessing to others.  And really, isn't suffering trials gladly (or at least with a minimum of wishing things were different) the hallmark of Christ's greatest act of love?

Matthew Falciani

October 2013

Persuasive

Celebrate Halloween!

            Halloween should be observed by anyone who wants to celebrate it.  Families spend time together.  Children use their imaginations.  In addition, Christians may choose to commemorate the meaning of “All Hallows’ Eve” with a religious perspective.

            Halloween allows families to spend time together.  Trick-or-treating is a fun way to spend time together and visit with neighbors.  Some schools and churches also hold trunk-or-treating parties, where many families get together and decorate their cars’ trunks and celebrate the holiday as a community.  Families hold Halloween parties and may invite extended family and friends.  At the parties, families may play games as teams.  They work together to create an enjoyable night.

            Imagination creates a festive evening.  Telling spooky Halloween stories uses imagination, too, by creating the story from spooky ideas and then retelling it to others.  Designing decorations allows you to creatively use fall themed materials.  Costumes allow people to pretend to be someone else:  a role model, a hero, or just a fun character.   You can even imagine life as one of your ancestors.

            Christians may choose to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve in a more traditional way.  This night often sees vigils kept for those who have died.  On this night, some Christians celebrate with prayer.  Even if one celebrates a modern Halloween with tricks, a religious themed event can include reflections on Bible stories where God was glorified through tricks.  Esther tricked Haman and the king and saved the Jewish people.  The Egyptian Pharaoh’s wizards did tricks to try to compete with God, but He ultimately triumphed at Passover when the wizards could not revive the Pharaoh’s son.

            Halloween is not an evil holiday.  Some may say it refers to non-Christian traditions, but modern activities can be used to celebrate God.  Families can spend quality time together.  Children can use their imaginations.  Christian reflections can celebrate the bridge between earthly and heavenly life.  Christians should joyfully celebrate Halloween!

Halloween should be observed by anyone who wants to celebrate it.  Families spend time together.  Children use their imaginations.  In addition, Christians may choose to commemorate the meaning of “All Hallows’ Eve” with a religious perspective.

            Halloween allows families to spend time together.  Trick-or-treating is a fun way to spend time together and visit with neighbors.  Some schools and churches also hold trunk-or-treating parties, where many families get together and decorate their cars’ trunks and celebrate the holiday as a community.  Families hold Halloween parties and may invite extended family and friends.  At the parties, families may play games as teams.  They work together to create an enjoyable night.

            Imagination creates a festive evening.  Telling spooky Halloween stories uses imagination, too, by creating the story from spooky ideas and then retelling it to others.  Designing decorations allows you to creatively use fall themed materials.  Costumes allow people to pretend to be someone else:  a role model, a hero, or just a fun character.   You can even imagine life as one of your ancestors.

            Christians may choose to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve in a more traditional way.  This night often sees vigils kept for those who have died.  On this night, some Christians celebrate with prayer.  Even if one celebrates a modern Halloween with tricks, a religious themed event can include reflections on Bible stories where God was glorified through tricks.  Esther tricked Haman and the king and saved the Jewish people.  The Egyptian Pharaoh’s wizards did tricks to try to compete with God, but He ultimately triumphed at Passover when the wizards could not revive the Pharaoh’s son.

            Halloween is not an evil holiday.  Some may say it refers to non-Christian traditions, but modern activities can be used to celebrate God.  Families can spend quality time together.  Children can use their imaginations.  Christian reflections can celebrate the bridge between earthly and heavenly life.  Christians should joyfully celebrate Halloween!















©2012- 2013 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com