My childhood was pretty straight forward. I knew what I could and couldn’t do. You know why? Because I am a preacher’s kid. That’s right, “PK” all day. This is why I can’t imagine what it’s like to go trick-or-treating. And I think it’s pretty late in the evening to try and find out.
When I was younger we did not celebrate Halloween. We celebrated Harvest. It was a modified way for churches to celebrate. Instead of trick-or-treating we had a Harvest Festival that way kids didn’t feel like they were missing out.
I attended a Christian school in my early elementary school days. We still came dressed up in a costume, but then later that night we would come back with our families and the festival was held at the church.
As I got older, and moved on to public school I no longer had anything to look forward to. All my friends had plans on Halloween, and I looked forward to going home and pretending I wasn’t home when trick-or-treaters came. One year they were standing at the front door and my parents and I saw them, turned off all the lights, hopped in the car and took off.
When I got even older, I did start to feel like I was missing out just a little. In high school it started to seem pretty silly that I had to sit at home on Halloween. So, me being the upfront person that I am, I started to question my parents. I even thought about sneaking out my junior year.
But due to how I was raised and the meaning of Halloween that I was taught, I do not support the occasion. Even though I may have missed out, I probably would not take any of it back.
My parents taught me very valuable lessons and I know they were only doing their best. They’ve always made up for those missed Halloweens in some way.
I’m in college now so the way we celebrate Halloween is much different. Even though I’ve always technically been able to dress up it’s still pretty new to me. But sometimes I still feel guilty for going out on Halloween. However, I am proud those morals are still instilled in me to this day because in our society that’s hard to hold on to.