And yes, I do have my reasons.
First of all, I am not a veggie-health-nut or anything but I do not think that a 3.5 year old and his younger 2 year old brother need to have loads of free candy to exist on for the next two weeks. I have a hard enough time getting them to eat dinner NORMALLY � without the magic powers of the candy swaying them. My other choice in the candy matter is to not let them just have the candy and become The Candy Nazi. I do not like The Candy Nazi because it is overly reminiscent of my mother and all in all it takes to much effort to try and convenience them that even though the candy IS theirs that I am not letting them have it because� well, I have the power to stop them. I think that is just cruel and unfair.
Second of all� Halloween is an actual religious holiday to me and hopefully to my family (at some point soon.) I have decided that I really would like to raise the boys with a pagan background � not forcing them but just exposing them as I practice. Halloween or Samhain to us pagans is the holiday that focus� on the dead and the thinning of the veil between here and the Summerlands (the afterlife or Fairy Lands so to speak). It is a day to remember those who have passed before us and to give thanks that they may be reborn again but until then are watching over us here.
Costumes and disguises are old traditions to symbolize the thinning of the veil and set to remind us that on that day the dead and the spirits are nearer to us than all other times of the year. Some say it was to allow the spirits to walk among us without anyone knowing since they would just looked costumed also. Some say it was to protect themselves from being carried to the Summerland by a evil spirit � because their identity was masked. It is the time of night� when the year prior ends and then begins again the next day. This is for us New Year�s Day � the next holiday to come is Yule (which is the Winter Solstice and the Day of Light). On Halloween there is to be seed cakes and candy (as gifts of good will for the new year) and also prayer and silence � lit only by a single candle to show respect of the darkness.
I am not saying that my children will not join capitalist America in trick-or-treating because I am some sort of religious fanatic. My stronger reason is their age and the whole Candy Nazi issue but I WANT them to understand why I like Halloween. Why I spend the time before the day cleaning the house and getting rid of things that are broken or damaged or hold no value anymore. Why my alter now holds only one small white candle with a single pentacle drawn on it. Why tonight, I will pull out the picture of my cats who died in the fire and put them on the alter along with my sole remaining photo of Sorcha (my first cat) and her collar. I want them to realize that tonight I do not fear the darkness and I will not fear it from now to Yule � For the New Year has begun and with that I must change. Yule will bring the Day of Light and some great fun with that but now is my time of remembrance and my time of strength.
Yes, I think that there should be something more to Halloween costumes than Marvel Comic characters and My Little Ponies but I also believe that one is allowed their own interpretation of spirits and their form. I also do not like the idea of crude and bloodied corpses running around the town but once again I am not one to force my opinion on anyone. But I do think, and this I will stand by, that children should know WHY they are wearing a costume to disguise themselves and what it means. Not just to think they are doing it to get candy � and that is what you do.
I realize that there are some groups and people out there that do not want to let their kids participate in Halloween BECAUSE it is a pagan holiday. Fine. Just realize that most holidays have their root in the Old Religion � because that is the only place that roots can lie. In sometime deeper and older than Christianity � that is where the truth is for a lot of traditions and faiths. It does not make them less worth of your faith or beliefs. It also does not mean you have to say you agree with paganism. Just realize that we are all connected� in more ways than you think.
That is enough on that.
On a light note�.
I seemed to have lost my boyfriend. Not in the sense that we have broken up or drifted apart�. I just seemed to have misplaced him. I last remember seeing him last night when he came home with this strange box labeled �Final Fantasy XI � Online�. He borrowed my credit card and sat down in front of the computer. Hmm. It all goes a little fuzzy from that point on. I remember going to bed really late for me (midnight) and he was not there. I remember waking up at almost six in the morning and he still was not in bed. I think that after I got up at 7:30 that there might have been someone snoring in the bed as I got dressed but I cannot be sure because I didn�t see his face. The computer looked normal this morning but I cannot seem to find a conscious version of my boyfriend. Maybe he got trapped inside the computer� or else kidnapped by sprites and ogres.
If you find him or see him wandering the streets � could you send him home? I miss him.
There is a reward of $50 for him safe return to the non-digital land.
:-)