Halloween is so appealing, and if you have kids like me, you may not be able to escape hearing about it for the whole fall season. Being one of the few moms in my close circle of friends that does not celebrate Halloween makes it harder to explain to my four year old daughter why our house does not partake in the celebration. In the spirit of raising kind humans, I want my children to celebrate their differences while respecting others.
Growing up, I never celebrated Halloween because I grew up in Haiti and the holiday that is equivalent to Halloween is not this cute little parade of fun that North America enjoys. There are no costumes for the kids and definitely no candy from random houses. Halloween in Haiti is called Guédé which is a pack of spirit with the power of death, waiting at crossroads to take souls into the afterlife. Scary right? Except this is the real kind of scary, not the one you get from the kid with the creepy costume while knowing deep down that it is not real.
Growing up in the church, my parents never entertained such celebrations for obvious reasons, so it became one of the things that I am not interested in. To be honest, when I was teaching I participated one year with my class just because I wanted to give the kids a party, it was fine but it made me realize that I changed my mind for the wrong reason, I can celebrate with my students any other time but in this particular moment, I can teach them that it is okay to be different, it is okay to live by different rules without being rude and obnoxious to others.
Now that being said, I still have a four year old jumping up and down, excited about the idea of North American Halloween, my reasoning behind it does not mean much to her yet, and it shouldn’t because she’s a kid but I feel even more compelled to do fall activities with her because I don’t want her to feel like all is cancelled because we do not celebrate Halloween. Fall is a beautiful season and it is worth celebrating. So we love a good pumpkin patch, a nice visit to the farm, or just enjoy Mother Nature in her colorful state. This year, we might even take the kids to a tailgate depending on New England’s weather.
Life is beautiful when we learn to coexist while respecting and celebrating each other’s differences. I personally think some of the costumes are adorable, but as for me and my family, we will skip this one. So next time one of your friends declines the invitation to go trick or treating with you, it is not the end of the world, instead of pushing, invite her out for a coffee date at Starbucks, after all, there are still so much more to do in the fall.
If there are rules and traditions that are dear to your family, let me know in the comments how you are maintaining them while everybody else is doing the opposite.
This is exactly how I feel. Thanks for sharing this, it’s very well written sis.