Monday, October 27, 2014

The most magical night of the year

You GUYS...this, THIS post is why I love Halloween so darn much. It's about magic and mischief and a little bit of gleeful naughty-pants-ness.  It's about imagining, for one amazing night, that we're something bigger, better, stronger, shinier, brighter than we are every other day of the year. It's about staying up late and out past dark.  Eating enough sugar to give you a bellyache.  Getting to wear red lipstick and eye shadow, despite the fact you still have your baby teeth.  It's all a big game of Pretend, and I LOVE it. It's Magic, at it's finest.

And the frosting on the cake?  We get to share it with everyone around us.  I wish I knew all my neighbors, but I just don't. I do, however, know that the single guy around the corner loves kids, despite having none of his own, and gives out goody bags and compliments generously.  There's that house few streets over that always sets up a mini-haunted house in their garage for the kids and hands out popcorn to waiting parents.  I love that often teenagers (who are really big kids themselves) tone down the scare-factor of their door-greetings for the littlest ones and amp it up a bit for the slightly-bigger ones. I love watching the couple who as newlyweds handed out candy one year, then had a new baby of their own the next, and goes trick-or-treating along with the rest of us now.  One day a year I don't have to apologize for our rowdiness, our volume, the sheer numbers of our brood...everyone is welcomed.  There is candy and smiles for all.  Chubby fingers, sticky smiles, and both the shy mumbles and gleeful shrieks of Trick-or-Treat. I love it ALL.

People get so distracted when it comes to the holidays.  They shake their fists at Santa because he takes away from Christ, presents because they distract from the Gift of the Atonement.  People grimace at the work and money that goes into Halloween costumes, rant about the teenagers that come around with half-costumes and pillowcases, even complaining that we celebrate a holiday that's all about evil and black magic.  They're missing the point!  Santa and presents ARE about Christ and candy and costumes ARE about joy and magic...the good kind.  It's all about what you make it be about.  If you focus on the negative, then you miss the magical.  As Beth said in her post,

"As for me, though, I don’t want to miss out on the magic because I feel to the marrow of my bones that we find that of Love there."

And that, folks, is what it's all about.  Love...both the general kind and the Christ-kind, with a capitol L.  I just know that He would be handing out candy and guessing costumes with the best of them and loving every minute of it.  I know that I sure do.

Ok, well, believe it or not, this rant of mine is actually just intended to be a prelude to one of my very favorite posts from one of my very favorite blogs.  Enjoy!

On Robin Hood, His Merry Men, and Why We Celebrate Halloween. Even as Christians