Halloween: A Little Slice of Hell or Could it Be Heaven?

Halloween is the “day of the dead.” If you go back and look at the history of Halloween which stems from Celtic tradition, the mark of their New Year was November 1st (which coincides with “All Saints Day”). According to www.History.com , they believed on the eve before their New Year, October 31st, “the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.”

Now, this is a bunch of nonsense. Many traditions that we cling to are a bunch of nonsense. We do, however, like to continue our traditions and our nonsense. We don’t like change and we don’t like to dismiss anything and just throw it to the wayside. So, I would like to continue this nonsensical tradition and improve “the day of the dead” to be something more meaningful and perhaps something that does not scare the hell out of our children.

Now, really, “the day of the dead,” should be about commemorating the dead. So let’s suppose we did this every Halloween. We commemorate the ones we love or influential figures that have died to ensure that they didn’t die in vein and that their spirit lived on.

If you have questions or comments about this article, please share them with me at beth@empathylessons.com.

- Elizabeth Fink, October 29, 2008We could still enjoy our children going out for treats and visiting our neighbors. We could still enjoy dressing up in costumes. However, we could dress up like the people who have died and go around sharing their message, the positive things they brought to the world, the stories we tell about them, their quotes, their purpose. That would truly be when “the boundary between the world of the living and the dead became blurred.”

Also, since it is the “day of the dead,” how about dress in angel costumes? Would we really like to think that our dead relatives and loved ones are walking around like zombies somewhere as skeletons? Are we really commemorating the dead by doing that?

Halloween, honestly, is a tradition for our children. Wouldn’t you rather be sharing wisdom with them to live their lives better from beyond rather than scaring the hell out of them with skeletons and the like?

Now… honestly… is it so incredibly frightening to change Halloween up a bit?