Monday, October 29, 2007

Ah, Halloween: You're a Thorny One

The leaves are orange, you wake up when it's still dark out, girls become sexy pirates or nurses and a few Christians feel marginalized because the secular realm doesn't view the carving of pumpkins as the literal conjuring up of Satan himself: it's Halloween!

I had a pretty fun pre-Halloween weekend. It's my favorite time of year- no doubt. My lesson today called for the kids to carve virtual pumpkins for a Halloween greeting card. It's normally well-received, but one teacher who came to my room started saying "Glorious god almighty, beautiful pumpkins for pumpkin pie, not carving..." while one of the students was "carving" it. Ummm...ok. No speaking in tongues yet, so that's fine.

So the student finished and created this:

Say your prayers and exorcise your demons! I find nothing too offensive about this, but then the teacher started saying "Ya know, not everyone celebrates this holiday and I don't appreciate it being pushed down my throat!" Ok, I understand. Your pastor told you, Ms. B, that Halloween is indeed the day when the devil harms this world by giving kids candy and adults the excuse to dress up and get crunk. I'm with that.

We settled things fairly. I told her I understood that she doesn't recognize this holiday and that she didn't have to participate, but that she could do something for Italian Heritage Month with a few kids if she wanted. Fair enough - Italians aren't eveil.

But I'm curious as to how we're going to teach Thanksgiving next month. Probably with this guy:

What should it be celebrated with?

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