Halloween Dos and Don’ts

One thing I love about being a Cradle Catholic is that I grew up celebrating Halloween. You might be surprised to learn that Halloween is a Catholic holiday. As the Word on Fire website says, it’s time for Catholics to embrace Halloween. So here are some Dos and Don’t to make your Halloween a great one.

DO choose your costumes wisely.

In spite of the stereotype, there are great costume ideas for women that don’t involve dressing like a hooker. You can easily take advantage of the fact that Halloween is the eve of All Saint’s Day and dress up as your favorite saint. Plus there are awesome female characters to dress as like Supergirl, Peggy Carter, Katniss Everdeen, and the Crystal Gems from Steven Universe. Women don’t have to fall into the Princess/Slut complex on Halloween night. In fact, I see Halloween as an opportunity for girls and women to think outside of the box and be creative.

DON’T play around with ouija boards or try summoning rituals.

I avoid ouija boards like the plague. Granted, according to Ed and Lorraine Warren’s website, the real danger comes in when people invite ghosts or demons in, but the problem is that most people who play around with ouija boards or try summoning rituals don’t know that. They think it’s all just pretend or that the forces they’re summoning aren’t dangerous.

DO watch some awesome Halloween related specials!

One thing I love about Halloween are all the awesome Halloween specials on TV as well as the large number of Halloween-themed movies. I highly recommend The Nightmare Before Christmas, It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and Hocus Pocus. I also liked the Halloweentown movies from Disney Channel.  If you’re up for more PG13 material, I recommend the original Halloween movie and Wes Craven’s Scream series. Guilty pleasures include Rocky Horror Picture Show and Saw. They’re not family-friendly but Rocky Horror is a hilarious musical and Saw is a fascinating character study when you get past the “torture porn.”

One web series I recommend is Frankenstein, MD, a modern adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Right now, though, I’m getting into this cool musical series called Muzzled the Musical out on YouTube that I think is perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit. Check it out:

DON’T be afraid to scare your kids.

There are a lot of great family-friendly scary movies out there such as Coraline or Disney’s animated movie Sleepy Hollow. Scary things can be exciting for kids and, if done right, teaching kids to face their fears can help them deal with handling their problems on their own as they grow up. Scary movies can be like what the original Grimm Fairy Tales were, a way to teach kids that “dragons can be killed,” to quote Chesterton.

DO be safe if you decide on going out.

I’m gonna be spending Halloween Weekend with my friends on retreat. It’s my first time since college that I went out for Halloween. If you’re gonna go out with friends, make sure that your time out is a safe one. Don’t take candy from strangers at the bar. It might not be candy. Also, make sure that any candy you get while trick-or-treating is safe to eat. I have food allergies, so I can’t exactly have kit-kat bars. Get candy you know your kids can eat and google whatever candy you don’t recognize. If you’re handing out or making candy, print out small ingredient lists.

Have a fun and safe Halloween, y’all and pray for me and my friends while I go on retreat this weekend!