I closed the poll for the Halloween discussion last night. It was interesting to see how many churches are doing something at Halloween, and how the increasing popularity of the festival challenges us to think through how to respond in a godly way to our changing culture. Some of us find the whole thing a bit scary, though, it seems.
| Light Party |
24%
|
|---|---|
| Turning the lights off and hiding behind the sofa |
22%
|
| Giving out sweeties to trick or treaters |
16%
|
| Giving out tracts to trick or treaters |
16%
|
| Other |
14%
|
| Pumpkin Devotional |
4%
|
| A Light up the Night type walk |
2%
|
| Trick or Treating |
0%
|
| Going door to door giving out treats |
0%
|
As ever, the most fun and inspiring part of the poll has been the ‘other’ answers. I was very encouraged to find out that people would be praying. Not necessarily so sure about trying to get the Vicar drunk though. And I can’t be the only one who finds the prospect of a Churches Together disco extremely alarming, surely?
| All Souls Day Eve Prayer/All Hallows Evensong | 2 |
|---|---|
| Barn Dance (though I’d rather be behind the sofa!) | 1 |
| Churches together Disco | 1 |
| Trying to get the Vicar drunk | 1 |
| Saying that we are Christians and celebrate happy things – so come back at Xmas! | 1 |
| Away on half term holidays | 1 |
I enjoyed having another poll up again. Anyone got ideas for another?
The Vicar's Wife 
Interesting list! Always feel it’s unfortunate, though, when anyone abbreviates ‘Christmas’ to ‘Xmas’ 😦
Perhaps that’s a suggestion for a new poll – If Christmas is a celebration of Christ, ‘Xmas’ is a celebration of….?
I used to agree with your views about “Xmas”. However, I heard recently that the tradition comes from early Christians that were illiterate. Because they couldn’t write, they simply marked an “X” to indicate Christ.
[…] While I was in Canada, the Vicar’s Wife (not mine, who is a Rector’s wife in any case) had an online poll going about how Christians would be spending Hallowe’en. The results and analysis can be found here. […]