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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Coffin Hop 2011, Day Four: Who best supports your Halloween fix? And Win William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" & "Legion".

Welcome to Day Four of Coffin Hop 2011.  For a chance at Nate Southard's novella, He Stepped Through, visit Monday's blog. For a chance to win an ARC of Chris Golden's Cemetery Dance short story collection, The Secret Backs of Things, visit Tuesday's blog.  For a chance to win The Cage and The Last Zombie, both by Brian Keene, visit yesterday's blog.  

Every Halloween, I'm always thankful that my wife totally throws her weight behind the holiday and goes out of her way to make it special for the whole family.   

She decorates (though she does this for every holiday), gets into the kids' costumes, tolerates my love of it - being totally okay with the idea of me dressing up, even though this is the first year I'm doing it in a while - we read the kids Halloween books, have the Halloween countdown calendar with a pocket containing a prize for every day, we get into our Jack O'Lanterns, (having developed a routine, every year, of going to get the pumpkins a few weeks ahead) and we'll do the old fashioned Trick-or-Treating (not this Trunk or Treat business) to family and friends' houses Halloween night.

Now, you might think this isn't a big deal.  Most mothers are okay with Halloween, making holidays special in their home, right?  But, like me, my wife is a Christian.  And among some Christians - Halloween's a big "no-no".  Based on old,  evil pagan holiday, and all that.  Celebrating Halloween is right up there with offering your kids hard liqour, according to some of the more fundamentalist folks. 

Now, I don't get into matters of religion much - at all, really - on this blog, and I only converse about our faith as it plays out in our family's journey.  But I can't tell you how happy I am that my wife - Christian, like myself - isn't one of those folks who frown on Halloween's origins, or wrings her hands over such a "death and fear-oriented holiday".  

Does Halloween have pagan roots?  Sure it does (So does your Christmas trees and wreaths, by the way).  It was incorporated into the Catholic Church's tradition with All Saints Day, or All Hallow's Eve.  But for kids, it's the chance to wear cool costumes, get candy, and simply experience something different and special, and let's face it: something spooky-cool, with the night, and the glowing jack-o-lanterns. 

Abby is a wonderful Christian wife who makes Halloween special for all of us.  I'm thankful for TONS of things my wife does (more than I can name here), but during Halloween, I'm always thankful my wife more than tolerates it, she makes it special for the whole family.  Of course, that's just the way she is.  Halfway through November, the Thanksgiving decorations will be up, next. 

So that's today's "contest": who has supported your Halloween fix the most?  Are there any stories in particular, in which a family member or spouse or someone special stepped up to the plate and really supported your Halloween fix?  Up for the offering today is a Cemetery Dance ARC of two-novels in one, The Excorcist and Legion, by William Peter Blatty.  No description of this needed, I don't suppose...

10 comments:

  1. Hi Kevin! I think my mom really was the one to get me into loving to celebrate Halloween. She introduced me to Joyce Carol Oates, pumpkin carving contests, and extraterrestrials living amongst us disguised as humans.

    Julie

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  2. My mother wasn't very big on Halloween, though we celebrated and she ate half my candy, I think the real influence for me was a book/record combo I had as a child about the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein.
    However, I'm sure my children will blame me for any Halloween/Horror likes they have as adults.

    Happy Coffin Hoppin

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  3. Thanks for posting, guys! My Dad was pretty cool about Halloween. Mom, I think tolerated it. Ironically, I fell into a second love with Halloween as I grew older. Now that I'm married and have kids, I'm just happy my wife not only lets us all have fun with it, but encourages us, too.

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  4. My little sister! She was always up for any kind of fun I could think of. She's awesome. :)

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  5. Both my parents were awesome at Halloween but my dad being the big kid that he was made the most memories. From the time he came home with the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen (and it falling on the ground as soon as we stepped back to admire our work) to all the nights he would sneak outside and try to scare us.. I have great Halloween memories.

    JenniferSmith.ga (at) gmail.com

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  6. Thanks, Jennifer and Penelope. My dad, also, was great fun, for all the Holidays. Christmas was his big one, though, that he threw the most into.

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  7. Hi, Kevin. I think I feel the same as you with regard to the whole Halloween thing. We don't really go to any trouble during this time of year, but it isn't because it goes against church or anything. Being a horror writer I read and write the stuff year around! *laughs* It reminds me of something else, too. In the 80's there was a news program about heavy metal music being a negative influence on youth. My mother looked at me and told me that I had better never bring any of that into her house. It was funny because I already owned all of those records!
    Maybe we're just well adjusted people. What do you think?
    *shakes head* Nah, me neither.

    -Jimmy
    rapture22 at hotmail dot com

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  8. James - yeah, I remember the whole "heavy metal is evil" movement, also. Wonder what those folks would think about today's Christian music? Especially the harder stuff...

    Ironically, I don't remember such a knee-jerk reaction to Halloween as a kid, and I attended a Baptist church and everything. I mean, they had their "alternative" Halloween party at the church were you dressed up as a Bible character, but I don't remember anyone being DEATH on it, like some folks are today.

    Of course, I was fairly oblivious as a kid. Most of that stuff went right over my head, so maybe I just missed it...

    Thanks for posting!

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  9. my brother definitely! is still willing to be dragged around to get my horror fix.

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  10. Brothers are good that way....

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