‘Daddy, can we decorate the house for Halloween?,’ my daughter asked. 

‘Let’s go check out what they have at the store.  We can look, but we’re not getting anything creepy that looks like death or evil.’

‘What else is there?,’ she wondered honestly.

‘Pumpkins.  Lots of pumpkins.’ 

After an unsuccessful trip to the store, the discussion began: ‘Daddy, Theodora has a really cool witch in her yard and my friends Edgar and Allen have a raven that talks.  Why can’t we decorate?’ 

‘Evil is real and death is sad.  Why would we want to invite more evil or celebrate dying. It may seem a little silly to keep these things out, but evil is very, very real we don’t want any more of it than we already have to face.’  I’m not sure she bought my argument, yet they understood that there would be no further discussion on the topic. 

After Halloween last year, a friend posted pictures of her children in their costumes.  Her 14-year old daughter traded her real-life Catholic school uniform for the costume of a voodoo priestess, including an ‘authentic’ gemstone necklace gifted to her from a practicing witch. This was no trinket.  I was struck dumb. I know my friend well enough to know that she is a practicing Catholic, believing fully in the doctrines and the ceremonies.  She wears her Sunday best to services and adorns her house with crosses (both with and without Jesus on the cross interestingly).  

I sat in a conversation with her once where she sincerely and honestly questioned a nun on the best place to hang the crucifix in her home.  My friend clearly believed that physical objects have spiritual meaning because of the importance she placed on the placement of her crucifix.  

And then she put the tools of evil around the neck of her child.  

Perhaps this is not a big deal and that the necklace was simply a polished stone.  Perhaps, though, the stone is more than a rock.  What if, as the voodoo priestess surely suggested, this stone was set apart and christened as a spiritual tool.  Seems a risky bet and not one I will put around the neck of my child.   

I don’t have to understand how something works in order to understand that it is real.  I know that evil is real.  I know that the spiritual meets and affects the physical.  I know that physical talisman creates space for particular types of spiritual activity.  I don’t know how nor do I know why.  I don’t have to.  

So no, my dear child, we will not celebrate witches or ghouls or skeletons.   We will not decorate our home, our refuge, with symbols of death.   You will not wear anything around your heart that is intended for anything other than love. 

Your life is too precious.