5 Different Ways to Celebrate Halloween
Halloween is an interesting ‘holiday’. It is about honouring the deceased and celebrating the lives of the saints. It is also about burning fires to keep evil spirits away. Halloween is steeped in Spirituality and Superstition. There are many different ways to celebrate Halloween and our guide will suggest both traditional methods and alternative ways to celebrate this mysterious holiday.
However, some people don’t like celebrating Halloween. They say it has become a festival of fear and horror. I have seen houses decorated with police tape and fake blood as if a horrific murder has taken place. A few years ago some people dressed up as scary ‘killer clowns’ and walked about towns in the UK in the dark. They petrified children and members of the public. Nowadays, Halloween has been criticized as a celebration of crime and evil.
As you can imagine, I am not a fan of Halloween, but Sops loves it. So in our house, we have had to create different ways of celebrating Halloween to satisfy our sensibilities.
Sops and I both want to mark Halloween in our own unique ways to create our family traditions. It is important to create family traditions even if your family is very small. For more advice on how to establish family traditions check out our post on How to create family traditions.
In this guide, we will suggest traditional and different ways of celebrating Halloween that your family can try out so that everyone will feel happy and comfortable.
Host an old Fashioned Traditional Halloween party
When I was young, my large family always celebrated Halloween together. We would dress up in costumes and play typical Halloween party games like ‘bobbing for apples.’ I remember my mum playing ‘Nelson’s Eye’, with us. That game scared the hell out of me. At the end of the party, we would burn a bonfire and set off fireworks. We combined Halloween and Bonfire Night into one celebration. So perhaps you can host a traditional Halloween Party with traditional games and combine the party with bonfires and fireworks.
Here is a list of suggested Low-Cost Halloween Games to Play:
Bobbing for Apples: This may not be hygienic to play during the Covid Pandemic, but perhaps you can hang apples from a tree and everyone has to eat their own apple with their hands tied behind their backs.
Pumpkin Pinata: Simply make a pumpkin model out of paper mache. You can do this by blowing up a balloon and sticking shredded newspaper onto it with PVC glue. Leave it to dry and then burst the balloon inside. Paint the model orange and draw your best ‘scary’ pumpkin face on it. Cut a small hole at the bottom and fill the Pumpkin Pinata with sweets. Seal the hole with plenty of tissue paper. Stick some string or ribbon at the top of the pinata and hang it from a tree. Give every participant a rolled-up piece of newspaper and let the bashing begin.
Mummy Wrap: If you still have tons of toilet roll leftover from the great 2020 Toliet roll panic-buying fiasco, here is your chance to use it up in a ‘wrap the mummy game‘. Divide the party into teams. Give them 2-3 rolls of toilet paper. Then they simply have to wrap someone in toilet roll like a mummy the fastest.
Ghost Hunt: Create some cut-out ghosts from a sheet of card and place them around the house and garden. The child who finds the most ghosts is the winner.
Creepy Parcel the Parcel: Wrap up a simple present with multiple layers of paper, but add Halloween related things between the paper-like plastic spiders and Halloween sweets.
Nelson’s Eye: This is the game that proper freaked me out when I was young. Lord Nelson was an Admiral from the 19th Century. He was famous for winning the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. My mum would turn the lights out and blindfold us and then tell us the story of Lord Nelson. She would guide our hands to feel all his treasures. We would feel his hat, his coat, his medals and his clammy dead hand (water-filled rubber glove). Then, at the end of the story we would feel his eye, it was either a peeled picked onion or a peeled grape. I swear I screamed the house down. Great game to play if you want to traumatise your super over-sensitive imaginative child.
Go Trick Trick or Treating
In theory, trick or treaters are supposed to play a trick on their neighbours if they refuse to give the trick or treaters a treat. My brother once asked the kids to play a trick because he did not want to give them any sweets. They had no idea what he was talking about and did not pull a trick on him. This is a good thing as some people have pulled some horrible tricks on vulnerable people as an excuse to be anti-social. For example, some people have thrown eggs and sprayed the doors of their neighbour’s houses. They have even done dangerous tricks such as putting live fireworks through people’s letterboxes.
However, the history of trick or treating is a lot more positive. In pagan times people would put on disguises to scare evil spirits away. This may be where the idea of getting into costumes came from.
When Christianity was the primary religion in Europe poor people would go to their rich neighbours houses to request sweet meats called, ‘soul cake’ in exchange for praying for the souls of loved ones. In Scotland and Ireland some people would go ‘guising’. This would involve dressing up and instead of promising to pray for the lost souls, the ‘guisers’ would sing a song or recite a poem.
There is a danger that trick or treating may be giving mixed messages to our children. We tell them not to accept sweets from strangers all year round, except on one night when we tell them they can threaten people with a trick unless they give them sweets. Go Figure!
So here is our list of Do’s and Don’ts when trick or treating to make sure everyone remains safe and happy:
Host a Night of Light Party
One year my dad suddenly decided to ban Halloween. He was not comfortable celebrating a pagan festival that “rejoices in evil”, as he said. From then on we were dragged to the vigil mass at church on All Hallows Eve and then straight to bed afterwards. No more games, no more party food, no more fun! We were not happy. Talk about putting a child off Christianity!
But Dad missed a trick here. We could have had a Night of Light Party, instead. This is a popular alternative Halloween party for Christians.
During a Night of Light celebration children would dress up as angels and their favourite saints. They can re-enact the lives of the saints, (and believe me some saints had some pretty gory endings!) The children can play games like bobbing for apples and pin the beard onto the Jesus, (we played this during Sunday School once).
Instead of trick or treating you can go around the neighbourhood singing songs and offering prayer cards. This year I shall be handing out The Book of Hope gift bags will sweets inside them. The Book of Hope gift bags are offered for free by the United Christian Broadcasters Radio Station. You can order a batch of them and fill the bags up with lots of goodies.
You can make Night of Light Party as Fun and Cheesy as you like it. But surely it is better than your child feeling like they are missing out on all the fun.
Celebrate Día de los Muertos
The Mexicans have a really healthy approach to death and mourning. They have mixed pagan beliefs and Christian understanding to create a marvellous festival called Día de los Muertos, otherwise known as the Day of the Dead. They believe, like the pagans that the veil of the living and the dead becomes very thin and the souls of loved ones can pass easily through our world for just one night. The Pixar film ‘Coco’ explains their beliefs perfectly for children to understand.
On Día de los Muertos, Mexican families put up images of their family members and loved ones who have died to remember them. They lay out party food and play music and have a big celebration. It is not a macbre event where everyone is glum and in mourning, nor do people delight that someone they loved has died. It is a healthy way to remember those who have gone before us and to celebrate their life.
Whether you are a Latino or not, why not use Halloween as a time to celebrate and remember those whom you have loved and have passed away.
To find out how to host a Mexican celebration hop onto your Magic Flying Carpet and travel to Mexico this Halloween.
Have a Historical Halloween
If you like Halloween because it is scary and full of horror stories look no further than history. It is full of horror ghost stories. Many old manor houses, National Trust properties and historical palaces put on events around Halloween for people to enjoy. I took Sops to Hampton Court Palace for Halloween and they shared stories of dirty jobs that people used to do at the palace, and how some people died doing their horrible jobs! Seriously, I nearly puked up after they told one story.
Plus there are places like the London Dungeons that like to share stories of historical torture and ghost stories. But, be sensitive to what is acceptable for your child. Sops and I are especially sensitive and we wouldn’t attend a place like the London Dungeons, but if your child is made of stronger stuff and can handle it, they may find the day fascinating and quite educational.
Perhaps you can put a small performance on in your local town to share a local ghost or witch story? Or go on a Ghost Walking Tour around your local historical City. Norwich is Sops’ and my nearest historical City. It is steeped in history and it offers ghost tours.
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We hope you have liked our guide on celebrating Halloween. Do let us know how you will be celebrating All Hallows Eve this year in the comments below.
For more ideas of things to do during this Autumn Half Term please check out our post on Things to Do in the Autumn Half Term.
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