Halloween

I'm sure most of you know the origins of Halloween, so I won't bore you with facts. I'd rather talk about St. Patrick, missionary to Ireland. He went back to Ireland after escaping from his "owners." He'd been kidnapped from England by Irish rogues and sold over there, made to slop pigs...think prodigal son. Anyway, after years of being a slave, he escaped one night and found a ship that he could sail home on, providing he worked for the captain, which he did.

Back in England, Patrick, who was not a Christian when the pirates kidnapped him but was when he escaped, went on to school to study theology. Though he should have been happy to be back home, he had dreams that haunted him - Irish children were begging him to teach them about God.

Patrick went back to Ireland, the country that had enslaved him, and taught about the trinity. He had wild success when he used the clover to explain the trinity - three distinct persons in one God (three clover heads in one clover.)

Here's my tie-in to Halloween. The druids of Ireland are responsible for most of our Halloween traditions. These are the men who tried many times to capture St. Patrick and take his life, for he was teaching the Irish people about God and the druids were Satan worshipers with strong ghoulish customs...think dressing as ghosts, etc.

St. Patrick died of natural causes even though the druids would have liked to be responsible for his death. The Irish people loved him and he is credited with baptizing a LOT of people.

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I hate Halloween. Every year neighborhood kids come here and BEG for treats; if we don't have any, they'll TRICK us, i.e. vandalize our property. Now, the majority of kids would just feel bad if we didn't have anything to pass out, but you get the gist of the message parents send their kids when they allow them to participate in Halloween festivities.

Tonight we avoided that by bringing our kids to the Harvest Festival that our church puts on as an alternative to trick or treating in Gaylord and the surrounding areas. I'm not wholly sure I like that either, but it sure is better than having our children dress as witches and goblins and roaming the dark, cold streets in hopes of conning people out of candy. And it's keeping other children away from it too.