Halloween-Why Do YOU Celebrate

I don't. I teach Sunday school so I know that my kids know that the holiday originated as the eve of All Saints day, but some things are just for fun. We celebrate Halloween because I have little kids and it's fun. When my kids are grown, it'll be about the neighborhood kids and, one day, grandkids.

This is a holiday where I don't care about "meaning" - it's just fun to dress up and have parties and go trick or treating.

My 6 year old put it best the other day. He said "I love Halloween because you get to pretend to be anything you want to."

I don't think we really "celebrate" Halloween.
We pass out candy to kids.
Mine goes trick or treating.
We carve a few pumpkins.
That's about it.
Halloween has no real "deeper" meaning than that.
Boo!

It's just fun, plain and simple. There doesn't have to be a reason for everything. And if there does, then I guess my reason for celebrating Halloween is because it's fun. I loved it as a kid, and my kids love it today. I don't really care where it all originated!

I love Halloween and esp the 'season' that has developed around it. I love going to pumpkin festivals, corn mazes, etc. all through October. Esp those beautiful fall days when the leaves look esp beautiful. I also love it b/c my kids love dressing up and trick or treating and its fun for me to watch them have so much fun.
I don't feel that everything has to be about something. Sometimes things can just be fun in and of themselves. This is one of those things. The origin of Halloween, meaning, etc. just really never cross my mind. I guess I just don't take it seriously enough :-)

It is not a holiday for us. It's a 'fun' day, just like Valentine's Day. Time for us moms to put our creative skills to the test! Time for our kids to go against all social norms and run around dressed like the butterfly or superhero they have always believed they were! Time to relax our rigid social rules of calling on people's homes without an invitation first!

And I always remember, as a kid running through the town on those dark spooky halloween nights, it was a great time to face those hidden fears of what evils lurk in the dark and come back home triumphant with a loot of candy as proof!

It is a celebration of childhood! Adults in costumes, children being given candy.. Communities giving to all of the children. I LOVE seeing the children's choices in costumes.

It is just so much fun to all be playing pretend.. no matter your age. ..

My kids celebrate Halloween to get dressed up, see their friends dressed up, and get CANDY!
It's not important...it's fun!
L.

I know there is deeper meaning and tradition and religious significance behind Halloween, but frankly, I don't care. Christmas and Easter, yes, of course. But for me, even as a kid, Halloween was just all about fun. And probably that was what I liked best about it. No obligations to go to church, visit relative's homes, reflect on the deeper meaning of it all, etc. Just pick out a costume, celebrate at school, and then go out that night to get candy. Why not just have fun for the sake of having fun?

It is one night that you get to dress up and be silly. You dont have to worry about what anyone thinks about you. You are treated equally.... each house gives you candy and wishes you a happy halloween. What a fun, careless wonderful night! That M. also gets to enjoy by sneaking in her kids candy bags ;)

I teach Sunday school, so I usually teach a lesson on the origins of Halloween, and the church holiday of All Saints Day. Mostly we celebrate Halloween because it is fun and we get a chance to visit our neighbours.

Because it's fun and having fun is important. It's my favorite holiday because there is no reason to have to celebrate. :)

We simply celebrate that it is fun to dress up occasionally. My son finds the collecting candy to be fun as well. Sorry - no deep significance to this one.

Actually it is not a celebration and it is not important to us..It is just another excuse for the kids to have fun, dress up, have some candies (they keep a few, and then they give them away later.....)and play with his friends. It has no special meaning to us....We do not focus on the meaning of scary stuff, witches or horror stories...and I do love to see those little faces so happy knocking on my door to get their treats.

I've looked up the roots of Halloween a billion times (and there are some very interesting ones), but always forget what they are. We study the real meanings behind most holidays, but not this one. It's a frivolous good time in our house for carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, getting dressed up, sewing together, going to parties, trick or treating, reading classic scary books at bedtime (just finished the Legend of Sleepy Hollow), and eating candy. Plus fall in our area is GORGEOUS so we go on hay rides to get our pumpkins. I LOVE Halloween!!!!! But as to your question, I guess it's just the festivities we love. It's not like Martin Luther King Day or Memorial Day or something.

We don't "celebrate" it. We have fun. Candy and dress up, what is not to like about that?

I made sure that my son understood the religious significance of this holiday to the original celebrants, pre-Christian. It was called Samhain (pronounced "Saw-when") and it is observed today as a significant holiday. I also told him that other cultures have adapted some of the symbols and turned it into a secular holiday that celebrates fall and adds in some fun like costumes and candy.

He learned that red & green and reindeer and Santa have nothing to do with the religious significance of Christmas to Christians, and bunnies/eggs have nothing to do with Easter. He learned that a lot of people participate in the "fun" aspects of these holidays without subscribing to the religion itself. Lots of atheists have Christmas trees, right?

So I told him it was a secular thing for many many people and a reason to get into some fun spirit. Like the Super Bowl , like July 4th.

But we have friends who observe it as a religious holiday so I made sure that he respects that.

We like to discuss some of the interesting origins of things like Jack-O-Lanterns, but we don't ascribe any meaning to Halloween other than "spooky fun." It can be good for people to confront their fears in a safe, fun way. And we really just like to decorate, dress up, and go trick or treating! We have also added a new tradition, to read a "scary" yet age appropriate story together. Last year we read The Halloween Tree and this year we read Bunnicula!

Oh its a nite for kids to dress up let loose and have fun and get tons of candy.To them its not the nite of the dead etc. I celebrate Christmas I just enjoy Halloween

Just to celebrate fall time and have some fun. It's a great fun holiday for kids...when else do you get to dress in costumes! It has no deep meaning and that's ok.

Simply a tradition. Halloween has no meaning, nor a purpose in modern times. Same with Valentines.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the death part of the life cycle, but I do feel uncomfortable with supernatural "stuff". I detest violent, gory, gruesome things especially now that I have little ones. I guess I am more someone who wants to focus on things that are good.
For our family, it's a holiday from school (today until Nov 5) for fall break. We do more seasonally focused things (seasonal meaning nature, not holiday). We go to nature preserves and watch the leaves turn and the breezes change, we go to the beach and FREEZE our butts off for that LAST beach day before the dark of winter sets in. We take a drive up through VA or TN to see the foliage change and collect some leaves for decoration and later, the scrapbook. We hunt for 1 awesome pinecone for each of us to decorate and display. We go to the pumpkin patch and do the hayride, bounce houses, get a couple pumpkins to carve. We roast the seeds (some savory with Tonys, salt, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and some sweetened with sugar and cinnamon), this year we planted 5 seeds which sprouted VERY quickly and we're tending those now. We planted them originally inside the pumpkin shell (filled with soil), and it was a fun lesson on seedtime/harvest, and my 5 year old was excited to see the pumpkin "having babies" as he calls it. We carve the pumpkins in happy silly faces, we have scarecrows and spiderwebs and the kids love to "scare" me with the fake spiders they bought. We watch Charlie Brown's Halloween special, we camped last weekend for my son's 6th birthday and read a Froggy Halloween book for the 2 year old, and when he was asleep we read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to the birthday boy, by firelight. (We made it fun and like it was a trick played on greedy Ichabod though). We will totally go trick or treating and love to pass out candy to all the children around here. There's tons of little ones in this neighborhood.
My son was like "ooooh, cool!" to a couple gross costumes, so I had a calm talk with him over pumpkin layered cheesecake and warm apple cider to just explain that the Bible says "Whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report; if there be any virtue, think on these things", and that for US we would "play" trick or treat, but that I didn't want us to think too much on gremlins and the grim reaper and all that. He nodded, and I said "does that make sense, is it ok with you?" and he said sure, it wasn't a problem. The kids' costumes are fun and things they'll play with off and on throughout the year (this year, Batman and a ninja) but nothing that will be bloody or scary. I'm not beating them over the head with what they can or cannot be, but right now they're perfectly happy dressing up as someone or something they would actually LIKE to be. That works for us right now. The fall season is important to us, even without Halloween, because it's the beginning of our family's "holiday season". My son and I have birthdays in mid-to-late October, my youngest son, dad, uncle, and sister in law have birthdays in November and Thanksgiving is a HUGE holiday for us (my favorite). Then there's "Black Friday", birthdays for my husband, 2 bffs, and nephew, Christmas, NYE (which we like), NYD (which we love), and our anniversary all back to back. Then, nothing until the beginning of summer. So its a festive season for us. :)

At my kids age (oldest is not yet 6), we just stick to the fun, costumes, pumpkins, neighbors & candy.

When they are older I will teach them about the origins.

In any case, for us the real celebration is on November 1st--All Saint's Day, which we do celebrate, and which my kids are already learning about.

The reason we do is because it's a tradition. I did it when I was a kid, and really had fun. I want my kids to have the same enjoyment.

We don't celebrate Halloween but we celebrate October and the harvest season. I do allow my kids to dress up in non-bloody/gory costumes--only nice things and we participate in a harvest party. Not trick-or-treating. We do it because its fun to dress up and play games.

bc its fun.life is to serious its nice to just relax

Updated

bc its fun.life is to serious its nice to just relax

Any excuse to have fun with my kids!
At my school I explain to parents of other cultures that we celebrate it at school because we can read and listen to stories about it, write stories and poems, learn songs and poems and do crafts and talk and write about their crafts. It gets the kids enthusiastic and we can tie it in to many learning activities.

The kids love the whole process. Thinking about what to dress up as, how they want their makeup to look, etc...it's simply a time to do pretend play. There does come a time when they think about what the day used to be for so many but I seriously don't know anyone personally that thinks of Halloween as anything more than a dress up day for fun.

Dress up in fun costumes, have candy, spend time with family and friends, etc. This year I am trying to keep my son away from the bloody, gory, parts of Halloween that point towards people worshiping what we feel as a family are negative influences in the world. I have found this hard as his school celebrates the holiday with more then just a costume parade.

its fun and theres candy!!

I don't understand why people celebrate this, actually . I plan to lock the door on Halloween night, honestly I am scared with the costumes etc.
The trick and treat part is cute though. It gives you joy and candy to share with kids, and maybe get to know your neighbors, too.
If I am not scared with the costumes, I will escort my son do trick or treat. But, because I live on campus, many students wear scary ones and get drunk. So no way :)

Halloween is a way to express yourself, be creative, pretend, be silly, have fun, visit neighbors and eat way too much candy.

When our daughter was born with a large facial tumor on her nose and upper lip, Halloween was the one day a year that no one seemed to notice or care. We blended once a year and we had so much fun. We have so many great pictures and memories that we still talk about.