by Badfish 39 Replies latest jw friends
Welcome Badfish --- I'm so sorry! Stupid cults but all I can say there are children who've had worse lives than missing out on the holidays if this is any help. Just be good to yourself and have that fun childhood now being the best parent possible to yourself.
Happy Halloween.
Thanks :) Yeah a lot of my JW friend's family would just hide but my dad was hardcore so we'd turn all the holidays into an evangelical opportunity. I remember calling on people's houses Christmas morning and him preaching to them about how pagan Christmas was. We'd get kicked off the property at every house, of course.
It's funny though, my dad used to be an elder in the 80's and is still a hardcore JW, but he has a full beard now and has all kinds of problems with the elders nowadays and calls them "the pharisees," and he even says the Watchtower's calculations that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 is completely flawed, and that the Watchtower society will have to drop the 1914 date. I honestly don't understand the whole 607 and 1914 thing, but my dad as a hardcore witness keeps telling me that they are wrong and will eventually change their views interests me. Especially since he raised me as a suer super super strict JW and now he's saying they were wrong about all this. But he is still "strong in the congregation." I smell hypocrisy all over this.
I was almost in tears as we took the kids around this evening. So happy they had fun and could participate with the neighborhood kids. They had a ball.
Welcome Badfish. I know how you feel.
Sometimes we would hide out in the back of the house. Or, because my mother was "somewhat" cool - she would plan skating parties if Halloween fell on a Friday or a Saturday. She would rent the whole rink and invite all the dubs and they would pay a small amount. I cannot even imagine having to hand out the WT or Awake - gawd, I don't think that entered my parents mind! How awful.
Purza (who is enjoying handing out candy tonight)
It was boring as hell.
One year my parents were horrendously spiritually weak and let us actually go out trick-or-treating. We didn't have on any costumes and my mother even handed out candy. I never forgot that year and I often wonder what came over my mother for her to let us do it. It was so much fun.
I"ve been celebrating Halloween for 10 years now. But, this year was the first year I really had some fun! I went to a symphony concert of spooky music, dressed in drag, and took the kiddies trick-or-treating. I really enjoyed myself, without the JW baggage. It was the first year that I didn't feel like a JW, sneering or judging in some way Halloween. We watched a scary, kid-friendly Halloween movie for each night this past week. It has been a wonderful time. I really don't believe in all the ghoul, but one never knows. I mean, if there is a bright side, there is also a dark side too....just saying.
As a kid, we dimmed all the lights, and pretended we were not home on Old Hallows Eve. Isn't that what the rest of the world does on Saturday morning when the JWs come trick-or-treating? LOL.
Skeeter
When I was a kid, we, and a lot of other local JWs & their kids, went to Knott's Berry Farm amusement park, for the evening and had loads of fun. When I told the kids at school, they were JEALOUS of me!! It was a super, super time.
CJ
I've been to Knott's Berry Farm outside LA. What a great place, and a good thing for JWs to do on Halloween. Here, there is a Bush Gardens not far . . . but, they put on a spooky night for Halloween.
The only memory I have about being a JW on halloween was when I was in like 4th grade.... My Dad dressed me, I'm a girl??? I wore my brothers too small pants.... so some inocent person said "are you a hill billy?" i put my head down and said "I'm not dressed up" and walked away....
Ironic really...people knocking on our door and we'd pretend we're not there.
Well, that seems to be fair play for a JW.
I don't think us kids ever missed celebrating Halloween. Our parents always bought the left-over candy at 50% off.
In fact, I see many religious people in our community who no longer take part in this holiday because of its perceived connection with the occult. That seems to be a growing opinion (at least here in the Bible Belt), and thus JWs are NOT the only group who no longer participates.
DOC
