Remembering Halloween As A JW Kid . . .

Corvin

I remember my mom and my aunt making us kids open the door to the trick-or-treators and instead of giving them candy, we had to put WT and Awake! magazines (back issues) in their bags. How embarrassing.

Anyone else have the same experience?

Corvin

candidlynuts

i remember my mom and dad rolling their eyes after hearing about people doing that.(have i mentioned i have great parents?) we lived in the boonies and never had trick or treaters that i remember.

under74

I remember going to "witness get togethers" for a couple of years and everytime kids would knock on the door one of the adults would answer and say something like "We don't give out treats because as Jehovah's Witnesses we view Halloween as a pagan holiday blah, blah, blah..." I remember feeling really bad for those confused kids and I think my mom did too so we stopped going to "get togethers" and instead on Halloween we had to keep the lights out and act like we weren't home.

Undecided

We lived out in the country when I was a kid and didn't have trick or treaters. I can remember having a mask and playing halloween with my brother and cousins though. Back in the 40s we enjoyed our youth, we even gave valentines in school and sometimes drew names at school at christmas. My parents were JWs and my dad was the leader in the congregation but he let us enjoy our lives back then. We didn't salute the flag or celebrate Christmas at home but my non-jw grandmother gave us presents at christmas. It wasn't as strict back then as it is now.

Ken P.

in a new york bethel minute

ya we closed the lights and preteneded we weren't home... my mom still does that. the worst though, was the next day when all the kids were eating the candy they got and asking you where yours was. how the hell do you answer that when you're 6 years old. it would be easier to explain to them that with the amount of sugar they were eating, they were bound to get diabetes while at the same time making satan very happy for worshipping him for one evening

betheldark

Nancy Drake

Mom handed out tracts one year, and that night our house was egged and some kids put some lit firecrackers on our window sills. The cops found them because it had snowed that day and the kids left footprints all the way home. Mom didn't hand out tracts after that.

morty

Cant say I had to put mags in the bags, but we did some times sit in the dark if we got home too early from our outing at supper.As we got older we got to go bowling with the congo on halloween night..

Jim_TX

Well... we never celebrated Halloween. But I remember a local grocer here used to issue a special grocery bag around Halloween with a 'mask' of the grocery store chain on it - it was, I suppose something that looked like the fore-runner to the universal 'Happy Face' - only it was 'Handy Andy'. Yup - you had to cut out the mask, and then put string through some holes. Pretty cool, I thought.

I always wanted one of those bags - to cut out the mask - but was over-ruled by my mom who used those paper bags for garbage or whatever - and didn't want me cutting them up.

*sigh*

I also remember sitting at home in the dark - and hoping that those trick or treaters would just pass on by. Back then - they didn't necessarily walk past unlit homes, and sometimes there would be the loud knock knock followed by the 'trick or treat'.

What I really think was funny though were those years when Halloween fell on a book study night - or Thursday evening. hahahahahaha

We'd be sitting in a private home and get 'the knock'. Depending on who was the 'conductor'... well... I don't remember any specifics - it was years ago - but I think that they pretty much went to the door and explained to the poor confused kiddos some religious bunk.

The KH 'knocks' were also hilarious.

Regards,

Jim TX

P.S. I guess - in retrospect... it's a non-JWs revenge... sorta like door-to-door in reverse, eh? It gives a JW an opportunity to see what it feels like to dread someone coming to the door and knocking. hahahahaha

joenobody

We often left the house and went to McDonald's. Most others pretended that they weren't home on Halloween (turned out the lights etc). I actually got to go for Halloween up until age 5 - then it stopped. Other kids gave me some candy though - didn't seem too bad.

Handing out WTs is pretty lame. Giving a little speech to kids about the evils of Halloween is simply ignorant.

Quotes

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I guess - in retrospect... it's a non-JWs revenge... sorta like door-to-door in reverse, eh? It gives a JW an opportunity to see what it feels like to dread someone coming to the door and knocking. hahahahaha
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Yes, like Jerry Seinfeld said to the telemarketer: "Well now you know how I feel".

For me, it meant a night of eating dinner out: the local Swiss Chalet (a mostly chicken chain) was the restaurant of choice. To this day, when I go to that one particular location, I think it must be October 31st.

Of course, if we hadn't quite left for the restaurant and the kids started making the rounds, well we shut out out lights, stayed in the back of the house, and pretended we weren't home... I guess we learned how to do this by observing householders while out in The Ministry.

Quotes, of the "Seeing the Smiles on Kids Faces" class

Remembering Halloween As A JW Kid . . .

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