We did theocratic bowling...
Remembering Halloween As A JW Kid . . .
by Corvin 27 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
roybatty
We never did the handing-out-tract thing but I recall one of our JW neighbors put a note on their door saying that they were JW's and didn't celibrate the pagan Halloween....blah...blah...blah. They're house got egged. Big surprise, eh? Our family did the "turn out the lights" routine. I remember looking outside as a little thinking "man, that looks fun."
Nowadays my kids and I have a blast celibrating this pagan holiday. Each year the decorations around our house get better and better.
-
Xandria
O man does this bring back memories. My poor sisters and I had to "hide" from the wicked little children dressed as demons. We were not allowed to even peep out the window. Lights out.
What was strange is we were so fearful of everything.. the nieghborhood we lived in was very rough.
I mean one day we (my sisters and I) finished listening to one of our stories. (we did not have TV.) The nieghbors were fighting, we heard a scream and looked out our window and saw a bloody knife on our window sill. (The man who lived next door stabbed his wife, she survived barely) That was gory enough for us. We were told that this is what happens with worldly people. They shrugged it off like it was nothing.. but demonic children. Oh no! Batten down the hatches.
How twisted is that.. what is more damaging? A psycho living next door or children celebrating a pagan holiday? TWWWwwwisted.
X.
-
franklin J
yes, I remember all too clearly.
We did not open the door. The house got egged every year.
I was always the obvious kid in school who had to excuse himself during the Halloween costume party ( obviously not in a costume) to go to the Library because " Halloween was against my religion". Yes, and Christmas, and birthdays, and Easter, and Thanksgiving....and lets not forget saluting the flag ( got beat up for that one).
But I did get to develope an appreciation for that Library.
-
Elsewhere
My dad would turn out all of the lights in the front of the house and we would all hide in the back real quite with the TV turned off hoping that all of the trick-or-treaters would think that we were not at home.
Yeah... pathetic.
-
Elsewhere
Oops... double post.
-
StinkyPantz
It was the ONE holiday I actually wanted to participate in. Christmas, no big deal; Thanksgiving.. who cares; but to be able to dress up and eat tons of candy.. <sigh>..
-
Midget-Sasquatch
Handing out magazines?!!!!
Thankfully I grew up in a slightly more relaxed foreign language congregation. Only had to endure a near decade with the generally more fanatical english dubs.
For the longest time, my Dad would tape up a sign on the door saying "Sorry-No Candy" and we'd leave the lights out and just watch TV downstairs. The house only got egged a couple of times.
When we had to switch congegations other witnesses made a fuss about my Dad using the word Sorry and he ommitted it. Our house got egged a whole lot more afterwards.
-
BluesBrother
No memories at all because Halloween is only a recent import from the USA, we never heard of it when I was a kid. Does anyone recall that film with Kevin Costner, about a witness boy who had never celebrated Halloween? Now, how about "Guy Fawks Night"? November 5th in the UK is special, with bonfires and fireworks . We were never allowed. I used to spend the evening in a darkened bedroom watching the neighbours fireworks and just wishing I could join in.. Christmas and Birthdays? No problem, but I always missed "Bonfire Night" Blues, of the frustrated pyromaniac class!
-
jschwehm
Well, I was born on Halloween. My last birthday party before we became dubs was a costume party. I was five years old. We had a blast.
As JWs we went to dinner or found something else to do on Halloween and my Father would make the house really dark. We rarely had trick or treaters show up.
Jeff S.