Why I won't be celebrating Halloween

So it's the end of October which year after year I notice a disturbing new trend. Halloween decorations going up everywhere.

Why! Why Why! ARRGH!

I have been thinking about this for awhile and wanted to outline a couple of reasons why I don't personally celebrate Halloween... there are lots of biblical perspectives on this one- and yes it's true there are witches and spirits and curses in the Bible but I wanted to outline a couple of other practical reasons to not celebrate.

1. We are NOT North American. 
This is not our celebration. We never have been and NEVER will be so stop kidding yourself and copying our Northern Hemisphere neighbour and get our own celebration. I suggest... Vegemite Day

2. What are we really teaching our kids?
At every other time of the year it is not safe for kids to be walking around the streets at night and if we found out our kids were knocking on people's doors asking for lollies we would be horrified. And yet we allow it for Halloween? That is not logical.

3. We are glorifying violence
Have you really stopped to think about this? I saw a sign this week advertising fake blood for sale for Halloween. In a world where we are still feeling the effects of ISIS, beheadings, terrorism etc is it really appropriate to glorify blood, violence and all things scary?

4. Lollies?
And then there are all those lollies... in a society where childhood obesity is becoming much more common since when is it OK to allow a child to have a bucket full of lollies and chocolate to gorge to their hearts content. OK even if you do only let them have one or two that is still an awful lot of sweets!

What are we really teaching our kids?