I'm surprised I haven't heard that slogan yet. In many respects, Halloween has become the gravitational twin of Christmas in our culture. The fall event draws retail sales second only to that of the now-known-as-Winter-Holiday. People spend their hard-earned dollars on everything from fake spider webbing to costumes that in some cases should draw a mandatory psych evaluation.
I no longer care about the religious roots of the day, or the innocent manner in which most people partake of what they see as harmless fun. Despite its name, the modern Halloween has nothing hallow about it. It's about as close to the antithesis of a holiday (derived from "holy day") one could get. The ultimate focus of the day is fear, evil and death, easily confirmed by a quick review of trailers for Hollywood releases this time of year. At a time when there's plenty of real evil and death at loose in the world, it seems rather silly to engage one's imagination in more of it. You become what you dwell upon. Maybe those increasing retail sales over the last decade or two are related to the unease we feel about the direction of our world. Just a thought.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
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