Harvest Parties

"What are you going to be for Halloween?" David asked me.

"Nothing," I said.

We had recently moved to this neighborhood in Virginia Beach, Virginia while my dad attended law school.

"Whattya mean nothing?" he said.

"I'm not allowed to celebrate Halloween," I said. "Halloween is evil."

My parents believed Halloween glorified the devil, so that's why we didn't celebrate.

David laughed.

"That's stupid. Your family is weird."

I walked away. Yes, my family was weird. That was true.

Instead of celebrating halloween, we had harvest parties. On Halloween, we'd turn off all the lights in our house to make sure people saw no one was home, and we'd drive to our church to have a harvest party.

We'd dress as characters from the Bible. The adventurous ones would be John the Baptist--after he was decapitated. But the others would be shepherds or angels or one of the apostles.

As we drove to the party, I'd see groups of kids running from house to house. They had bags full of candy. They were laughing. We had fruit punch and were allowed to eat two cookies. And have a Bible verse memorization contest.

So much better than nearly unlimited candy. So much better.