Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Pre-Christmas Parties

As Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Pre-Christmas parties are approaching with great popularity, for us, it is a frequent reminder to "stay the course" and focus on the calendar of the Church. We are Orthodox Christians living in secular societies, and although these conversations can be challenging with other PTA moms and co-workers, I thought I'd share how we at least try to respond. It's not worth it to get into debates about whether or not such activities have pagan roots, or if they are simply harmless celebrations of costumes and candy, of turkey, family and football. 

The only question to ask is:
Are we giving our children the best chance for a holy life?

We often go digging through trash to find a spark of something good to hang on to, especially, in order to justify our participation in events that our consciences speak otherwise about. This struggle can leave us troubled in our thoughts and souls, wondering if we did the right thing. I like to remove all doubt, and try to set up our kids for the best possible chance of success towards a holy life.

My spiritual father helped me realize this, after I myself wrote an article that was published by our Archdiocese Education office, about Harry Potter. There I was trying to find "Christian" messages amongst what is not-Christian, or truthful, but rather fantasy and fiction. Why struggle so hard just to turn something around?

What we have learned is to pretty much pay little attention to activities that we chose not to be part of. Giving more attention, subsequently, to the Church calendar and It's Saints. By doing this, we hope our children will grow to understand that as Orthodox Christians, we live out our faith without making exceptions here and there to fit in. We "fast" when others are "feasting", we look to the Saints as our super-hero's,  and celebrate the Divine Liturgy instead for the feasts below:

Oct 28 - Agia Skepi, Protection of the Theotokos
Nov 1st - Cosmas, Damianos, their Mother, also St. David of Euboia
Nov 15 - Fast begins - Big day in our home!
We begin decorating and start our 40 Day Calendar
Nov 21 - Entrance of the Theotokos to the Temple
Nov 25 - St Katherine the Great
Nov 26 - St Stylianos, Patron of Children
December is full of great Saints up until Christmas and beyond...

I ask myself...who has time for everything else with so many truly "holy days" approaching!


(Please remember, this post reflects the opinion of my husband and I, and since it is a personal blog, it may conflict with the published materials of the Archdiocese - however, I remind you readers that not always has the stance of certain Church leaders been correct, and therefore over time, the Holy Spirit has corrected the errors that man has made so that the Truth may be preserved - an example of this is iconoclasm. Even under exile, many Saints patiently fought for the Truth from within the Church rather than abandoning it.)