In an assembly earlier this month I spoke about why we did not celebrate Halloween at the school as some amongst us found it a contradiction to their faith. It was an opportunity to highlight the differences there are and how we can respect each other’s traditions and understandings but still have fun. God’s not grumpy.

At the time I had been impressed by the attitude of World Vision who have seen the tradition of pumpkin carving as an opportunity to highlight the plight of children in Syria where real fear punctuates their day.

And then today this happened…

We are very fortunate to have Jenny an Early Years’ teacher brought up in Pennsylvania. This is what she told me.

When I was a child growing up in Pennsylvania, USA, harvest time was eagerly anticipated for the celebration of festivals. Part of the excitement was the annual pumpkin carving. We loved to scoop out the slimy insides and cut faces or stars into them, inserting a candle stub inside and setting them to glow on our table.We would sit around the the pumpkin singing harvest and thanksgiving songs as it smiled happily at us.

I never associated the carved pumpkins with Halloween or with anything scary or sinister but have such happy memoires of their happy grinning faces and the competition to carve the best one.

I think now of the pumpkin as a little beacon of light- it’s a natural lantern fashioned by our Creator to provide us with food… or a fun project to celebrate harvest time with our children. It’s good if we can redeem the pumpkin and its happy face and win it back and associate it with good things.

Take a look at World Vision’s way of redeeming the pumpkin…