When you were a kid, you wanted nothing more than to trick-or-treat with your friends and enjoy all things scary and spooky.
But your strict parents were like:
But not to worry. Your place of worship had a "harvest festival" or "fall festival" or "trunk or treat"!!!
Sometimes the Fall Festival took place before Halloween, but usually it was held on October 31st to keep people occupied on All Hallow's Eve.
Although just because they used Halloween colors didn't mean you were fooled.
The decorations always usually involved God-approved cornucopias, pumpkins (NOT jack-o-lanterns), stalks of grain, hay, leaves, apples, and scarecrows.
Well, maybe one type of jack-o-lantern.
At your Satan-free harvest festival, there were fun games (that definitely had religious themes).
A lot of them involved kiddie pools?
Costumes were definitely permitted... if they were of the holy variety.
Being a zombie was a no-no, but going as someone from the Bible? SOLID GOLD.
You could get your face painted (as long as it wasn't too scary).
Bobbing for apples was OK.
As was bean bag toss. Churches love bean bag toss.
And crafts (as long as they didn't involve fake blood).
And probably something involving a tractor.
Puns were definitely encouraged.
There's usually some reference to Peanuts.
You probably slid down a bouncy slide at one time.
Sure, you didn't get to score a truckload of Reese's Cups, but you always left with plenty of swag.
And even if you now celebrate Halloween, you'll always have fond memories of participating in awkward carnival games while standing in a parking lot.
