How to start the conversation about Halloween?
By educating yourself. It’s highly important that as a parent you educate yourself and your child about the facts surrounding Halloween. The reality is that holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Easter and New Year's have a common theme. They are generally marked by excessive consumerism and superstition, are in reality a combination of Christian beliefs, pagan rituals, and local cultural influences.

How to tell your children that we don’t believe in it?
Children are not as fragile as we sometimes think. They crave for a strong identity without contradictions. The principle that is to be discussed is that Allah loves us and we love Allah. Yes we are different and we are happy about it. This custom is rooted in paganism and therefore has the potential to take us away from the direction of one God.

Will they feel left out or isolated?
They must be told that it’s not only us who don’t believe in Halloween. Many Christians do not believe in it either and if you just walk in your neighborhood with your child on the eve of Halloween you will notice quite a few houses with their light off at the front door – indicating that they too do not celebrate Halloween.

How to tell you children not to do it?
A parent will have to explain depending upon the age and mental development of the child. First thing is that you must talk to them a few days or weeks before Halloween, not on the evening of October 31st. Tell your children that just like we as Muslims have a different way of practicing our religion, we have a different way of celebrating Holy days. Talk to them about Ramadhan and Eid – but do not look down upon those who do celebrate Halloween.

If your child is mature, tell them about the increased crime and dangerous pranks that are played at such times. Talk to them about the financial impact. You might want to say that imagine if building a hospital requires 10 million dollars. Now imagine if we as Americans did not celebrate just one Halloween in this year 2008, we could save enough money (5 Billion dollars) to build 500 hospitals all around the world! Imagine the amount of service we could do just in one year!
 
How to manage school activities regarding Halloween planning and celebrations?
You must talk to the school teacher and explain your preference to the teacher. This is crucial because there will be other occasions later on in their lives when Muslim children must not participate in school activities (for example, the Prom). This does not mean permanent exclusion from all school activities, but it shows that as Muslims, our children can take part in that which is good, but they have to learn to reject what is bad in an intelligent manner.

Wouldn’t this result in my child developing an inferiority complex or a low self esteem?
It will depend on your ability to fill that vacuum with good stuff. You should consider volunteering in your child’s school or give their class a fun presentation about Ramadhan or Eid, or meet their friends and nicely explain the beauties of Islam (more info about this will be supplied on our Ramadhan Page). Sometimes our children draw their confidence from our confidence.

What if your kid wants to go to a Halloween party? What if that party is arranged in the school?
Ideally you should write a short letter to your child’s school teacher explaining the reason and then ask for an early pick up before the party starts. Many parents allow these parties at an early age only to be faced with a question from their children years later: Why was it ok for me to go to these parties 15 years ago and not now?

These are some of the suggestions from parents.

Option 1: Take your kids out to have fun with their Muslim friends so their minds are off Halloween and they get to enjoy the evening.

Option 2: Turnoff your front door or garage lights indicating that you do not celebrate Halloween

Option 3: Some folks have tried to put a nicely made, decorative note on their front doors saying that they do not believe in the satanic myths of Halloween but they do love to give gifts to children. Please come on another day and we will give you a gift.