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Does your church throw a “fall festival” on October 31 and invite the entire neighborhood over for some good, clean fun?

Whether a church calls it a fall festival, harvest festival, harvest party, holyween (or Jesusween), or Reformation costume party, the point remains the same: our awesome party is not halloween! It just falls on the same day and includes the same copious amount of candy and costumes and games. But it’s totally not halloween. Really!

Something in particular I find interesting is that these euphemisms for halloween have been formed in two very different ways. In the first category, we have the ways that Christians have simply replaced the offensive word halloween with generic agricultural terms such as fall festival and harvest festival. And then in the second category, we have the ways that Christians have tried to “Christianize” the name of the festival to sound religious in some way, such as holy-ween and Reformation costume party.

We see the same variety in euphemisms when it comes to deviled eggs. Some Christians avoid saying deviled eggs by saying something that sounds similar: “doubled eggs.” And then some Christians go in another direction: they avoid saying deviled eggs by swapping out devil for angel. Hence, angel eggs or sanctified eggs.

fall festival n. Euphemism for a halloween party; the euphemism replaces the traditional name of the holiday with generic agricultural language. On the evening of October 31, many churches throw a “fall festival” party featuring free candy, games, costume contests, and face-painting, and all the children of the neighborhood and their families are invited to come as an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating. More euphemisms for halloween or halloween parties are: *harvest festival; *harvest party; *holy-ween; *Reformation costume party.

halloween n. Some Christians avoid using this word because of concern about saying the name of a festival whose origins are held to be pagan. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival.

harvest festival n. Euphemism for a halloween party; the euphemism replaces the traditional name of the festival with generic agricultural language. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival.

harvest party n. Euphemism for a halloween party; the euphemism replaces the traditional name of the festival with generic agricultural language. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival. • 1993 White Breaking Strongholds: How Spiritual Warfare Sets Captives Free 178 : In many communities today, church groups often host alternative “Harvest” parties for families, as well as meetings for celebrative praise and focused prayer against the things of darkness.

holy-ween n. Euphemism for halloween; the euphemism makes the name of the folk festival sound less pagan by replacing part of the word with an obvious religious reference. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival. Interestingly, the hallow part of halloween does mean “holy.” Halloween is a contraction of all hallows’ eve (or all hallows’ evening).

Reformation costume party n. Euphemism for a halloween party; the euphemism replaces the traditional name of the festival with the name of a religious holiday that falls on the same day. Some Protestant churches celebrate October 31 (or thereabouts) as Reformation Day, the anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517. Thus churches that throw Reformation costume parties might invite children to come dressed in costume as famous church reformers and Biblical characters. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival.

Reformation festival n. Euphemism for a halloween party; the euphemism replaces the traditional name of the festival with the name of a religious holiday that falls on the same day. For more information and a list of similar terms, see *fall festival.