Article October 16, 1965 Issue

Sunday School and Traditional Celebrations

Lasting impressions are accomplished through teaching within the interests of pupils. A teacher finds, when listening to the conversations of pupils before Sunday School, that at this time of year their thoughts may be full of preparations for Halloween or study of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving projects at school. How can he use these in his teaching?

The Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy provides that the Scriptures and absolute Christian Science are correct subjects for Sunday School, and a teacher must be obedient to these provisions. However, when the attention of pupils is already focused on traditional celebrations or special occasions, he can make use of this interest to illustrate his Sunday School teaching.

Consider Halloween, for example. To many pupils it means putting on false faces and dressing up in costumes to pretend one is someone else. Small children may be frightened by horror disguises. What an opportunity to reassure them with Jeremiah's statement (1:8), "Be not afraid of their faces!" Even best friends sometimes seem to wear masks of un-happiness or anger. But just as the Halloween mask with the sharp fangs is no part of a friend, so an unpleasant disposition is not, either. Ugliness in any form cannot come from God; therefore it has no creator.

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