Harvest Fest, Not Halloween

For all ghouls, goblins and other satanic nasties, just two words: Keep out! Your evil spirits are not welcome at many church-sponsored alternative Halloween parties throughout Ventura County this evening.

But dress up like David, Moses or Mary--or even a happy-go-lucky Walt Disney character--and your costume may win first prize at the Solid Rock Christian Center’s Harvest Celebration.

“We ask the kids to dress up as biblical figures,” said Nancy Rain, director of the Ventura nondenominational church’s children’s ministry. “This is the house of the Lord.”

While Rain said she wants kids to “have a blast,” she added that “demonic influences” can potentially harm children who dress as the devil.

For the past four years, Solid Rock has thrown a free Harvest Celebration at the church at 5105 Walker St. with games, raffles and candy giveaways. Tonight’s party runs from 6 to 9 p.m.

Historically popular costumes, Rain said, include mini-Moses with beards and long robes, little Davids wearing sandals and carrying slingshots and young Marys holding baby dolls.

Last year, however, two twin babies who were dressed as sunflowers won the contest. “They were so cute,” Rain said. “We just forgot the biblical theme.”

Halloween stems from 2,000-year-old pagan rituals that honored the Celtic lord of death, where the souls of the dead returned to their earthly homes on All Hallow’s Eve.

Although Christians adopted many of the holiday’s customs in the 9th century, Rain said many modern-day churches choose not to accept the holiday, with its historically demonic features.

Instead, they choose to focus on October’s end as the close of the harvest season, she said.

“I tell my kids that God allows pumpkins to grow,” said Leba Blanchard, a spokeswoman for South Coast Fellowship, another nondenominational church in Ventura. “We as a church do not celebrate Halloween’s satanic undertones. We celebrate the lord of the harvest . . . and that is God.”

Last year, 800 children and adults attended the party at South Coast, 4050 Market St., where the church turned into a carnival of pony rides, jumping booths, ball crawls and mariachi bands. The gala, which this year will have a Fiesta Festival theme, will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Attendance costs $5 for children and $2 for adults.

Offering alternatives to Halloween allows children to enjoy parts of the secular world as well as remain loyal to religious tenets of goodness and purity, said Debbie Brooks, children’s ministry director at the evangelical Sonrise Christian Fellowship in Simi Valley.

“We didn’t want our children to say, ‘Our parents are Christians and we can’t have any fun or candy,’ ” Brooks said. “We want them to have fun as long as they are dressed in something clean and wholesome. We’ve taken something in the world that has become a scary and frightening thing and turned it into something where a Christian family can have a safe, fun time.”

Sonrise’s Harvest Festival will take place tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. at 2350 Shasta Way. Admission is free; most games cost 25 cents.