Harvest Festivals Renewed

I have often made fun of harvest festivals in the past. I saw them as a typical Christian enclave event birthed out of fear of the world instead of engaging it. It always reminds me of the Air1 motto that bugs me so much every time I hear it, "safe for the whole family." I also made fun of the name because who besides Christians talks about harvests on October 31 (which I still think is a highly outdated name especially in an urban city in California).
All that said, I took part in my first harvest festival this Friday night and had a blast. A good number of people were there from the community that may or may not have been followers of Jesus. It was a good time to party. I got to connect with a number my student's families who do not all come on Sunday morning but were willing to come to this event. Most of the neighbors that I talked to thought that it was great we doing it for the community. Because so many of our people were working the festival, it wasn't really for "our" families who wanted an "alternative" for Halloween, but was truly a community outreach event. All that besides being freezing cold and raining during clean-up made it a great night and my view of church harvest festival renewed...slightly.
p.s. i hope to post some pics soon.