Celebrating the Season
Through the years many people have questioned and debated the appropriateness of Christians celebrating Halloween. As a child who grew up in a Christian home, we celebrated Halloween. We dressed up, went trick or treating and attended local Haunted Houses. I even knew of one church that had haunted houses at the church! It was just considered fun and no one that I knew thought anything about it. Then as now many Christians naively and blindly mix elements of Christianity with the non-Christian pagan themes of our culture.
However, that attitude has changed over the years and now many churches provide alternatives to the traditional themes and activities of Halloween. That is what we do here at Killarney. Our Fall Festival is an alternative to Halloween. We want to have fun, play games, dress our kids up in costumes and have a great time together, but we also want to be faithful to the God who created the heavens and the earth. We love and worship him as the only true God.
We purposely have a Fall Festival as an alternative to Halloween. You may have questions about Halloween and Fall Festivals such as--Isn’t the term, “Fall Festival,” just another name for Halloween? If it isn’t Halloween, then why have it on Halloween? Isn’t Halloween a time of innocent fun featuring costumes and candy?
The answer is that for us they are not the same and yes there is a lot of innocent fun associated with Halloween, but there are also many unbiblical origins and elements as well. Fall Festivals are meant to be an alternative to Halloween. Because of this they are held on the night of Halloween or on the weekend near Halloween to give children and families an alternative to what is essentially a pagan holiday.
The term “Halloween” is actual a derivative of the Scottish term for “All Hallow’s Eve.” This was the evening before the Catholic celebration of All Saints Day. During the Middle Ages this holiday came to be celebrated at the same time as Celtic new year festival, Samhain. At least since the death of Polycarp in the second century A.D. Christians have commemorated the death of martyrs. These memorials developed over time to an annual vigil of remembering all saints and martyrs.
Samhain is also related to the dead. This was a pagan New Year’s festival that marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, the dark period of the year. It was believed and is still believed by those who celebrate it today, that this is a time when the people can communicate with the spirits of their ancestors, family and friends who have died. Given this background it is easy to see why the Catholic Church would celebrate All Saints Day at this time as an alternative to Samhain.
Down through the years the Catholic name has been kept, but so have many of the Samhain elements as well. Through the years many additional elements of witchcraft, superstition, death, horror etc…have also been added. So in common practice our culture has a holiday with a Christian name and pagan-based activities. Many of the common practices of Halloween today are rooted in elements of paganism and the occult. This is called syncretism, which is the combining of beliefs and practices of different religions. This is strongly condemned in scripture. As Christians who seek to live our lives in accordance with the Bible we cannot simply combine Christian and pagan religious practices and themes together.
So, the origins and the practices of Halloween are rooted in paganism, witchcraft and the occult. But isn’t it just for fun? We don’t really believe in that stuff. You may not believe in it, but many do. October 31 is truly a religious celebration for those who practice pagan religions, Wicca, and various other forms of witchcraft. Paganism and witchcraft have increasingly moved into the mainstream of modern culture. I read an article in the Telegraph of London this past summer that reported on the Hertfordshire Police department officially recognizing Halloween as a religious holiday for pagan police officers just like Christmas or Easter for Christians.
You may ask why we celebrate Christmas and Easter—don’t they have pagan roots also? Yes they do. But the difference is that we have made Christmas and Easter Christian Holidays. We do not celebrate pagan religion or witchcraft at these times; the focus of our celebration is Jesus Christ. Fall Festivals and Harvest Festivals are meant to do the same thing—to provide a holiday that can be fun and exciting while still showing honor and respect to God.
The Bible in both the Old and New Testaments clearly warns believers to avoid witchcraft and pagan worship. You may say that when we celebrate Halloween, we’re just having fun. But if we celebrate Halloween using the costumes, decorations and practices which symbolize paganism and witchcraft (ghosts, goblins, witches, fear, death etc…), then we are decorating God’s house with items that symbolize things that God condemns.
Does this mean that we can’t dress up and decorate? Does this mean that we cannot use pumpkins, hay or scarecrows? No, pumpkins and hay are created by God. Scarecrows were made to scare away crows. These have to do with harvest and the fall. There is a natural overlap of the themes of fall in both pagan and Christian celebrations because both are fall/harvest celebrations. What it does mean is that we should not use the things, which symbolize what God condemns (witchcraft, occult practices etc…), in order to celebrate.
Let’s have fun. Let’s be leaders. Let’s honor God and his son, Jesus Christ, in all that we do.
In Christ,
Bro. Bruce