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Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
By Elliott Watson

Should you and I be involved in the celebration of Halloween?

Finding the answer to this question has been an interesting journey in itself. I interviewed several people and then researched what many leading Christian writers, authors and spokesmen have written about the subject. I also searched various websites such as christianitytoday.com, focusonthefamily.org, and cbn.com to read what others might be saying. What I found was an agreement on the origins of Halloween, but a mixture of recommendations about allowing our children to participate in this super-charged media driven holiday.

The origins of Halloween are Celtic in tradition and have to do with observing the end of summer sacrifices to gods in Druidic tradition. In what is now Britain and France, it was the beginning of the Celtic year, and they believed Samhain, the lord of death, sent evil spirits abroad to attack humans, who could escape only by assuming disguises and looking like evil spirits themselves. The waning of the sun and the approach of dark winter made the evil spirits rejoice and play nasty tricks. Believe it or not, most of our Halloween practices can be traced back to these old pagan rites and superstitions.

But what about today? Perhaps we can still learn from history. In the fourth century, Christians attempted to co-opt the holiday by celebrating the lives of faithful Christian saints the day before Halloween. This was a conscious attempt to provide an alternative and re-focus the day away from ghouls, goblins, ghosts, witches and other “haunted” experiences. Since that time many Christians have decided to allow their children to dress in more “innocent” costumes of pumpkins, princesses, Superman or as a cowboy. Part of this is due to the simple reality that in today’s Western culture it is nearly impossible to “avoid” Halloween.

Just before reaching a conclusion on the subject, I was struck with the thought that I ought to further my search and find out what Wicca, the official religion of witchcraft, has to say about Halloween. Perhaps they viewed the day as a simple fun and innocent neighborhood activity?

“Shock” is the only word to describe what I found. Halloween is a real, sacred day for those who follow Wicca. In fact, it is one of two high and holy days for them. The Celtic belief of spirits being released is current, along with the worship of Samhain (the lord of death) – both are promoted as something to embrace on that day. There is no question in my mind that to those who believe and follow the practices of witchcraft, Halloween represents an opportunity to embrace the evil, devilish, dark side of the spiritual world.

So after discovering this, what is a reasonable conclusion? As Christians you and I are placed in this world to be a light in a world of darkness. There is no lasting benefit to ignore a holiday that exists around us, but it also does harm to celebrate Halloween as it has originated and grown over the centuries.

My suggestion? Christians should be teaching their children (age appropriately) that:

* there is a spiritual world filled with goodness from God and evil from Satan (Eph. 2:1-10);

* life with Christ has power over darkness (I John 4:4); and

* those who celebrate Halloween either are unaware of its roots, or are intentionally promoting a world where evil is lauded and viewed as an ultimate power.

To counter the evil influence of Halloween, we need to join together and celebrate the reality of the heroic efforts of Christian saints over the evil in their day. Many leaders in the past -- and present -- have fulfilled the mandate of destroying the works of the devil through their sacrificial commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.

Too, rather than “hide” in the face of evil, we should unabashedly and boldly create an alternative that is positive and uplifting; that celebrates good over evil and the triumph of God over Satan. We need to provide an environment that also makes room for heaps of fun while using the day as a “teachable moment” to celebrate God’s protection, provision and purpose for our lives.

The last church Harvest party I went to was over 8 or 9 years ago and I have never been to my current city's church's Trunk O' Treats a.k.a. "Light the Night". This year they said they expect 1,800 people to come.

Some friends who used to be overseas missionaries said that they have heard people in overseas countries being intrigued or confused about Halloween all because the USA celebrates it. Also, scary masks are often made in overseas countries. The missionaries' point was that the USA celebrating Halloween does not send a good message to other countries.

The most I will do this year for Harvest day is put an orange hair scrunchie on because I like fall colors. We have a pumpkin but we aren't carving or decorating it. I play a game on Facebook where you dress up an avatar girl and decorate her apartment. Well, they have tons of Halloween decor like a ghost, a pumpkin with a bug carved in it, a headstone, and gothic black and purple furniture and wallpaper. I did not decorate my house with any of it. And I avoided any witch costumes or "evil queen" costumes. I did get a cute mermaid costume, a princess costume, a ballerina outfit, a butterfly outfit--those kind of outfits. I did keep a pumpkin carving table in the avatar's house because they were plain orange pumpkins without any bug carvings. The game also had a theme for Dia de las Muertas, the Mexican holiday "Day of the Dead" and I did not keep any items such as the ancestor offering basket (which is idolatry), decorated skull art, or stuff like that. I don't want to send the wrong message to other players of the game by putting up scary Halloween stuff.