On Halloween

I suspect that for most people who emigrate to the west, the whole concept of Halloween is initially shocking. Personally, the image of a group of young women dressed in skeleton costumes and rowing a boat down River Wensum in Norwich at sunset was both jarring and now permanently engraved on my mind. However the longer one stays here, surrounded by neighbours who have carved pumpkins at their doorsteps and skeletons on the front garden then the question of what attitude one ought to have about Halloween becomes a little more than just a theoretical issue.

Generally most of us will fall almost neatly into three groups. Firstly, there are those who don’t really care either way. We are so busy with major life issues— paying bills, school runs, et cetera that we don’t have the time or the emotional bandwidth for such inanities. There is the second group that are generally liberal about such issues. They don’t see any real problem with children dressing up and having some fun. The third group, are fully opposed to the Halloween. For them, Halloween is more than little children dressing up and having fun, it is a celebration of death, darkness and evil. And due to these spiritual undertones, they like to steer clear. 

I imagine many Christians belong to the third group. I vividly remember reading many years ago about a woman who allegedly lost her job with Kenneth Copeland Ministries because her kids had a Halloween party.

When I asked about what attitude a Christian should have towards Halloween , one of my friends commented, “what does the Bible say?” I think that is largely a solid approach to take in thinking through most issues as a Christian. What does the Bible say about this particular matter? Regardless of our preconceived notions, our cultural background, our personal preferences, the environmental influences, etc. However in some matters, there is no exact chapter and verse one can refer to in answering such issues. Those issues often divide us with well-meaning believers coming to differing conclusions. Sometimes mutually exclusive conclusions. And God helps us deal with such issues through some of the guidance provided for example in 1Corinthians 8 through 10 with Paul discussing foods offered to idols. 

Many people think Halloween is similar— it is a morally neutral issue not explicitly commanded or forbidden by scriptures. Others however would disagree saying it is essentially a pagan/demonic ritual and Christians must stay away from it.

I personally find it interesting that some people who dress up their kids as witches and decorate their front porches with animated skeletons in the US or the UK balk when they visit Ipetumodu, Ogbomosho or Orlu, Nigeria and find their kinsmen celebrating the annual masquerade festival. Apparently they only mind the pagan element of the African masquerade cult!😀

Another interesting issue is the history of Halloween itself and its metamorphosis over the years. It appears that Halloween was originally related to a prechristian Celtic festival marking the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. It was believed that at the time the boundary between the world of the living and the dead was especially thin. Like most modern day Christian holidays, this Celtic holiday was subsequently marked as a Christian holiday called “All Hallows Day”. All Hallows Day (also called All Saints’ Day— hallow/saint/sanctify being literary equivalents) which Catholics and Anglicans may be familiar with is a Christian holiday that celebrates all the saints of the church— both known and unknown. Both canonised and uncanonised.  The Evening before All Hallows Day was called All Hallows Eve, after some time similar to the ipàrójẹ that Yoruba speakers are familiar with, All Hallows Eve became known as Halloween.

Although some scholars argue that the link between Halloween and the Celtic winter festival is poor and Halloween could be entirely be Christian in origin with no link to pagan traditions, the typical Halloween traditions that exist even till today seem to be a blend of Celtic traditions, folk English practices and medieval religious beliefs. For example, as far back as the 8th century, people lit bonfires and wore disguises to ward off spirits. By the Middle Ages, Christians marked the night with “souling”—where the poor go door to door offering prayers for the soul of the dead in exchange for food—and “guising,” where people dress up as saints or spirits and staged plays. It was when Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the US that it acquired its modern guise— “souling” became trick or treat, “guiding” became an industry in its own right of Halloween costumes.

Now enough with the history lesson. Should a Christian celebrate Halloween or not?

Well I think everyone has to think through the issues and decide on what to do. 

Personally I don’t think Halloween is pagan anymore than Christmas or Easter is pagan. Both Christmas and Easter have pagan origins and have become heavily commercialised in the west, yet most of us happily celebrate our Lord’s birth, death and resurrection on these days. Many argue that it is a celebration of death, darkness and fear. Firstly, we don’t want to trivialise the reality of spiritual darkness in our world and secondly, since we believers are a people of life and light who have not received a spirit of fear but of love and of a sound mind, it is reasonable if people choose to abstain. Similar to this are those who really believe that demons are unleashed during Halloween and participating in it can open one up (or one’s children for that matter) to demonic possession or oppression.

However another argument is that since Christ has overcome death, darkness, demons, disease et cetera they are now of no consequence such that we can joke about them without any sense of fear or alarm. Because Christ has gained the victory over the devil and his minions, they are now laughingstock that even children can joke around with.

But this can be a difficult one for people to actually accept. Especially since many of us struggle to really believe that Christ has won the victory and may still live in fear of the devil and evil spirits.

Nevertheless, wherever we are in this regards, I feel most of us can agree that Halloween can provide a unique opportunity for us to know and interact with our neighbours and their children — a rarity in this “everyone-minds-their-business culture”. As parents, it is also a time for us to have conversations with our children—to talk about fear, the spirit world, physical death, the fate of the those who have died, and for us our hope of resurrection in Christ. And to preach the gospel message again — about a saviour who has overcome death, who saves us from fear and how in Him, death the last enemy now has an expiry date. Fourthly, it can be an opportunity to faithfully disciple them in a world of greed, materialism and consumerism where a Halloween animated grim reaper (in Asda for that matter) sells for as much as 50 pounds! And when they ask why they cannot do what their friends do, buy what their friends buy, or wear what their friends wear help them (and ourselves for that matter) learn to articulate the reasons for the things we do and the things we do not do in the 1 Peter 3 manner.

Ultimately, this is a matter that calls for grace and our goal regardless of what choice we make should be to glorify God.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1Cor10:31