Halloween Thoughts
I was reading Paul’s post yesterday about Halloween and I am aware that there have been many other posts about Halloween whilst I was away in France – yes, I’ve finally caught up with my google reader! I agree with Paul’s concerns about Halloween in the consumerism sense, but I think I have even deeper concerns than that.
Maybe Halloween is different in the UK to the US, but here it is all about ghosts, witches and scaring people … as well as the free sweets! It really concerns me when I read about how fellow believers see nothing wrong with Halloween. I worry when some say it is their most favourite celebration of the year. I wonder how God feels when he sees Christians “celebrating ” Halloween. It is a pagan festival which I know many see no harm in, but the fact is there are people out there who take Halloween literally, people from various cults and sects etc. Many elderly people get very frightened at Halloween, as do children. In our town for the past x amount of years, it has been repeatedly the night with the highest crime figures, this is followed in second place by New Years Eve.
I feel really uncomfortable with Halloween. I know that Easter and Christmas traditionally hail from pagan festivals, but please can someone show me where Jesus is in Halloween? Where the Christian message is in celebrating Halloween? Because I’m finding it really hard to find one ….
christian message, consumerism, fellow believers, google, halloween, new years eve, pagan festivalsabout
Posted on November 2, 2007
Posted by lynhallewell
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hi lyn, yes good post, it is disquieting.
the closest i have come is in celebrating all saints day and using halloween as part of my commemoration of the dead, those asleep in the faith…
Thanks Paul.
Lyn,
As someone who posted on my blog saying I like Halloween, let me just say that for me it is just about children getting to dress up and get a lot of candy, and me getting to give out a lot of candy. Yes, there are people who ruin it with crime, yes there may be people who use it to celebrate paganism. But there are people who do that to almost anything. Look at sports – soccer hooliganism, or in the States where in some cities winning (or losing) a tournament means a night of riots.
And as for where is Christ in Halloween, well, Christ is where we find Him. I feel simply loving handing out treats and commenting on costumes. I could fairly ask where is Jesus in rugby, a seemingly combative and competitive sport? Not picking a fight, just saying we all have things we like that we can also find Christ in if we look. Or else, if you want to ban my Halloween, then I’ll want to take a shot at most sports, since I think they can bring out the worst in SOME people, even though they bring out the best in others. Does that make sense?
Jim
I understand what you are saying about sports Jim, I agree that they can bring out the worst in people. Where is Jesus in rugby? Well, not on England’s side this year
I wasn’t implying that Halloween should be banned. Maybe it is a cultural thing, as I wrote. Halloween here is perhaps more ghoulish etc than in the US. A lot of churches here hold light parties on Halloween, which children attend. They play games and come home with sweets, but the whole focus is celebrating Jesus as the light of the world and praying into the darkness that surrounds Halloween.
Can we find Jesus in everything? Mmmm, I’m not sure. He is everywhere, but that doesn’t mean He is for everything. Where is Jesus in famine, war, rape and murder. You can look and find a redeeming God at work, but he is not ‘in’ or ‘of’ those things.
Jim, I’m not wanting to pick a fight either, but I simply don’t understand the Christian-Halloween connection. We agree on many things, but I’m afraid we have to disagree on this one my friend.
LYn, before I try to give my opinion/observation I feel like I should be sure of what you’re asking. Can you give me a reference to a Christian-Halloween connection that concerns you?
Cindy, I think there is obviously a real cultural difference here. When you look around the stores in the UK at Halloween it is full of witches hats, devil faces, skeletons and other demonic looking things. I cannot understand celebrating something which the rest of the year we teach our children is bad and wrong. On Halloween evening everyone dressed up on the street was wearing witch, ghost and ghoul outfits etc.
I know you dressed Ruby as a nail varnish brush – there is obviously a real difference in “how” Halloween is “celebrated” across the Atlantic. All I see in Halloween is darkness, so I’m asking what is Christian about that? I can’t teach them one thing and let them celebrate that same thing I teach them against one night of the year. That is a mixed message or what?
What does Halloween mean where you live? Has it been watered down over the years? As I wrote, it doesn’t mean good things here.
Lyn- there are plenty of scary costumes here at Halloween. In the grocery stores and party stores it’s all about scary stuff. Even at our church plenty of people decorated their trunks with witches and ghosts. I wish they wouldn’t.
We don’t allow scary costumes. At our house it’s all about dressing up in a silly creative costume. Few of the kids in our church were in scary costumes. The adults do that more than the kids- which, again, makes me uncomfortable.
However, I think that even the adults who go all out with scary stuff have no idea about the origins. For them it’s just a fun tradition.
I think the thing about Halloween that Christians here are embracing is the community aspect. It’s the one time of year people- especially in the suburbs- get out and greet their neighbors. It’s a holiday that doesn’t pull people out of town to family, and actually encourages them to be neighbors.
Of course, there are always instances of Halloween violence, but, like Jim, i see that as a product of any popular cultural event these days. Around here, it’s mainly about the children. On the news they report what times each community requests for trick or treating to be done. It’s a community celebration.
Same with our church. It’s for our folks and anyone else to participate in. No pressure to visit later or anything. and it seems that non-church people are a lot more apt to bring their adorable child dressed as a bumblebee to a church than to come to worship as a visitor. It’s non threatening, and it gives the church an opportunity to be a source of safe fun for kids- relaxing atmosphere for the adults. Now, understand I think the church should be a LOT more than a source of fun. However, to once a year drop the appearance of being an unapproachable place for people who already have it all together is I think good for the church and the community.
I’ll be the first to say Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday, and I’m notat all reconciled with all the scary stuff. One day, when she asks I guess, I’ll explain to Ruby that once people thought that if they dressed up in scary costumes it would scare away the evil spirits, but that we know Jesus already did that for us. So we just dress up cute and have a party, instead.
Yep, I’m all for the community aspect of things. In the UK we celebrate Fireworks night on November 5th (remembering Guy Fawkes failed attempt at blowing up Parliament), so this is, I think, more of a community event than Halloween. Lots of people invite family and neighbours to firework parties, or they go along to a local community fireworks display at a nearby park.
Thanks for explaining more
Lyn,
I am certainly not (NOT) wanting to pick a fight with you, and on this you’re right, we may have to agree to disagree. And no, when I said we can find Jesus in anything, I didn’t mean in rape and murder, but in anything in normal daily life, be it Halloween or rugby.
I go along with much of what Cindy says, above, and as always it is up to the parents to make Halloween work within acceptable boundaries for children.
Also, I really, really liked Barb’s post on this last week, here: http://retrofited.blogspot.com/2007/10/halloween-heart-of-child.html
What was especially good about that one was that I have a similar daughter, my 21 year old who is now living with us. She was raised by her now deceased mother, whose Christianity was much more of the “God is coming back and boy is He angry” school. She was forced to go to church, even as a teen, she didn’t get to go to Halloween but only church “harvest festivals”, etc. She is now an unbelieving, goth-dressing, anime-writing, emotionally immature lost person who I am very gently trying to bring to adulthood. But here’s the point – when we carved pumpkins for Halloween, she got to carve one, which she hadn’t gotten to do in “years, over a decade”, and she just had simple, delighted joy in it. I think it helped heal her heart to get something back from a pretty grim childhood.
And yes, there’s lots of grim reapers and the like, but I just focus on the princesses and Buzz Lightyears, etc. Here’s some shots of our kids this year – not too evil looking, not even the mummy:
http://dullroar.com/Halloween07/P1010004.JPG
http://dullroar.com/Halloween07/P1010005.JPG
The pumpkins, the carving of which were a fun family time:
http://dullroar.com/Halloween07/P1010015.JPG
My grandchildren in Texas:
http://3minionsintow.blogspot.com/2007/11/our-halloween.html
So, yes, I think it very well may BE a cultural thing. And that’s not to say Halloween is not without critics here, too. But for many of us, it is just the day of dress up and candy.
Peace and love no matter whether we agree or not!
Jim
Hey Jim, yes I read Barb’s post earlier this week, it is good. Thanks for sharing your photos – very lovely. Our kids carve pumpkins usually with a cross on and we write Jesus on it. This goes along with the light party which they attend. I don’t feel like they are missing out on Halloween. They dress up as superheros for the light party, and as I wrote yesterday, come away with sweets and other gifts.
It’s been good reading what Cindy and you have had to say. I think I understand more now. As we have said, there is definitely a cultural difference.
Each year that I don’t participate in Halloween I am able to see more “light” concerning the darkness. I don’t decide if I am going to participate in something like this or not. I submit it to the Holy Spirit as He is my guide into all truth. I truly want the Lord to be my Lord. I used to give out tracts with the candy, then one year I asked the Lord what to write down on a slip of paper that each child would get. I trusted that the right child would get his/her particular message and the Lord would use it to touch their hearts and , hopefully, this would draw them closer to Him. This year, however, it was clear. No participation at all. The Lord showed me how, when I was young, participating in Halloween actually caused me to be harassed with a spirit of fear, which even today, will try and come back on me. Then He said (by His Spirit)-How can you drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons? It became perfectly clear. Then, as Lynn is suggesting,-what does light have to do with darkness? We are in this world, but not of it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience Patti. I appreciate reading them.