Christians can celebrate Halloween!

Halloween or All Hallows Eve was stolen from Christians.  What started as a day to prepare for All Saints’ Day (November 1st), Halloween became a spooky, evil, and candy filled observance. The term “Halloween” from its beginnings, had nothing to do with any pagan or evil beliefs. The Christian festival “All Hallows Eve” morphed into our current term Halloween.

The term Halloween comes from the sense of what is “hallowed” or “holy”. In the Lord’s Prayer, Christians pray, “Our Father, in heaven, hallowed be your name…”  In the fourth century the Eastern Church celebrated a festival in honor of all saints who died. In the seventh and eighth centuries, Christians celebrated “All Saints’ Day” formally.

How did Halloween become associated with evil spirits?  The Druids, in what is now Britain and France, observed the end of summer with sacrifices to their gods. It was the beginning of the Celtic year, and they believed Samhain, the lord of death, sent evil spirits to attack humans, who could escape only by wearing disguises and looking like evil spirits themselves.

The Christian observance of Halloween began with a religious focus and Christians should take back Halloween. The argument of religious leaders that it is a sin to celebrate Halloween is not valid if we are going to celebrate Christmas and Easter when we do. Christmas and Easter in Europe had pagan connections.  We do not abandon Christmas and Easter and should not abandon All Hallows Eve. No one really knows what happened during the pagan festival of Samhain. There is not one shred of evidence of what actually took place.

Gregory III (731–741) and Gregory IV (827–844) moved the Christian holiday All Saints’ Day from May 13 to November 1 to replace the pagan rituals on October 31 and November 1.  Gregory III instructed people to dress up as saints.

Most Christians may not understand that Christmas was selected for a December observance because of the Nordic holiday of Yule. Scholars believe Jesus Christ was born during a warmer month than December.  Many scholars believe that Jesus’ birthday was in fact during a warmer month. The ancient pagans, in the beginning of the winter solstice, when the days became shorter and the weather became colder celebrated Yule.  As a pagan observance, the Scandinavian cultures would keep a fire going with a giant tree or log and the people often made sacrifices before an oak tree for a period of 12 days…is this a connection with the 12 days of Christmas?  Not to mention the Christmas tree. Pagans would burn or use evergreens in their festivals.

The observance of Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. However, the modern English word “Easter “can be traced to an older English word Ēastre or Ēostre or Eoaster, which refers to Eostur-monath, a month that the Germanic peoples named after the goddess Ēostre. If the word Easter has connections to pagan rituals of celebrating spring time, does that devalue Easter?

Understanding that early Christians contextualized early pagan holidays into Christian holidays helps us to see that we do not have to compromise our beliefs with pagan ones.

Halloween does not have to be a holiday filled with Dracula’s, bloody masks, or witches. There was a time when children dressed up, but their costumes were not sinister. During the Great Depression, children often disguised themselves as hobos, burglars, pirates… in other words, as economic and social outcasts, symbolic of the troubles from which their parents were struggling to escape. Those children were trying to make light of their situation. Halloween in the 19th century was devoid of scary masks and monsters.

If you still think Halloween is an evil day, then maybe you should see All Hallows Eve as a time when Christians can laugh and even mock evil. Martin Luther said, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” Thomas More said, “The devil … the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.”

The one thing Satan cannot bear is to be a source of laughter. His pride is undermined by his own knowledge that his infernal rebellion against God is in reality an absurd farce. Hating laughter, he demands to be taken seriously. I would say that those Christians who spend the night of October 31st filled with concern over what evils might be taking place are doing the very thing Lucifer wants them to do. By giving him this respect, such believers are giving his authority credence.

Christians should instead celebrate Halloween with enthusiasm. If we follow the traditional formula of having a good time at his expense, Satan should flee. By laughing and mocking evil by goofy costumes we can take a posture of triumph with Christ.

Christians should focus and teach the concept of celebrating All Saint’s Day, November 1st in churches.

The term “saint” is used over 60 times in the New Testament. Protestants use the word saints to describe the Christians living and dead.  We can also honor our loved ones who have given us Christ, such as our parents, grandparents, etc.…  We can thank God for them and pray for the living “saints”.  Churches can use All Saints Day to light candles as an act of prayer for thanking God for the special people (“saints”) in our lives.

Protestants can learn from the saints of the church for the last 2,000 years. Protestants have often been fearful of honoring and learning from the Church saints for fear that they are venerating them as Catholics do.

When Jesus confronted evil demons in the New Testament they were fearful and obeyed the commands of Jesus to leave the people they possessed.  Much of the outcry concerning Halloween comes from the fear of evil or welcoming evil into their homes or lives.  No one should go out and look for spiritual warfare, but we should take comfort in knowing that Christ has given us the tools to fend away evil through faith in God, scripture, the power of Christ, the Holy Spirit, fasting, and prayer.

Why should Christians allow others to claim Halloween as their own? We should take back “All Hallows Eve” by embracing “All Saints Day” and remembering our “saints” by separating “All Hallows Eve” from the pre-Christian practices.

Christians can take comfort in understanding the historical Christian remembrance that is associated with “All Hallows Eve” and “All Saints Day”.  Children can collect donations for UNICEF or for a local cause. We Christians can also view Halloween as a fun event for children by having events in churches or in our communities where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and share some treats in a safe place.

If celebrating Halloween is a sin, it is a man-made sin and not a sin defined by God! To give you an example of this I will tell you a true story. A friend of mind decided to give the children of the community an opportunity to celebrate Halloween in the fashion he did as a child. We all know it is no longer safe in all neighborhoods to allow children to go door to door asking for treats. He decided, along with his parish council, to have a Halloween party in their fellowship hall. The community was invited. They requested no scary costumes. Prizes were given for the best homemade costume, best angel costume and most original costume. They had a large piñata shaped like a cloud. When the children broke the piñata open candy fell to the floor along with ‘Bible scriptures written on colorful paper’. There was a ‘pin the wings on an angel’ game.  The men of the church dressed like Biblical characters. There was absolutely nothing about this party that would make one think of evil spirits or the devil.

The Southern Baptist minister in the community attacked my friend and his church unmerciful. He even gave an interview to the local newspaper accusing the church of being an occult. On the following Sunday in his pulpit he told his people that the church was practicing witchcraft and devil worshipping. He said my friend and the members of his church would be, “fried, boiled and stewed in hell”.

The following week he discovered some of his members had taken their children to the party. That Sunday he called out the names of those people and asks them to leave his church and never return. I will leave it up to you who do you think committed the sin my friend or the narrow minded Southern Baptist minister.

I have one more question for you - do you still wonder why the younger generation is leaving organized religion when we practice such bigotry in our churches.

Southern Baptist Convention in recent years has decreased in membership every year; although the number of small churches opened were over 200 last year. Last year they had fewer baptisms than ever, which mean less people are joining the religious organization. They also did not meet last year’s financial goal they claim they need to maintain their outreach programs. 

Please know I am not being critical of Southern Baptist Church members or all Southern Baptist ministers. I am speaking of only one Southern Baptist minister. I also am not saying only the Southern Baptist Convention is getting smaller most, if not all, organized religious organizations are growing smaller.