The Night Halloween Was Murdered
I have always loved to read, and as a child, I had an unhealthy interest in mysteries and spine-chilling, ghost stories. So, it was only natural that Halloween was one of my favorite holidays.
When I was growing up, Halloween was second only to Christmas. Who didn’t love a night of dark fun, friends, and tons of sugar? Even though I was raised in a Christian home, we always went trick-or-treating. Like most others, we would target the wealthy neighborhoods where we were sure to get the full-size goodies. All this wonder came to a halt in the early 80s when poisoning candy became a thing. I’ll never forget the first year my parents decided we couldn’t go out anymore – not because of conviction, but because of fear. I sat in my Aunt Joann’s backyard, feeling sorry for myself, fully convinced that I was the only kid in the world who wasn’t out trick-or-treating. The funny thing is - I don’t remember ever having any second thoughts or negative emotions about missing Halloween from that year forward. I guess you could say Halloween was murdered for me that year.
Is it really a big deal if Christians celebrate Halloween?
Somewhere between that sad night, surrendering my life to Jesus at the age of 17, and becoming a mother a few years later, I had to start asking some hard questions about Halloween. Questions like:
· What is Halloween (really) all about?
· As a Christian, does it matter if I allow my children to participate in Halloween?
· Won’t my children feel left out and be subject to isolation and rejection if I don’t allow them to participate?
I decided it was my job as a mother to do a little research and not leave it to others to make decisions for my children. I want to share with you my fascinating findings.
Halloween’s Birth
Contrary to what you might think, Halloween isn’t an official holiday in the U.S. That’s because its birthplace was in Ireland, Northern France, and the UK. Halloween’s origin dates back as far as 2,000 years ago. It was originally known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in). It all started with the Celts, who celebrated their new year on November 1st. They believed that the veil separating the realm of the living and the realm of the dead was pulled back at midnight on October 31st. The removal of this boundary allowed the souls of those who had died that year to pass through into the realm of the dead with ease. It was also believed that the souls of those who already dwelled in the realm of the dead could return to the realm of the living on that dreadful night. This belief gripped the Celts with fear of attack from these spirits. Out of desperation, the Celts enacted several practices to prevent these dead spirits from entering their villages and homes and bringing harm or death to their families.
The OG Halloween Costume
Their first defense system was the first known Halloween costume. They would dress up and cover themselves with animal heads and fur to try and trick the spirits so that they would not be attacked.
Then they would carve out turnips, light a fire inside, and place it outside their front door to scare the spirits away. This practice later converted to carving out pumpkins instead because of the abundance of supply and the ease of removing the seeds.
The Celts would gather in their animal skin costumes and build sacred bonfires, where they would burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celtic Druids (priests) attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.
Each household would allow the fire in their hearths to burn out while they were bringing in the final harvest. They would take some of the fire from the sacred bonfire to relight their hearths at home, believing this fire granted them protection throughout the coming year.
What is trick-or-treating?
Samhain began to cross the ocean into other nations as Celts began to immigrate and take their beliefs with them. During the first century, the Catholic Church wanted to provide an alternative for those of the Christian faith, so they named November 1 as All Saints Day. This holiday was set apart as a holy day for them to remember the Saints and martyrs who were deceased. Samhain then began to be referred to as All Hallows Eve. Hallow means holy or sacred. Respectively, the night before All Saints Day became Hallows Eve and ultimately, Halloween.
By the seventh century, the Catholic Church decided to enact another holiday on November 2 so all deceased, and not just Saints could be celebrated.
While these efforts by the Catholic Church were meant to provide an alternative to Samhain, it is noted in some historical accounts that their celebrations didn’t look much different than the original holiday.
It became a regular practice during these holidays for poverty-stricken families to pass door to door seeking out treats, which became known as “soul cakes,” in exchange for prayers for their deceased loved ones.
Halloween made its major entrance into the US during the second half of the 19th century. During the infamous Irish Potato Famine, America became flooded with immigrants trying to escape the famine. These immigrants brought with them their pagan beliefs and celebrations into the home of the red, white, and blue.
Halloween was quickly adopted but was not hugely popular in southern states and Maryland because of the strong Puritan and protestant communities, and therefore many Christians refused to participate. But much like the proverbial frog in boiling water, in time, America began to let down its defenses and fully embrace the holiday and its popularity has only continued to grow since. (A new report released by the National Retail Federation, estimated that 65% of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year. That number is up from 58% last year. They also reported that 66% of consumers plan to celebrate by handing out candy, 52% plan to decorate their home or yard, 46% want to dress up in costume, and 44% want to celebrate by carving a pumpkin, and finally, 25% plan to host or attend a Halloween party.1 )
Additionally, Halloween quickly became one of the most commercialized holidays in America. The amount of revenue Halloween continues to garner since its emergence from Ireland is staggering. (The aforementioned survey also reports that total spending on costumes will reach a whopping $3.32 billion this year, that’s the highest it's been since 2017.2 )
Americans went all in. Halloween parties begin to emerge in local towns and schools until vandalism became a widespread problem. As yearly pranks became a huge burden, Halloween parties begin to be moved back into private homes to keep the kids out of trouble.
One of the things unruly teenagers liked to do on Halloween was to tip over outhouses and place farm equipment on barn roofs.
I personally remember my husband recounting a story his dad had told him about a time many years before when he finally became impatient with the annual outhouse trick and turned the tables on the wild teens before they arrived one fateful year. His scheme was to dig a new hole and move the outhouse first – but only ever so slightly from its current location. The pranksters showed up on schedule only to find themselves stepping off into the putrid, original dung hole. His dad cried tears of laughter as he recalled the screams and unpleasantries coming from the vandals as they retreated and ran away. That was the last year of the outhouse prank.
By the 1970s, trick-or-treating had become a common practice, as most American children adorned themselves in evil and scary costumes and visited the doors of their neighbors in search of sugary treats. Bonfire celebrations and jack-o’-lanterns laced neighborhoods and nearby farms as it became more uncommon to not engage in the celebrations than it was to actually participate.
It wasn’t long before poison and razor blades begin to pop up in the candy youngsters collected on Halloween night, which led to my own parents canceling our beloved trick-or-treating ritual.
Halloween has quite the story of its own to tell and from my study as a mother, the plot deepened. I had a dilemma. With this newfound knowledge, I had to wrestle with some even tougher questions.
· Is it permissible for me and my family as Christians to participate in Halloween if our hearts are not doing so with the same motivation as the original Celts?
· Most importantly, how would Jesus feel about my involvement with Halloween?
· What would be the effect on my child, if any, if I did permit him/her to engage in such a holiday? What would be the effect if I didn’t permit it?
The Effect on Children
We don’t need to be told the history of the Celts or Samhain to understand that the motivation of the holiday is fear-based. And it doesn’t take much convincing to see that Halloween, as we know it today, is still founded upon a foundation of fear and evil. Every icon or activity synonymous with Halloween is oozing with fear and darkness -- from haunted house attractions to evil costumes and devilish pranks, to the plethora of scary movies that ambush theaters throughout the entire autumn season. We must ask ourselves, “What effect is this having on our children?”
I personally knew two very young toddlers who, although they were barely old enough to speak, would take one look at the scary decorations on their neighbors’ houses, or at the symbols of Halloween lining the entrances and shelves of local stores, and immediately cringe and drawback in genuine fear and terror. One toddler would suffer regularly from bad nightmares during the Halloween season. Where did they learn this? It was a natural reaction of the innocent mind and heart when confronted with evil.
It’s easy to argue that Halloween is just about good, clean fun, and community fellowship (after all, not everyone dresses in demonic costumes), but one must at least consider - why is Halloween not about wholesome things like love, respect, and goodness like the rest of our holidays? If the modern-day version of Halloween as we know it is not the same holiday that was celebrated 2000 years ago by the Celts, then why is every icon representing Halloween fear-based? Why is it not just another holiday celebrating the good in life, (i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Father’s Day, or Mother’s Day)? I think the answer lies in the words of the warning Jesus offered, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” No matter what alternative we try to create or makeover we attempt to give it, Halloween still has and will always have its roots in the original Samhain Celtic holiday, and with it comes a dark spirit underlying its candy-corn colored face.
The Black Cat and its Link to the Demonic.
Another icon that is very familiar and linked to Halloween is that of witches, spells, and potions. There is a long-standing belief that witches change into the form of black cats to disguise themselves. While the cartoon depiction of a witch, complete with her pointed hat and broom, may be exaggerated and unrealistic, there is a very genuine and sophisticated religion called Wicca that is very much alive today. In fact, one report states that there are more Wiccans than there are Presbyterians. I don’t know how accurate that statement is because it’s not super easy to research Wicca, but witchcraft is so much so on the rise that The New York Times published an article (dated October 24, 2019) entitled, When Did Everyone Become a Witch?3
As practicing witches, Halloween is their biggest holiday of the year. I recently listened to the testimony of a young lady who had once been a witch and was sharing her story. She spoke from nine years of firsthand experience of deep dedication to the religion and said that for the entire week leading up to Halloween, the Wiccans do all they can to get extra rest so that they’re able to stay up all night on Halloween to perform their spiritual activities. Those activities include (on a mild level) spells and prayers to the spirits they believe are passing through the veil on that night (just as believed by the Celtics). The difference is that Wiccans are polytheistic, and they believe those spirits are gods. So, they pray during this sacred time for those gods to come and inhabit them and fill them with their powers. This young lady eventually left the Wiccan religion because her home became so haunted and possessed that she feared for her safety as she slept at night. However, she had a long battle for freedom because the spirits that she had invited led her into deep drug addiction, self-harm, depression, and ultimately homelessness. By the grace of God and to the glory of His name, she did find ultimate and complete freedom.
As Christians what are we to do with Halloween?
Ultimately, you have to take the information provided and seek the Lord for your household. But before I end, let me leave you with a few tough questions and what the Bible has to say:
· How can we as Christians justify participating in a holiday that is seeded in demonic practices, or superstition at best, even if it’s all just for fun?
2 Corinthians 6:13-15 “Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?”
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “Therefore, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
· Is dressing up in costumes or decorating my home for Halloween ok?
1 Thessalonians 5:22 “Abstain from every form (appearance) of evil.”
While the world may hang their gleeful support of Halloween on their front doors and lawns, God calls us as Christians to write His Word upon our doorposts. (See Deuteronomy 6:6-9, Deuteronomy 11:18-20, and Isaiah 57:8.)
· What about a Christian alternative “Harvest Party” or dressing up as angels or bible characters?
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
James 1:8 “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
· Will my child understand our decision to not participate in Halloween?
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
· How do I keep my kids from feeling left out?
Isaiah 54:13 “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.”
I think a more pressing question is - am I teaching my children that it is vital to fit in? Will they feel the same way when faced with peer pressure to participate in drug and substance use or premarital sex or immorality? Or am I equipping them to stand up for truth regardless of the pressure of a godless society? Or to be bold enough to walk righteously when it’s not popular to do so?
· How will it affect my children if we decide to not participate?
Deuteronomy 5:29 “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear (reverence) me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!”
· How do I protect my kids and stand against a holiday that is so prominently celebrated throughout society and the school system?
Ephesians 6:10-14 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”
Footnotes:
1https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-american-set-spend-102-144913057.html
2https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/halloween-spending-soars-celebrations-near-pre-pandemic-levels
3https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/books/peak-witch.html