Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?Today's question is Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Here's my own answer as well as the story behind why my family doesn't celebrate Halloween anymore. Since early in our marriage, we did away with Halloween and we only look for opportunities to share the gospel. We have served in church-run fall festivals where children from the community come to have non-fear related fun and we are able to witness to them in different ways. But, we do not feel the need or even the desire to take our daughter just so she will not be left out and will have something fun to do "that night" like the rest of the kids. We are no strangers to not doing what the "crowd" is doing. If we do go to a church festival, we do not wear any type of costume, including our daughter. If we go, we do so to support our church's outreach and/or serve where needed. I know many Christians see church-run fall festivals as wrong and I understand why they have that conviction. The thing that I do like about it is the opportunity to spread the gospel. Maybe that's because the ones I've served in focused on that aspect. But I don't think all church festivals do focus on that and/or some of the children's items they give out are marked with "Happy Halloween". I do agree that having a festival that is solely for a "fair" substitute can be questionable. Our first church discouraged celebrating Halloween and scary costumes, and that may have influenced us. But from what I remember, putting an end to our celebration of Halloween came primarily from the natural leading of God's Spirit at work in our hearts and lives. The same went for drinking alcohol, using profanity, listening to certain music and watching shows and movies and other things that we became progressively repulsed by as we gave way to the Holy Spirit. We didn't even necessarily stop celebrating because of the story of the origin of Halloween. We just looked at it and what it stands for in itself. We didn't need to know its history to see that what it encourages is contrary to our faith and makes light (as though they aren't serious) of serious spiritual matters. It was for that reason that it was easy for us to say, "No" to "Should Christians celebrate Halloween?" Excerpt from my Origin of Halloween page to tie into "Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?": Obviously, some kids only want to (or are only allowed to) wear nice, cute costumes, but scary costumes are typically and originally were the theme. The whole point behind Halloween costumes is not to play dress-up, but to copy something in particular (evil spirits/spirits of the dead). The response towards someone refusing to give a treat is to have a trick played on them. In essence, celebrating Halloween and trick or treating is like play-acting the actual traditional practices built around idolatry, superstition, and fear. Though most families see it as fun and far removed from the origin of Halloween, they are still supporting the idea that it is acceptable and good to pretend and fantasize about being evil, dark, frightening-whatever you want to call it. The Halloween many people celebrate today may not contain all of the meaning of the origin of Halloween, but it is still very much focused on the dark, evil, deceiving, and Satanic authorities in this world. It is still a very clear picture of old practices. Maybe some people don't see it as a big deal because they don't realize the affect and effect of evil powers that are at work in the world. Of course, that results from the art of desensitization and deception, a craft honed by the father of lies himself... Evil and all appearances of evil are things that I feel Christians should naturally be repelled by. If you are a Christ follower and still celebrate Halloween, I assume you are still my brother or sister in Christ and we have Him in common. As I said in my Holidays and Celebrations page,it's not up to me to make you do what I think you should do. The best thing for both of us to do is continue in prayer and obedience to the Lord and allow His Spirit of wisdom to counsel and convict us. This page on the "should Christians celebrate Halloween" contains my perspective and convictions cultivated from my personal walk with the Lord which I feel led to share. Let's lift each other up in prayer that we would all grow closer to the One who has called us out from the ways of the world in whatever areas of our lives that displease Him. Return to Holidays and Celebrations from Should Christians Celebrate Halloween |
