Oct 31 - Not the Holiday You Might Think

My column for this week's Enterprise.

                From where I’m curled up with a cup of tea, I can see the neighbor’s ash tree, gleaming golden.  Leaves dance in the wake of the cars that drive through the yellow carpet it’s strewn on the street.  I can hear our kids raking the backyard and chattering about last night’s bonfire, debating the best part: was it the hayrides, the hot chocolate, or the parade of pumpkins that lined the driveway?  The bright blue sky overhead caps off the day like a jaunty bowler. 

                Autumn has long been my favorite season of the year.  I relish crisp “sweater weather,” steamy apple cider, and the barrage of spicy-sweet scents from the candles that line the entrance of the nearby hobby store.  There is one aspect to this season that I’ve not considered much before this year, however: Halloween.  When one lives four miles from the nearest town, which numbers around 500 people, trick-or-treaters don’t make the trek.  So before we moved within city limits several months ago, the only exposure our children had to the holiday was a glimpse of the costume aisle at Wal-Mart as we careened past on our way to the toothpaste.  But when our next-door neighbors started stringing orange lights last month and the couple across the street peppered their front door with bat and ghost window-clings, I knew we probably wouldn’t be able to skirt the subject this year.

                What’s a Christian to do with Halloween?  Google that or poll a few people from your church, and you’ll discover a debate that’s as sticky as those cobwebs that come in a can.  Some do their best to ignore that the holiday exists.  Others think its fine to dress their children in some of the tamer costumes and take them trick-or-treating.  Still others host “Hallelujah” parties or “Trunk or Treat” in their churches’ parking lots.  In the next couple of weeks, many a Christian teen will watch a horror movie or visit a haunted house – or haunted corn maze, whatever the case may be).  When I was younger, Halloween didn’t seem to be as big of deal, but it’s now been commercialized into a multi-billion dollar industry – this summer the witches and wigs appeared in our grocery store along with the school supplies. 

Perhaps it is wise to consider Halloween’s origins.  Already before Christ’s birth, the day we know as Halloween was part of a Celtic fire festival that marked the beginning of the winter season.   At this festival Druid priests offered sacrifices to pagan gods and goddesses and attempted to communicate with the spirits of deceased ancestors.  Many people wore masks – some to enhance their likelihood that they would connect with the spirit world and others to ward off evil spirits.  Masked participants went door-to-door seeking contributions of food that they believed would protect the donors from evil spirits and ensure their future prosperity.  This fire festival persisted in spite of the growth of Roman Empire and the subsequent spread of Christianity to the British Isles.  In an attempt to assert the authority of the Church and infuse the pagan festival with Christianity, Gergory IV, who was pope during the 8^th century, moved the Roman Catholic celebrations of All Hallowed Evening and All Saints’ Day from May to October 31 and November 1.  Eventually, “All Hallowed Evening” was condensed to “Halloween.”  Halloween was imported to the United States along with immigrants from the Isles during the 1800s. 

 While the origins of Halloween are pagan, one might argue that Halloween as we know it is much more lighthearted and therefore not blatantly anti-Christian.  In light of that argument, it’s worth noting that there is a small but growing population in our nation who take Halloween very seriously.  In my last column I mentioned a conversation with the director of the crisis pregnancy center in the town where I live.  While we were visiting that day, I asked her what percentage of the women who came to the center were Christians.  She estimated about 50 percent.  And the other 50?  Atheists, most of them, and a small but growing number of Wiccans.  That trend is consistent nation-wide.  Wiccans - that is, modern-day pagans or practicing witches who celebrate Halloween as the first day of their new year –account for the fastest growing religious group in the United States.  Why their sudden surge?  Two probable reasons:  Wicca does not acknowledge absolute good or absolute evil, and it promotes glorification of the inner self.  Both characteristics fit perfectly in our post-modern age.

Anyway, back to my original question: what’s a Christian supposed to do with Halloween?  Well, already in the Old Testament God forbade any association with witches and wizards.  That seems pretty clear.  And not long ago we considered 1 Corinthians 10, in which Paul states that the food that the pagans offered to their idol gods and goddesses they really offered to devils, “and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.”  What about Paul’s words to the saints in Ephesus in Ephesians 5?  “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”  These Ephesians were those who had once practiced pagan magic, or, as the KJV puts it in Acts 19, “curious arts.”  Do you remember what they did with their books, which were worth 50,000 pieces of silver?  They heaped them together and burned them in public.  The next verse of that chapter tells us that the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed among these saints.  Likely they didn’t allow their children to even pretend to participate in the traditions that were part of their former religion.  While we might associate Halloween with harmless fun, it’s interesting to me that until the last two decades, Halloween was generally not celebrated outside of the British Isles and the United States – in fact, I read that many from other cultures are horrified by America’s flippant handling of spiritual things – an attitude that manifests itself especially at this time of the year.

When I stop to consider October 31, I realize that the day presents us with opportunities.  Just as the apostle Paul took advantage of the altar on Mars Hill to preach Jesus Christ to the men of Athens (Acts 17), so we can take advantage of Halloween’s fascination with the morbid to witness to our neighbor: death and the grave are real, but those who know Christ need not fear, for He has conquered both.  We have the opportunity to teach our children that Satan is not a character dressed in red and sporting horns, but a very real and powerful adversary who prowls like a lion – and yet, we need not fear his power, for our King has crushed his head.  We also have the opportunity to teach our children about the Reformation, which, in God’s providence, was instigated by Martin Luther on October 31.  Tell them that thanks to God’s work through the Reformers, we are free to read our Bibles whenever we wish.  Thanks to His work through the Reformers, we are freed from the heresy that demands we work or even pay money in an attempt to justify ourselves before the holy God.  Perhaps we could spend the evening reading to them from Little Pilgrim’s Progress, Simonetta Carr’s Christian biographies for young readers, or William Boekenstein’s story of Guido de Bres.  October 31 presents us with the opportunity to celebrate.  It’s a day we can dedicate to remembering our God’s faithfulness to His saints throughout history and His preservation of the glorious Word that saves us from this dark night of sin.  Now there’s something worth celebrating!