Halloween is a Christian Holiday!!

So tomorrow evening is All Hallow’s Eve, or, as we know it today, Halloween.  I have always had mixed feelings about this holiday.  On the one hand, it is a fun holiday where kids can go trick-or-treating, where fun parties occur, and where people can dress up and make-believe.  I, of course, am a big fan of Halloween candy!  On the other hand, what I don’t like about Halloween are those who use the holiday as an excuse to cause mischief and chaos; those that use it for purposes of frightening others for a laugh. 

The interesting thing about Halloween is that its origins come out of the Celtic druid tradition over 3,000 years ago.  The Celtic culture would celebrate a day called Souan.  This was a day when the Celtics believed nature was changing from summer to winter; the last day of the harvest.  It was believed that, on this day, the spirits of those who died in the past year would roam the earth.  They believed some spirits to be mischievous and so they would offer the spirits treats and gifts to appease them so they wouldn’t stay and “haunt” you.

As the Romans conquered northern Europe, the Souan festival along with the Roman celebration of the Harvest began to merge.  Because it was a Pagan festival, the Catholic Church tried to convert Pagans by turning the holiday into a religious event.  Thus the Church created All Saints day.  The night before All Saints was known as All Hallow’s Eve, because, to be hallowed was considered to be holy. Later, the Church also added All Souls day to commemorate all those who had died, since pagan tradition was big on celebrating all the dead, not just the “holy” dead.

Today, obviously, Halloween is more about dressing up and having fun.  However, there are still people out there that want to use Halloween as a way to “worship” evil and create Chaos.  Unfortunately, there are Christian churches out there who also do this.  There are a lot of conservative Christian churches who will host a “Hell House,” on Halloween.  The hope is that that they will scare you into becoming a follower of Jesus.  Hell houses will often show you scenes of punishment for people who behaved badly in their lives (ex: a murder in an electric chair; a woman in hell for having an abortion; a nonbeliever’s eternal torment). 

It is my opinion that these “Christian” hell houses are probably one of the most evil things that comes out of Halloween.  Jesus never tried to scare people into following him.  Yes, Jesus did mention that there could be consequences for placing other idols above God, but Jesus never condemned anyone to hell.  Instead, Christ acted out of love.  Yes, he got mad, but it was because people were placing the Law above love. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Halloween is worth celebrating, but not because we need to scare people into following Christ, or we need to scare people in general.  I think Halloween needs to be celebrated because it gives children a chance to play and make-believe.  But, more importantly, I also think Halloween should be celebrated because its origins are in connecting our world with the spirit world; the dead.  We do this not because we believe in spirits roaming the earth (not anymore for a lot of us), but because we believe in life.  We believe in life after death.  Halloween can be a celebration of life!  It can be a reminder to us that there is life after death and that life is found in Christ Jesus. 

So, put on your costume, take the kids trick-or-treating, go to that Halloween party, and remember that this holiday is a celebration of the dead; a celebration of life after death! 

See you in the conversation,

Pastor Zach