Halloween

This week will bring us again to another celebration of Halloween. Costumed trick or treaters will roam the streets of our community seeking candy and other goodies. The afternoon of Halloween will see hundreds of children around our square receiving treats from our local businesses.

During my tenure in a nearby community I experienced a rather harsh reaction one year to the subject of Halloween. Our church sponsored an outing on Halloween to provide a safe environment for our young people.

I wrote an item about it for the community calendar section of the local newspaper. My secretary returned the form to me with the words Halloween circled in red ink. She said, “A lot of folks in our community prefer the term Harvest Festival over Halloween because they feel Halloween is evil.”

I was flabbergasted. I did not understand how Halloween could be considered evil. Kids dressing up asking for candy, while certainly not nutritionally sound, seemed to me to be anything but evil.

I came to discover that there were some in that town who objected to Halloween because it has pagan roots. Others objected because of its supposed connections to evil and the demonic.

The history books show Halloween does indeed have pagan roots. Brace yourself for this folks, both Christmas and Easter, also have some pagan roots in their background and I know of no one objecting to these holidays.

It was common for the early church as Christianity became more widely accepted to adopt and adapt many pagan holidays for Christian purposes. Christmas had its origins in a celebration of the winter solstice in the pagan world. The church adopted this holiday as a celebration of the birth of Christ. No one really knows the birth date of Jesus, so the church designated the time of the winter solstice celebration as the day of celebration for Jesus birth.

Easter too, has similar roots. An ancient pagan fertility festival was co-opted by the church and designated as a time of celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

So we come to Halloween. Yes, there was a rather grotesque pagan festival celebrated at this time of year. The early church co-opted that festival as an occasion called All-Saints Day in which the church celebrates the lives of those who have gone before us in the faith and have now entered heaven. Halloween was a remnant of the pagan roots of that celebration.

Over time Halloween evolved into a kid’s holiday complete with costumes, some scary and some not, apple bobbing, and trick or treating.

Granted there have been some pranksters who have taken things to far at times but it is in essence a time of harmless fun. Let me say it another way. My parents allowed me to celebrate Halloween when I was a kid. I wore costumes; I trick or treated and I haven’t turned into a devil worshiper.

In the end any holiday or occasion is what one makes it out to be. We give our own meaning to any holiday. If one truly believes Halloween is evil then by all means ignore it.

That said, I find no injunctions in scripture against wearing a costume once and year and asking for candy. I do suggest that everyone be safe and careful, trick or treat in a group, have adult supervision, and carry a flashlight with you and don’t eat too much candy. That stuff isn’t good for you.