There are some pretty fun Halloween traditions that I enjoyed as a child: dressing up, trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, decorating, etc. And as a child I didn’t comprehend the historical meaning behind all of those things. I just enjoyed them and had fun. There were decorations and costumes that scared me and grossed me out, but I just tried to avert my eyes. Besides, everyone celebrated Halloween so it couldn’t be that bad.
When I became a parent, I wanted my son to experience all the fun of all the holiday too. He dressed up as an adorable puppy for his first trick-or-treating experience and I took lots of pictures. He was so stinking cute! As I experienced Halloween through his innocent 2-year-old eyes, I was suddenly horrified at how disturbingly accurate some of the costumes were. He would cry and cling to me as he saw costumes with blood or zombies or whatever other grossness you can imagine. At that time, I realized how inappropriate all of this dressing up appeared to be. He wasn’t exposed only to disturbing images of death and gore, but also to women who decided that this holiday was an opportunity to reduce themselves to objects of desire for men. It was difficult for me to want to continue participating in this holiday but I pushed through because the trick-or-treating was a favorite childhood activity and the kids looked so cute when they dressed up and no-one would understand me if I decided to stop. In other words, peer pressure.
I had a few odd friends who didn’t celebrate Halloween and without my invitation, decided to share all the reasons why Christians shouldn’t celebrate it. I found their approach judgmental and offensive. I got the feeling that if I chose to celebrate Halloween then I wasn’t as good of a Christian as they were. But that’s my issue; judgmentalism and condemnation are a sensitive topic with me since they’re kind of the opposite of Jesus.
Anyway, one day, out of curiosity I decided to do some research on Halloween. History has always been a favorite pastime of mine and I love to learn about the origins of things, holidays, phrases, etc.
I studied the origin of each Halloween tradition and found nothing but abuse of the cross, worship of satanic stuff and a painful misrepresentation of Christ’s forgiving character and His love. Not one tradition had a history that was adorable or sweet or fun. All of it was steeped in all manner of evil.
Finally, I found my excuse out of this horrid holiday that keeps our dentists in business. There was so much I hated about this holiday but felt social pressure to dress up my kids and let them ask others for candy. But now, I had the knowledge I needed to be firm in my decision to avoid this holiday like a plague. It wasn't easy because I was married to someone who thought my ideas were ridiculous and he insisted that I allow the kids to celebrate it.
But now that I'm single, I can choose not to celebrate it. I don’t celebrate Halloween because I don’t want to. Not because I’m not supposed to. Conviction is a work of the heart, not of the will. I’m not trying to be religious and stuff. I just want to honor Jesus and His sacrifice and the forgiveness of our sins. And this particular holiday has the history of doing the very opposite of that and I really just don’t want to give the enemy even an inch.
But that's my story. I don’t need to tell you what to do. I love seeing the pictures of kids in cute costumes. Kids dressed up as animals and flowers and princesses? Yes, please. Too cute. But I have studied and experienced a change of heart because of what I understand. You may come to the same conclusion as me or not. You know that I’m not going to be the one to judge.
If you want to know more about the history of Halloween traditions, you should totally look them up, on a variety of websites, because some websites downplay the evil because it would be a real downer to highlight it. Anyway, in the meantime, here’s a very quick run-down.
Halloween: Also known as Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saints Day. Originally it was a pagan holiday for Irish folk who believed the spirits of the dead were wandering the earth that night. They had a lot of rituals like bonfires and dressing up to scare away unwanted spirits, etc. The church celebrated all Saints Day on November 2 but combined it with their Hallow’s Eve when they invaded Ireland.
Trick-or-treating: Poorer individuals would go to richer homes and offer to pray for the deceased family member in exchange for treats. Children also adopted that tradition but it became increasingly more aggressive as the clergy abused the idea of the praying for the dead and would accept money or treats in exchange for the deceased individual’s forgiveness of sins. If the family didn’t pay up, the clergy threatened to place a curse on them (i.e. trick).
Costumes: The pagan Irish would dress up as ghastly-looking dead people come to life and run through the town horrifying people and stealing from them. The townspeople were afraid of what they believed were the tormented spirits of their loved ones and were told to light candles and put them in their window to ward away the spirits. They carved gourds into frightening images and put candles inside to frighten the spirits away. Many of the townsfolk also took to dressing up as they walked through town so that the spirits wouldn’t recognize them.
Jack-o-lanterns: As mentioned previously, they were used to keep the spirits of dead people away.
There’s more too, about witches and other witchcraft, black cats, etc.
Yeah, see what I mean? Not a single tradition is lovely. Although offering to pray for someone is always nice, they were praying for someone that’s dead and that’s not exactly Biblical and a nice foundation for the idea that the dead know something, when the Bible says, The dead know not anything. (Ecc. 9:5)
Anyway, I actually hate this holiday and it angers me because of how expertly and cleverly the enemy has twisted God’s love for humanity and glorified a gross misunderstanding of resting peacefully in Jesus (death).
If Halloween was a holiday where kids got to dress up in cute costumes and visit neighbors and say hello, I would be all for that. And some people treat it as that. But for me, the fact remains that this holiday is a tradition that belongs in the enemy’s territory and I don’t want any part of it. 'Cause I hate him. And when you hate someone — I mean, really really despise someone because they continue to hurt the ones you love and are joyful about it — you want to stay as far away from them as possible. I want nothing to do with him. I know how much it hurts God when He sees His children parading happily around a holiday that His enemy designed to pull people further away from the truth. And more than that, I don’t want to hurt God.
So that’s why I don’t celebrate Halloween.
