Halloween is NOT a pagan holiday—boycotts unnecessary!

Um girl, it might not be pagan but I sure as heck don’t think it’s holy. Hello dripping blood masks, vampires, ghouls and the grim reaper standing in our neighbor’s back yard. Explaining that to my four-year-old was one of the trickier conversations I’ve had. And after four years living right next door to Salem, MA and the covens that would gather there for Halloween, I have no qualms about saying Halloween is the bad, yo.

Candy, however, could never be evil. NE-VAH!

Peace out,
Lisa-Jo

Just because people desecrate what is holy doesn’t make the holiday itself unholy. And frankly, I LOVE explaining that stuff to my kids. At least we agree on candy!

You know what else we Christianized? Christmas. And Easter. Ever look up the origins and meaning of the tree, the eggs, the bunny?

Of course that doesn’t prevent us having a tree at our house. And we LOVE Halloween.

What do you tell them? For reals, I am interested.

We talk about death alot, actually. Because it’s not something to be afraid of. Death is part of life. I think as Americans we often sanitize death and/or glorify it, romanticize it, etc.

We went to a Greek Orthodox class recently where the priest discussed how, as Christians, we face death head-on. We look at death. This is why Greek Orthodox often have open-casket funerals.

One of the things that set early Christians apart from their culture was their unabashed courage in the face of death. Christians went singing into the coliseum where they were mawled to death by lions.

I dunno. Some parents object to talking frankly with their kids about death. But we don’t. I think kids freak out about it if we freak out about it.

Obviously we don’t watch shows or have bloody, gorey stuff at our house. Because I think that romanticizes and glorifies death. The point of Halloween is to prepare for All Saints Day where we celebrate and remember faithful Christians who have gone before us.

But that’s just us. I totally love you, Lisa-Jo. Hope this helps!

It’s funny because a lot of my green friends hate Halloween for some of the same reasons that ultra religious people I know – two groups that say that are not like the other

As a kid, all I knew about Halloween is dressing up and trick or treating. I really think that it’s a holiday that you can celebrate in any way you choose. I second the sexy costume thing. I’m going to a party w/ my husband’s co-workers. Not to mention it’s too COLD OUTSIDE to wear them!

As a person who’s studied more history than a normal person should be allowed, the reason that Christians adopted symbols and concreted Pagan spaces was in an effort to convert them (by law) to Christianity.

This was great! My favorite are people who say “We don’t DO Halloween!” Yet, they carve pumpkins, dress up, and go to church functions. Um, last time I checked, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…call it what you want, but it’s still a DUCK!

Hmm…walk in any worship service in a contemporary church in America on any given Sunday and you will see “Christianized”…yet it is what we do, how we do it, and it works to a degree.

I personally never want to glorify or entertain the demonic realm but know for a fact that Halloween does NOT have to be that! We tried one year hunkering down in our bonus room with a movie and turning off our porch light.

Felt so wrong…so convicted…so safe. And as Christians we are not called to a “safe” life. We vowed never to do that again. We CAN be in this world and not be of it. After all, we are to follow Jesus’ example and no one exemplified this better than He did.

I too enjoy talking and conversing with my kids about those “evil” costumes…I view it as an opportunity to “train them up”…to teach them from a safe distance about those things that are real and existent in their world and to also affirm in them what we stand for..what we believe and why. Gives them power over those things…no guessing…no wondering…confidence in who they are and how they will live life with a healthy awareness of the fact that not all of the world will make that choice. Plus we feel that if Jesus felt it important enough to address Satan, tell others about him, and tell us how to guard our hearts against him, I think it just might be important to make my children aware of the very realness that he is. That he is not a cute little red guy with horns and a tail. He is very real and very determined to destroy our lives. Kids should have a healthy understanding of delving into this realm. I just saw a Ouija board for sale in the midst of the candy aisle yesterday at my local grocery store. With knowledge and understanding comes power.

I do not want to run and hide and leave my children clueless as to what they are up against.

And there is always the fact that as Christians we are called out to love love love! Not hide in our bonus rooms…or hand out tracks.

On a lighter note…if I came to your house I’d rather have the name of your wall color than candy. Love it. Please do dish

As with many holidays, traditions from different cultures are often thrown in—ie. costumes on Halloween, Christmas trees at Christmas. We can weed out the traditions we don’t want to participate in. I still don’t think a total boycott is necessary.

I love your sarcastic rants. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside. All Saints Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays in the church calendar. The first time I was at a church that truly recognized the day was when we moved here, and it was the first All Saints after my Nattie-Pie died (www.nattierosewrites.com). Now, I always associate that day with her, and I play Sara Groves version of “When the Saints” all day. That song fills me with love and pain and passion.

As for Halloween, I love costumes. I am going as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this year.

PS My little baptist church from childhood hosted a haunted house every year and Preacher lay in a coffin and jumped out at us.

Thanks for posting this! Loved it!

Thank you for this! Really and truly. I became so dismayed when I saw the typical anti-Halloween propaganda being posted on a few Orthodox blogs. Most of those “arguments” can be answered pretty easily.

Christians commit the genetic fallacy all over the place when it comes to Halloween. Here’s a couple of good articles I found helpful:

http://www.reasons.org/theology/general-apologetics/tricky-topic-halloween-0

http://www.answers.org/holidays/halloween.html

I love this article almost as much as I love Halloween! Though Halloween did indeed start out as a pagan holiday (the Celtic name for it is Samhain), it isn’t a celebration of evil. Growing up, my mother was a strict protestant, and said that Halloween celebrated the devil. I, on the other hand, was sort of born catholic (at age five I had made myself a set of rosaries, and knew some of the prayers, despite having no immediate relatives who were catholic), and I never had the slightest clue what she was talking about. I always saw it like this: we are not celebrating Satan, we’re celebrating that he really has no power over us. In dressing up as all sorts of creatures of the night (or even Old Nick himself) it’s a chance to laugh in the face of death and darkness. It shows that we, as true-believing christians, are unafraid of the devil, and don’t fear to mock him.
Furthermore, it’s just good fun. Huzzah for candy!

Agreed! That is a fabulous take on something that is definitely a complex issue. We are certainly under no obligation to celebrate the secular side of Halloween to prove that we are cool, any more than we are obligated to hide in the basement to prove we are pious. Being true to our faith is the important thing, and that can look so different between people, depending on our selves and our backgrounds! I love the candy and the costumes and feel confident with drawing the line there, but there are so many things that could have happened in my life to make me feel differently.

Spot on!

Indeed, Halloween marks the beginning of the All Souls indulgence period which lasts from November 1st through November 8th. The purpose of the weeklong period is to spend the whole time praying from the repose of the dearly departed.

More information on it is archived somewhere on the Vatican website, but sort of tough to find. Instead, here’s a link to a great article on it.
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3888

Any holiday that is about giving away sweet things is okay by me.
I DO, however, boycott Thursday- I’m just waiting for the rest of the world to follow suit.

Oh I agree completely. We went to a church for a while that got steadily more “concerned” about these things (they called it conservative? not sure I get it). At one point someone asked me if we “did” Santa and I blurted out, “Yes! I don’t see any reason being a Christian should ruin my kids’ Christmas.” Happily, my remark was received with relief and good humor.
Too much people sweating the small stuff. Hurray for Halloween! It is the best chance some of us have of meeting our neighbors – and getting candy!
Also, I agree. I’m alarmed by the sexy pumpkins. I’m also not a big fan of dressing up myself, as an adult, so I really am not a fan of other adults trying to cajole me into their mandatory fun. I just don’t like other people being in charge of me, I guess. My children, however, love to dress up. Henry is going as “SCIENCE,” it’s really a skeleton costume from Old Navy, but that’s what he is calling it.

You know one thing I don’t get at all are the churches who don’t participate in Halloween because its “demonic”, but then turn around and put on those hideous “hell houses”. Aimed at children. Because nothing’s better than a night where the goal is the sinner’s prayer with a side of PTSD.

You filled in all the blanks that I didn’t cover in my article from two weeks ago that present the day to be what it was and is meant to be. I think of it as a fun day for the children, as it was when I was a child. And tonight I just heard Father Mitch Pacwa on EWTN say something to the effect that when the adults take it over and use the occasion to get dressed up and goofy and drunk and do outlandish things they wouldn’t normally do (he used the word debauchery), that’s when there can be a problem. I wrote this article about the inappropriate side of Halloween. But I do agree with your point and if I had kids I would enjoy seeing them enjoy the day. Thanks again for a great article!
http://therosarytrail.com/halloween-and-satan/

Hey, if you’re Protestant, why not celebrate Reformation Day? Its the anniversary of the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wall at Wittenberg. I think its totally appropriate for Protestants to celebrate THAT day. I can’t believe its shoved aside in favor of a “Harvest Festivals.”

I’ve had this discussion every year with someone since I was a teen. The North American (parts of Canada go “Trick or Treating” too) custom is rooted in the folk-ways of the British Isles, and especially the Irish Catholics.

Some of the symbols were adopted by “polite society” for party amusements and party themes. So while some have ‘fancy dress’ parties, others kept the folk customs of begging for a treat, with the promise to pray for the souls of the house (giving the treats) and if you did not treat, well who knows what the “spirit” would do (some form of vandalism).

In the mostly Protestant North American communities, there was no festive time, as is celebrated in parts of Europe in the days leading up to Carnival or Fasching before the season of Lent. Halloween makes up for this.

Why ghosts, and ghoulies and things oft thought of as evil? Because “dressing up” you adopt the “creature” you fear, and thus conquer that creature. Why fear a ghoul when it is only your neighbor’s son in face paint? Why fear a zombie when it is your daughter in costume? Why fear death when Christ conquered it?

All Saint’s Eve is a VERY Catholic thing. For some anti-Halloween might be a rejection of the Catholic faith. But more and more I see much of the “anti-Halloween” is a rejection of the ‘god-less’ and ‘self-indulgent’ aspects that mock the faith and teachings of Judaism and Christianity.

I love this perspective, and it helps me feel easier in my mind about the choices my family and I make. We don’t do Santa, but my daughter whose birthday is October 31st has an annual “birthdoween” and looks forward to the dressing up and spooky decor as much as she does the presents and cake. I know a lot of people have good reasons for avoiding Halloween, but those convictions don’t extend to everyone, and in our home, the holiday has always been a source of fun and community.

“If you’re doing Halloween with a clear conscience, enjoy!” Well said!

That’s just heartbreaking. Poor kid.

I have been around the block on this issue. I grew up (pentecostal preacher’s kid) having Halloween parties at church and trick or treating around the neighborhood (if you got there early enough the neighbor on the corner had caramel apples!). Then as a young adult I was part of a church which decided did not observe in anyway. After I got married, we were part of that for awhile, but decided after having kids that we liked going around to the neighbors and getting candy. We now go to a church that has a Fall Festival, which we participate in (you should see all the cars decorated for Trunk or Treat – dry ice, spiderwebs, glowing jack o’lanterns) and then we trick or treat the neighborhood later. We talk to our kids about the very real evil that is out there. But we have decided this isn’t it. BTW, I had never heard of All Saint’s Day until we started going to our current church (an Evangelical Covenant church) and I love it.

Have you folks never heard of All Souls Day? It’s the day before All Saints Day. As a child in Catholic school we were taught to do lots of praying for the souls in purgatory on All Souls Day. Nothing to do with Halloween.

Both are part of the world-wide Catholic calendar. And both days have to do with people who have died. In my current parish we have a special service for all those who have died in the previous year – parishioners and friends and relatives of parishioners.

Halloween is only in English-speaking countries.
Seems like it was originally Ireland where folks noticed that All Souls and All Saints days were about the time of Celtic Samhain. But Ireland and England don’t determine the universal Catholic calendar. All Souls and All Saints days were not invented to Christianize Samhain to please the Celts in the British Isles.

BTW Your e-mail program is rejecting legitimate e-mail addresses.

Elizabeth, I love that you share your opinions and respect others as well. I have a post I republish every year on my blog..frankly because I see wonderful bloggers get divided and harsh with each other over this topic. We all have our freedom to our own thoughts and opinions..some churches are so fundy about Sunday church, but say they are under grace to celebrate free candy day. We haven’t had anything to do with Halloween in about 8 years..I commented above about what happened to my little girl. But even aside from all that, our town has it’s own culture of Halloween that has a lot of violence. Our city even put down a curfew on Oct 31st to keep the city safe.

Regardless of how people recognize Oct 31st, or Thor day (gosh that was funny) the bottom line for me is..be kind to one another about it.

After leaving fundamentalism my kids have asked about getting costumes..like a ninja, tinkerbell, and the karate kid…my husband is fine with it…I’m nervous…I have seen so many times what goes on in this town.

Why does Halloween have to do with everything scary? It sure has become just another cultural holiday for kids to have fun..but the creepy stuff…ugh!

oh and Papa Murphy’s gives kids pizza if they come in costume that day.. ;o)

I was at an Orthodox funeral last night with my two year old. The body is referred to as the relics of the person, regardless of ‘how holy’ they were or not. It is the practice to venerate the cross set in the casket near the relics and then venerate (kiss) the person’s crossed hands. I did this. My two year old then waved to her and said, nigh’-nigh’ thinking she was asleep (which she is). He then wanted to give her a kiss good night, which he also does to wake people up (like Prince Charming).

Scott Cairns has a section in his “Short Trip to the Edge” about the burial practices on Mount Athos in Greece. The monks bury the body for a couple years (can’t remember if it is directly in the ground or in a simple pine casket). The (now) bones are exhumed a couple years later to make room for others. The bones are moved to the ossuary where the skulls are organized and the rest of the bones are piled together with all the others.

We are one of those families that didn’t do Halloween when we were kids and neither did my husband so in succession, neither have my kids. This is the year that we are actually going to go trick-or-treating (my kids are 10 and 11) and they’re very excited about it. We’re going as a family. The kids and I are dressing as hippies (my daughter says I already pass because I’ve had dreads for the past 4 years) and my hubby is going as the grim reaper. He’ll wear a sign that says, “The 60s are dead.” HA!

Hello Elizabeth, I have just finished my annual rant about how the poor old Celts weren’t devil-worshippers and the Christian origins of ‘souling’, etc. It’s so refreshing to hear a Christian mother saying she doesn’t think Hallowe’en is evil per se. I’m sorry to hear about the costumes because the thing I like best about it is seeing troupes of little giggling kids dressed up. Last year I saw 2 little boys as Jack and the Beanstalk – their mum was having hysterics trying to get all of the beanstock on the bus having got a bit carried away with herself making it. I laughed all night.

This is hilarious! And so true! We are Catholic and have a lot of ultra-con Catholic friends who are very cautious about Halloween…emphasizing All Saints and All Souls and not even mentioning the “H” word. If their kids are allowed to wear costumes, they are religiously-themed. I’m not against dressing as your favorite saint, but I also don’t see any harm in dressing as a cowboy or a pumpkin. (However, “sexy cowboy” and “sexy pumpkin” costumes will ALWAYS be forbidden in this house.) I’m not much for costumes of scary ghouls and such, but there are a lot of options for kids who just want to dress up and have a fun time. And then we go to Mass the next day. Because it’s a holy day, y’all. And we never forget that.

Good for you. Happy birthday to your daughter!

Further discussion fodder. In some (probably entirely reasonable) synchronicity, there were lately some very good articles on “Parchment and Pen” from a theological POV:

Jesus with His Lights Turned Off on Halloween contends that not participating in Halloween is an un-Christlike response– who said “Let the little children come?”

Halloween: A Missed Opportunity for Evangelicals argues that, whatever the holiday means, it’s a prime opportunity in our culture to show the love of Jesus to our neighbors, and our insularity blows it.

This one by Dr. Mark Young: In our culture, the Jack-o’-Lantern is indeed highly symbolic–It says, “Welcome to our house, we’re good neighbors who will be glad to give you some candy!” What does it say when Christian houses are always dark?

Five words sum up my own view on the subject entirely: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Great discussion here. At our house, we participate in Halloween on a very tame level. We have a wonderful street with awesome families who all have young kids similar in age to ours. As with many holidays, we turn it into a time of gathering and hanging out as neighbors. One neighbor makes a large pot of chili and we socialize a bit until the sun goes down, then we walk our street together so the kids can get some candy. That’s pretty much it. No one around here does the “blood and guts” decorations. We all have pumpkins, scarecrows, and fall leaves as decor. It’s about dress-up and seeing the creative costumes more than anything else (plus the candy). The kids love it. The adults enjoying chatting and catching up. We all take pictures and comment on how fast the kids are growing. I understand this may be unique and if we didn’t live in an environment like this, we might be doing it different, but this works for us. And I *heart* my neighborhood.

Oh NO! there are 66 comments which is ALMOST 666, so i need to comment and make your blog more holy!!

Okay really though, I have friends who are very concerned about the amount of demonic activity they feel on this night, and out of consideration for them, I am having a “silly, not spooky” party. There will be candy and cartographic spider cookies, and absolutely no witches or brews.

But I always went trick or treating. Even the year my sister’s 3rd grade teachers told her she was going to hell if she did…

The thing about Halloween being a holy day… that’s not true. Yes, “hallow” means “holy,” and “een” is a contraction for “evening.” But that actually means that Halloween is the day BEFORE a holy day. Think of Christmas Eve — the day before Christmas. The name Halloween comes from All Hallows Eve, which is the day BEFORE All Hallows, or All Saint’s Day.

Typically, the celebrations before holy days like that are NOT holy. But if you choose to celebrate Halloween, I believe that you personally make your celebration either holy or unholy.

Elizabeth, I actually agree with you! Surprise! We have friends who are completely against Halloween, but we don’t see any harm in our kids dressing up as characters they like and asking for candy. This year we will go to our church’s fall festival mainly because my husband is the pastor and we are expected to be there! As long as Halloween is about kids dressing up for fun (I don’t like scary) and getting candy, what’s the big deal? Besides my husband says our kids are already going to be different because we are going to homeschool, why make them any weirder?

This is a great post. My friend said I celebrate the Devil when I celebrate Halloween. I laughed so hard… I told her she needed to work on some independent research. We agreed to disagree.

Part of Halloween is how it’s addressed with our children; what we tell them about Halloween, it’s beginnings, what is appropriate to wear, etc.

Frankly, as a practicing Catholic, I don’t think much about it other than it’s a time for kids, little and big alike, to play dress-up and make-believe.

XO
Caryl

Actually, Christians inherited the Jewish practice of the new day starting at nightfall. When the secular world changed to midnight being the start of the new day, the church kept the concept of nightfall the day before as the start of holy days and Sundays.

The most obvious are Christmas Eve and the Eve of what the West calls Easter.

Catholics can satisfy their attendance at Mass for most holy days and all regular Sundays by Mass the evening before the holy day or Sunday. I don’t know about other churches.

LOVED this post. Shared a link to it on my blog today. Very much how I feel.

I agree with you… but we still don’t do Halloween. Some of my kids can’t handle the “scariness” and some of them can’t handle the candy. So we just skip it.

Disjointed comments:

My kids are still little and they’re scared of the gory stuff. So we don’t have to address that yet.

Halloween is not a real holiday because you don’t get the day off work or school.

Actually I could pretty much do without Halloween, but by boycotting it, I would just be giving it power, you know? So we do the basic trick-or-treating and stuff. No Halloween “decorations” because this is an oxymoron. Halloween eyesores is more like it.

I wish our (CATHOLIC) church would do an All-Saints-Day party instead of a “Halloween Carnival” on the Saturday before the 31st. How lame. And secular.

Come to think of it, “lame” and “secular” go together an awful lot.

I want to make my baby, who will be 18 months old next year, a rooster costume. Wouldn’t that be cute? Actually, I’d rather buy it, but I think it would be hard to find, and anyway I’m really cheap.

Halloween most certainly is not “evil”, but it is very much connected to Samhain (a Pagan holiday) as well as All Saint’s Day.  Some of the traditions behind it come from the Pagans.  The association with death comes from the belief that it’s a day when the veil between this world and the spirit worlds is at it’s thinnest- not a time of evil or what-have-not, but a time to remember our ancestors and honor the dead.  Many holidays that Christianity claims do have very strong Pagan connections in their traditions.   Despite this, that doesn’t mean Christians have to celebrate Halloween (or Christmas/ Yule, Easter/ Ostara) as Pagan holidays or else go without; you can still have them as yours.  You just shouldn’t deny the historical fact behind them.