Do We (As Christians) "Celebrate" Halloween?

What is Halloween?

Halloween is an annual American holiday celebrated each year on October 31^st (my husband’s birthday!). But it is more Irish than Saint Patrick’s Day as most of its origins come from Ireland and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and spirits.

 The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1^st, the day that marked the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. This time of year was often associated with human death. The night before the new year it was believed that the worlds of the living and the dead could be crossed and the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Celtic priests, known as Druids, would build huge sacred bonfires where people would gather to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities in order to predict the future of the town; would it survive the long hard winter? During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically animal heads and skins, to ward off the evil spirits.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1^st as a time to honor all saints and martyrs both known and unknown. It is widely believed that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with the church-sanctioned holiday. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve and later shortened to Hallowe’en.

Halloween comes to America

As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the Native Americans meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween emerged. The first celebrations included public events to celebrate the harvest, where stories of the dead were shared, dancing and singing done, and fortunes told.

In the second half of the 19^th century the Irish Potato Famine forced millions of Irish to flee their homeland and come to America where they helped popularize the celebration of Halloween. Roaring bonfires shrank to lanterns carved from gourds, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became known as the trick-or-treat tradition. The origins of trick-or-treating are unknown. Some believe it stemmed from a custom known as “souling” in which the poor went from home to home and prayed for each of the souls of the family’s dead in exchange for cakes to eat.

By the 1920’s Halloween had become a secular but community centered holiday with parades and town-wide Halloween parties. This is when vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities and in theory; families could prevent tricks being played on them by providing small treats.

Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities such as trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, costume wearing, and festive gatherings.

Do we as a Christian family celebrate Halloween?

The short answer is yes, but perhaps not in the way you think. Growing up we participated in the Halloween parties at school, played dress up, gone trick-or-treating- and yes even decorated the house. I looked at it as any other holiday, a time to get together with friends, get sweet treats and don our house with decorations. Not as the Devil’s night or anything like that. As I grew older my love for Halloween only grew and some of you might be saying as a Christian how in the world can you be okay with this? My response is simply you can create evil out of anything, and almost everything has a pretty “scary” back story it’s all what you make of it. And as a mother I have the same rules my parents did for us. So what does Halloween look like at our house?

Our house is decorated in lights, spider webs & spiders, streamers, ghosts, pumpkins, skeletons, etc. I love shopping in the stores during this time, looking for what new haunted (not really) treasures I can find. I have a Halloween count down complete with Dia de los Muertos skulls on the landing when you walk in the door.

Each year I buy tons of small treats like glow sticks, pencils, spider rings, coloring books etc. and candy for the goodie bags  we make for our trick-or-treaters.  In the goodie bag we place a tract because you know, Christians, but we try to really do a nice job giving the kids options especially for the children who have food allergies or sensory issues.

On Halloween night we sit outside with a huge bonfire going, have s’more fixings at the ready, have cider and coffee for the adults, goodie bags for the kids and "It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" plays on the garage. We have hay bales for the kids to sit and enjoy the movie, if they have time that is. Nothing about our house is scary or evil. Once the girls are old enough we will take them trick-or-treating. This year they are dressing up as a dalmatian and lion cub.

Our Rules for Halloween

1. No demonic costumes. I never did find the devil baby costume cute…and I think that’s because the Devil and demons are very real to me, I would never want to play around with the likes of it.
2. No vandalism. Obviously parents teach their kids to behave and this night is no different. Halloween doesn’t give you a free pass to do mischief as a lot of kids believe.
3. Tricks are fine as long as they are fun and harmless for everyone involved. Honestly who doesn’t like a good prank?
4. Scary can be fun. I personally like to go to haunted houses and be scared. “Life’s no fun without a good scare” but I also understand each child is different and if my kids don’t like being scared or find any decorations/activities scary I would never do them or make my children go.
5. No eating candy until mom or dad goes through it.
6. Never go out alone.

I’m sure our rules will evolve as our kids get older but these are the fundamentals.

Fellow Christians either agree with me 100% or not at all, there is never an in between on the Halloween topic. I just believe you can participate in the fun aspects of the night without crossing a line. If you don’t believe the way I do, that’s okay, I will never shame another parents for choosing how to raise their kids. I think we have enough judgement going on in that area I don’t need to add to it. I just don't personally have a conviction about letting my kids dress up as a favorite character  and go out and try and get as much candy as possible. So whether you celebrate the night or not, I hope you learned a little history about the holiday itself.