Trick-or-Treat?! A Critical Question from a Curious Christian 28 Year Old First Timer
For about 20 of my 28 years on earth, I unashamedly spent Halloween at the Hallelujah Party at my church. Every year from childhood ‘til college, then back again when I had my son until the pandemic said no-go on slobbery kids running around touching any and everything.
When we were younger angels, Bible characters, respected professions, and church members🤣 were the consistent load of costumes. As we aged, we ventured into more pop culture-related get-ups (The Incredibles, Avatar - the big blue ones😂, Rugrats), but never dared to go so far as to dress as the ghouls, goblins, or sexy nurses.
We were taught to believe, and I long sustained, the division between secular and sacred - even if we were technically celebrating Halloween. They gathered us around year after year and taught us that the roots of Halloween are ungodly and they threw the Hallelujah party as an alternative to make sure we didn’t feel like the weird kids who had no candy on October 31st. And, I was NOT mad. We had hot dogs and chicken tenders for dinner, played a bunch of games, and got MAD candy without having to walk, knock or be leery of strangers. I love that for me! 🤣
As I’ve gotten older, I still appreciate the safety and ease that the Hallelujah party offered. Regardless of Halloween’s history, which we are revving up to get to, some people just don’t know how to act on Oct 30 and 31st. I recall the scare of mischief night featuring spontaneous gang initiations, getting out early with my elementary school’s fear that the Edenwald kids would come to beat us up, stories on the news of people dressed as this and that slashing random citizens, and, of course, the blades in the candy. Some of that is hype, but a lot of it is real, so I’d rather the comfort of a safe space than the potential danger of nonsense. Plus, I hate scary stuff anyway so the whole season is something I could honestly skip.
My husband, not so much. Kev loves horror - movies, houses, trails, sneaking up on people, all of it. We’re equal in the church kid arena, so it was to my great surprise to discover he’d often been trick-or-treating as a kid! I can’t say I didn’t have a lil side-eye like, “Omg, they let you go out on Halloween, how devilish!” I’d obviously been inundated with how I should feel about any and all Halloween activities other than the church-related ones. So, here we are, with one child and another on the way AND planting a church, what are we to do about Halloween? What are we to teach our children, our church, ourselves about October 31st?! Are we tricking the kids, or allowing them to join in on a treat?!
Yesterday, I only saw one post about Christians needing not celebrate Halloween for its pagan beginnings - surprisingly. I’m sure more traditional pastors told their saints to keep themselves and their children away from the satanic practices. So, let’s talk about it…
Halloween’s origins begin 2000 years ago, at the Celtic (Irish, British and French) festival of Samhain, which marked the seasons changing. On this day, they believed there was more access and activity between the boundary of this world and the next, because cold weather meant a time of death, and to protect their crops they would light bonfires and wear costumes to WARD OFF ghosts (Donovan and Gold, 2021). In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III marked November 1st as the day to celebrate the saints (All Saints Day), making October 31st a dedication to remembering CHRISTIAN martyrs and all who departed (All Hallows’ - Saints’ - Eve). Much between includes Rome’s conquering of the Celts, the spread of Christianity, celebrating the goddess of fruit (origin of bobbing for apples) and the very normal and historical intermingling of cultures - none of whom worshipped satan (History.com Editors, 2021).
Let’s go deeper…
Christmas. LONG before the birth of Jesus, Europeans celebrated the darkest days of the year looking forward to the worst of winter and brighter days ahead. In Scandinavia (one of my fav places on Earth), at the same time of year, the Norse celebrated Yule, burning logs for up to 12 days. In Germany, people honored the feared god Oden (you know, Thor and Loki’s dad?! 🤣), “they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish.” Sounds familiar? In Rome, it was the feast of Saturnalia, the god of agriculture, and an ode to eating and drinking. During this time, the social order in Rome was turned upside down, where slaves were temporarily set free, and businesses and schools were closed. It wasn’t until four centuries after Jesus’ birth that the early church hijacked the Roman holiday to make it more holy, wherein which, they had little control over how it was celebrated and initially, they went to church and then celebrated in carnival-like style, all while intoxicated (History.com Editors, 2020).
Furthermore…
Easter. This is my favorite! Noah - the ark guy! - his great-grandson, Nimrod (later known as Baal 👀), went off and worshipped other gods and became a tyrannical ruler whose kingdoms became known for evil and perversion. His wife, Semiramis, upon his death, deified him as the Sun-god and created a religion known as Semiramis which consisted of idolatry, demon worship, and human sacrifice. Easter begins with the conception of her son, Tammuz, who was believed to be miraculously conceived and a rebirth of Nimrod. He becomes praised for resurrection and she becomes worshipped for fertility, both most significantly celebrated as Spring arrives (All About Jesus, n.d.). Do I have to explain further? This origin story is in addition to many others that trace English, Greek and German goddess celebrations (Travers, 2017). All in all, Easter is literally the most pagan, idolatrously rooted Holiday, and we’ve made it THEE MOST holy.
I’m usually not a big fan of “chewing the meat and spitting out the bones” because often the meat ain’t even seasoned right itself. But, in this case, if we’re going to do it with Christmas and Easter (and Thanksgiving and Communion and vestments and wedding rings and the days of the week and the months of the year), we can certainly do it for Halloween.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that there are no safe ways to mix idolatry with our Christianity, especially as we explore our freedom in Christ - “‘We have the right to do anything,’ but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor 10:23). With that freedom in Christ, we have the power to make things new, as He’s done in us. There are benefits to Halloween - like the joy on a kid’s face as their candy bucket gets heavier and heavier, the community that gathers to open their doors to strangers for the sake of a night of fun, the creativity of replicating the best and worst of the year that’s past (shoutout the girl who was the gorilla glue girl or the guy who was the bat that started covid🤣), and for me, it’s the fact that Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching 🤣!
I do not want to negate the very bad things that happen on and around Halloween. But, witches and demons don’t only come out on October 31st, they’re always lurking and it is ALWAYS our responsibility to be aware and spiritually active in response to satan on earth. The evil in the world is ours to combat with Christ and that’s not just an October job. Let’s not make it one.
Before we continue to spew what’s been spewed on us, let’s do our research, investigate our stigmas, and dig…DIVE into truth. It’s not fair to anyone, and mostly our children, to continue to perpetuate falsehoods for the sake of what we’ve been wrongly told directly, gathered by the actions of our parents/pastors/leaders, or meant to believe by the church at large.
In the same way Christmas and Easter will continue to be celebrated in my home with Christ in mind, thanks to early Christians - so will Halloween. In the same way Christmas and Easter have been overly commercialized to represent Santa and Bunnies, Halloween has been to represent candy and spooky whatever’s, and I don’t have to subscribe where I don’t want to. Birth of Jesus + Santa - Overspending, Resurrection of Jesus + Bunny - Eggs (so messy!), The Recognition of People of Faith who’ve died for the sake of it + Candy - Scary stuff is good in my book.
My first time trick-or-treating yesterday was also my 2-year-old son’s first time. My neighborhood never welcomed the kiddies, so we went to where my husband used to go, and it was the cutest thing ever! Moms were outside with their coffee mugs (we know what was really in there!), kids were so excited and friendly, dads at the door with their bowls greeted Honor as Lightening McQueen with literal open arms, and it was obvious that this was a communal event - even houses with no one home left candy out and asked that everyone respected each other and took just one piece! Best believe I’m going again next year - Honor and A or not 🤣. What’s best for my family is what’s safe, what’s smart, and what’s fun, and THAT’S what we’ll teach our kids. My final answer - TREAT!
Happy All Saints’ Day Y’all!
