(Because this is a longer post there is no podcast today).
When I walk through the shopping centre right now, every second shop has their Halloween decorations up. Halloween fever has increased year on year and every year I see more and more little kids trick-or-treating in my street. With it being the start of October, I thought I would take this day and this newsletter to share some pastoral thoughts on how I think we should think about Halloween. Now I want to make clear that I am writing from an Australian perspective, and I am writing from a Reformed perspective. I am sure that the principles I discuss here may be different in other countries. But this is my perspective on how we should think about this as Christians living in Australia. Keep what you think is helpful, and discard the rest.
Halloween can be a confusing time for Christians in Australia. Every year, it becomes more in your face. We have kids in costumes knocking on our doors more and more each year. Vaguely befuddled parents help them wade through the spooky decorations that show up in ever increasing numbers. As followers of Jesus, I think we should carefully think about Halloween, what it celebrates these days, and how that influences our children.
A Culture Not Our Own
The first thing I think Australian Christians in particular should think about is that Halloween comes from a culture we don’t belong to. Halloween is not originally an Australian celebration. It is something we have adopted from a country whose number one export to the world is culture. Many people today are concerned about the effects of historical colonialism, and rightly so. But we also need to recognise that adopting other cultural traditions as our own, without thinking critically, is essentially opting in to being colonised. You don’t need ships and guns to culturally colonise another nation. You just need Hollywood, TV, movies, and pop music. This might seem like a small point, but as Christians, we need to think carefully about the cultural practices we choose to make our own. Or is it truly something that reflects who we are as a community?
The History of Halloween
The second thing I think we need to think about is the origin of Halloween, and this applies not just to Australian believers, but Christians everywhere. Halloween traces its origins to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that during this time, the boundary between the living and the dead became blurred, and they would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off wandering spirits. When Christianity spread throughout the Celtic regions, the church sought to reframe these pagan practices to help new Christians see the world through a more Christ-centered lens. Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as All Saints’ Day, and the evening before became known as All Hallows’ Eve. This eventually evolved into what we now know as Halloween.
Even if the original celebration of All Hallows’ Eve has links to what is supposed to be spiritually helpful (although let’s be honest, that is a dubious claim to begin with), it is important to recognise that Halloween, as it is celebrated today has strayed very far from its historical roots and has largely become a secular celebration with an emphasis on indulgence and death. If we are to pursue godliness and, as Paul writes in Philippians 4:8 to think about “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable”, does the practice of Halloween really have a place in our lives?
How Halloween Shapes our Children
The third thing I think we should think about is what Halloween today celebrates in practice. I would like to suggest to you that Halloween promotes excess and entitlement in our children. As parents we should think very carefully about what we get our children to participate in. The idea of trick-or-treat may seem harmless, but that is what I think makes it so dangerous. The pursuit of lollies, the excitement of getting as much candy as possible subtly indoctrinates our children that indulgence is something to be celebrated. As Christians, we understand the dangers of idolatry, of letting our desires control us. Halloween, with its focus on indulgence I think, fosters this in our children and shifts their focus to material things and unhealthy choices. Is this ultimately going to be helpful or harmful to their spiritual lives?
Celebrating the Darkness
The fourth and most concerning thing, however, is modern day Halloween’s focus. Our neighbours celebrate Halloween and they delight in dressing up their children as ghouls, dead children, devils and demons. Halloween is a celebration of the dead, the scary, the evil, and the demonic. But we serve a holy God, and we are called to walk in His light. Paul in Ephesians 5:11 tells us to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”. I believe that Halloween, as it is celebrated today, is one of Satan’s great success stories. It trivialises what is truly evil, makes it look fun or cute, and then rewards children for participating in this desensitisation of evil, by giving them candy. This is operant conditioning at its finest. There is a reason that evil is supposed to be frightening. It stands in direct opposition to God’s goodness. By handing these things to children and calling them fun, we risk distorting their understanding of right and wrong and desensitising them to the true nature of evil. It is this reason above all that I won’t let my children celebrate or partake in Halloween.
A Better Alternative
So, what should we do? I think we have an opportunity to be creative. Halloween is the same day as Reformation Day, a day which reminds us of the time when the Church recommitted itself to the true and pure teachings of scripture. The Reformation brought us back to the true good news of Jesus. Perhaps it is wise to condition your children into that!
In our family we have dubbed this celebration “Life day”. We wrote a little liturgy, which was very loosely framed like the Jewish Passover celebration. We sat down, had a special meal, and talked about how God delivered us from death. In this liturgy our kids at various times were instructed to say “But we choose life”. So it would look something like this:
One of the children: Why is this night different than all other nights?
Dad: Because on a night like tonight, when everyone else celebrates death.
Everyone say: “We choose life!”
Dad: Yes because of Jesus, we have life.
Mum: Once we worshipped idols and were enslaved by our sins, but God in His goodness and mercy forgave our sins and called us to be His people. He gave us life.
Dad: Therefore, tonight is different than other nights because we have gathered to remember who we are, what God has done for us, and to tell to our children the story of God’s grace through Jesus. Because of him, say it with me: “We choose life!”
It goes on like this for a while. But anyway, the point is that we have this liturgy that teaches our children that they are different to the world. While the world celebrates death, “We choose life!”. We could see the little kids walk up and down the street in their death-celebrating costumes, but we choose life. Even to this day, almost a year later, if you say something like “but we…” one of them will pipe up and say “…choose life!”.
It is not that I necessarily want everyone reading this to do the same thing, I am not asking you to follow us in instituting a new ritual. A dear Christian friend of mine and his family have taken the approach that rather than withdraw from Halloween, they are going to be agents of change from within the tradition. In their case instead of going to each house and asking for lollies, they go and bless the homes they go to and give the people who live there a gift instead. If my memory serves, I think it was home made biscuits last year. It is totally counter cultural to what the rest of the kids on the street are doing and opens up a range of conversations with the neighbours.
What might a good alternative look like in your family?
Conclusion
The reality is that Halloween presents a challenge for Christians. It is a cultural practice that we have adopted from elsewhere without thinking about where it came from. It is now a celebration of excess and darkness and need to carefully think about if and how it aligns with our calling as Jesus followers. It is particularly challenging in the way Halloween spiritually shapes our children. I think we have a responsibility to think about how we interact with these cultural trends. It could be by celebrating Reformation Day, it could be by doing something like we did in celebrating “Life Day” or it could be something else entirely. But we do need to think about this carefully.
Ultimately how we interact with Halloween should glorify Jesus. Does how you interact with Halloween do this? Perhaps you should think about it.