For some Christian folks out there, Halloween is kind of a controversial topic. I recently read a very good article in the Christian Examiner by a favorite radio personality, Steve Russo. It was entitled, "What Should We Do With Halloween?" While I liked everything he had to say in the article and agreed with it, I was a little bit disappointed with the title. I guess it sort of rankled with me because it makes it sound like we Christians are a bunch of nitwits who are running about in a panic, not quite sure what we should do with Halloween. Just like we are not sure what we should do with lots of other 'issues' in the church: drinking wine, praise music vs. hymns, what constitutes appropriate Christian attire, dating vs. courting, and so on.
Now I realize that his article was probably aimed at newer Christian believers out there who may have never considered some of these things before, and are perhaps seeking some guidance from a knowledgable Christian believer as to how to approach such things with their own children from a Biblical perspective. I'm glad it was Steve Russo's article in that issue, and not someone with more legalistic leanings which would seek to suck all the joy out of October 31st, which could be a perfectly enjoyable and memorable day for many children if only the parents had chosen to approach it in a better way.
I believe that certain things, such as Halloween, have become 'issues' among God's people because not everyone professing to love and serve Jesus Christ sees eye-to-eye on every single thing. Some of this is, in fact, what divides congregations and even draws denominational lines. There are those calling themselves Christians that indulge in far more than I ever would where Halloween is concerned, and then there are those at the opposite end of the spectrum that avoid anything and everything to do with such a pagan holiday, lest it corrupt they or their families. My husband and I fall somewhere in the middle.
These kinds of questions as to what believers should "do" with these issues of our day are nothing new. They have been around for centuries, at least as far back as Bibilical times. And ultimately, unless there is something in scripture that specifically forbids or points to a certain behavior as being a sin, or is otherwise displeasing to the Lord, many such things boil down to the issue of Christian Liberty.
Take for instance the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to idols as mentioned in the book of 1 Corinthians in the Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian Christians, and spent all of Chapter 8 discussing the issue of food sacrificed to idols. In that pagan society (as with the Greeks and Romans), there were pagan temples in the area, which were large, columned pavillions, usually housing an altar with a large statue of a pagan god or goddess inside. Pagan worshippers brought food offerings to these altars certain times of the year, where priests would burn the less desirable portions of an animal in the course of their sacrifices, but would save the choicer cuts for consumption at banquets celebrating the sacrifices.
What was left over was typically sold in the marketplace, and many Christians of the day had no compunction whatsoever about eating that meat just like any other meat they might have found in their open air markets. The Apostle Paul quickly whittles the 'issue' down to one of Christian liberty. If all Corinthian Christians could have agreed on the fact that there was but One God, and that idols were nothing, they all would have been able to eat the meat without a second thought.
However, there were newer converts to Christianity that had apparently come out of these pagan backgrounds which recoiled at the thought of eating meat sacrificed to pagan gods. Because of their immaturity as young believers, they felt that such things were wrong. Paul denied the validity of their scruples, but did suggest in the latter verses of the chapter that the older more mature Christians should act in love towards these younger brothers. If it offends a Christian brother you spend time with to eat of this meat, then you shouldn't do it, lest it cause the younger brother to fall and thus sin against the Lord. Paul warned that they not let the exercize of their freedom become a stumbling block to these younger, weaker believers.
Which is why I don't make a huge deal out of Halloween around some folks I know who don't feel as I do about it. In fact, I often don't even mention anything about it to them, because I wouldn't want it to become a stumbling block.
When I am asked my views on the subject of Halloween, however, I do usually tell folks that we don't make a big deal out of "Halloween", but do allow our kids to dress up and go door to door collecting candy from well-meaning and generous folks who enjoy seeing little ones dressed up and having a good time. It's also a way for us to spread a little light and joy around the neighborhood, and to develop relationships with some of the neighbors we might not otherwise see very often.
But on nights where Halloween falls on a church night or a weekend night where there is a harvest party or fall festival going on somewhere, we usually forego the trick-or-treating and attend that instead. Mainly, we just want our kids to have some good harmless fun on that day, because we don't want them to grow up feeling in any way 'deprived' of fun because of our beliefs.
We found with our older son that when the scary, ghoulish Halloween decorations began appearing in the stores each year, it was a golden opportunity to talk with him about darkness and light as found in Scripture, and to pass on our values to him, by explaining the very real evil that exists in the world. We explained when he was just a little guy about how the Devil is not just some harmless little red guy in a suit with horns and a pitchfork, but a very real adversary, the enemy of our souls, and who is bent on dragging us away from the Lord. We'd go on to explain that Jesus is the light of the world, and that His death and resurrection meant that he triumphed over sin and death.
We've had amazing conversations with our son over the years about the occult, and about some of the evil stuff that some people do celebrate in association with Halloween. Our son has grown up with a very good understanding of what Scripture has to say about those things, and has never shown an interest in any of the pagan aspects of Halloween.
A girl I knew growing up was not allowed to dress up at all for Halloween. In fact, she and her sibling were lucky if their parents even let them have candy on that day, or to accept a carameled apple from a well-meaning and kind-hearted neighbor lady who made them and brought them over. They weren't allowed to go to parties of any kind at school if it was in any way associated with the 'secular' celebration of Halloween. No explanations for why were given, it was simply not permitted.
Not surprisingly, the kids in that family grew up feeling deprived of all the fun every other kid they knew was having on that day. What they knew of their parents form of Christianity was not the warm-fuzzy security of knowing what they believed and why, with times of joy and celebration mixed in and a healthy, positive understanding of God, but rather one of rules and regulations, and parents tightening the screws on them certain times of the year, sucking all the fun and joy from their lives with no good reason. It came as no real surprise to learn that they grew up to go out and indulge in all those things they felt they'd missed out on over the years.
Looking back, I feel as though parents like that do their children a grave disservice by not choosing their battles more wisely. Had they allowed some of the benign and relatively harmless things about Halloween that are so important to a kid--namely dressing up and getting tons of candy--while explaining why the other things were not good things to participate in, instead of just cracking down without reason, their children might today be walking more God-honoring lives.
For my husband and I, Halloween was never really an issue. Both Jeff and I grew up in homes where our parents allowed us to dress up and go trick-or-treating, but eschewed the darker side of Halloween. Neither of us were ever allowed to dress up in ghoulish costumes, and because of the way our parents handled it, gently discouraging the darker side of things while offering plenty of other exciting alternatives on October 31st, we never really had a desire or an interest in those things that might have taken us away from our Spiritual roots.
I remember feeling so sorry for those kids whose parents came down to the school all fired up on Halloween and yanked their kids out of class, taking them home where they would not be 'influenced' by it. I remember one such boy craning his head to look back into the classroom where our teacher and a room mother had set out all the goodies on the table for a party after lunch recess. The mom jerked her kids arm to turn his head, and dragged him home where he wouldn't be 'influenced' by such things.
He didn't want to convert to Satanism, for pity's sake...all he wanted was a cupcake and some candy, and maybe to dress up in a fun costume. That's pretty much what it boils down to for most kids...dressing up and getting lots of candy. I remember that half the fun was the anticipation of all the fun to come. In the days leading up to October 31st, the buzz on the playground and around lunch tables were what we would get to 'be' when we went trick-or-treating, and then for days afterward to play in that costume at home, and talk about how much fun it was to 'be' whatever we had been, and to marvel over how much candy we got. It also kind of broke up that long stretch of school between the first day and Thanksgiving Break.
Many folks, including our family, have long enjoyed decorating their homes seasonally. In the winter, this might include snow flakes or snow men, snow globes, and eventually a Christmas tree and numerous accompanying decorations. We know, of course, that these things have nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Jesus, but by nature of Christmas in our part of the world falling in the winter time, these types of decorations have often been incorporated into our home decor. However, though we have included many of these seasonal elements in our home decor around Christmas, we've chosen to focus special attention at Christmas time on the birth of our Savior.
In the fall, we have often decorated with Indian Corn and Gourds, pumpkins, autumn leaves, cornucopias filled with the bounty of the harvest, ornamental shocks of wheat and maybe a cornstalk scarecrow on the front porch. Lots of pumpkin and apple and popcorn treats can be found in our home this time of year. In and of themselves, these things are not 'pagan' or evil, and, when you think about it, God created these things for us to eat and enjoy. Just because many of these things have come to be associated with Halloween in recent years does not make them evil. Having been a childhood cat lover, I was always disgusted that Black Cats were dragged into the mix because of their association with superstitious beliefs and 'witches' potions and whatnot.
Several years ago, I was asked rather self-righteously by a Christian woman I knew, "Why would you celebrate a Holiday with Pagan origins?" She asked me this because she overheard me telling someone that we would be taking him trick-or-treating later that night. I'm afraid I wasn't very gracious in my reply, having been cornered as I felt I was by her, but I told her that just because we took our son trick-or-treating didn't mean we celebrated Halloween's pagan origins at all. For heaven's sake, we haven't begun performing sacrifices over a pentagram...we just let our kid dress up and go trick-or-treating to get some candy! We obviously didn't see eye-to-eye on this.
Growing up, my family has always thrown other seasonal activities into that week or two before or after Halloween for added fun, like visiting a pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin, or going through a corn maze. Or selecting some gourds and Indian corn to display around the house. Or making carameled apples. These are the sorts of things that I recall with great fondness as being a very special treat during my childhood. Carameled apples and popcorn balls were enough trouble that it was a once a year deal, reserved for a special occasion, usually when apples were plentiful, and my mom was feeling up to doing something fun. Pumpkin carving was also pretty messy, and not the sort of thing most moms wish to clean up after more than about once a year, but always we'd do that to light our porch for trick-or-treaters, and then bring in the pumpkin the next day to clean it, boil it up and puree it and freeze it away to be made into pies for Thanksgiving. And always, the day we carved the pumpkin, we'd toast the pumpkin seeds in a little oil, salt them and eat them like sunflower seeds in the shell. These are the storts of memories we like to make for our own family. Warm-fuzy memories they can take out and mull over when they are old.
Besides the fact that Halloween was for us an area of Christian liberty, I like to think about the fact that there are other Godly folks like us out there in their neighborhoods on Halloween night shining the light, delighting in kids creative costumes, being good and kind to our neighbor children, handing out candy and tracts, and being a light in the darkness...instead of being some ogre that slaps a note on the front door and turns off their porch light, "WE don't celebrate Halloween!" Where is the witness in that? That's passing up a really valuable opportunity to be a light in the darkness in my book, especially when you have a bunch of people coming to your door.
When I was a young girl, I loved rainbows. I had a vast sticker collection which included lots of rainbows among other things, and I spent a lot of time doodling rainbows on everything I owned. But around that same time, I began hearing the murmurings among Christians about how the rainbow was becoming a symbol associated with the New Age Movement. And I'd seen for myself plenty of examples of this in logos and such by groups with New Age leanings. So, not wanting to align myself in any way with New Agers, with considerable sadness, I gave up rainbows. I quit spending my allowance on stuff with rainbows on it, and quit collecting rainbow stickers, and quit doodling rainbows on everything in sight. I felt it was my duty as a Christian, and that it somehow 'honored' the Lord that I do this.
About a month later, I was at the mall with my friends family, and we went into a Hello Kitty store called "The Happiness Shop". This store had a wall full of rolls of stickers that would rival any scrapbook store today, and which made my little sticker-collector's eyes sparkle with delight. And up there on that wall, my eyes were drawn to a large, lovely, sparkly rainbow sticker that would be perfect for my collection. I had the money in my hot little hands, but after a considerable argument with myself there in that store, I decided not to get because of the whole New Age connection. I went home, and later that day was really bummed that I didn't get it, because it was beautiful, and I really wanted it for my collection.
Seeing me moping around, my mom asked me what was wrong, and I finally poured out my story. When I told her this, she shook her head and said, "No way. Uh, uh...that's just silly! God gave the Rainbow to us as a sign of the promise from Him that he'd never flood the entire earth with water again, and I'll be darned if I'm gonna let those New Agers or anyone else take away something God gave us and corrupt it! Quite frankly, I like rainbows, and I'm not letting anyone take that enjoyment away from me by turning what is good and decent into something that is not."
That day, something fell into place for me. Here I had been 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater' all that time, denying myself the enjoyment of something that God himself took the time to hang up there in the sky for us after each rain that we had there in Western Washington. I'd mistakenly felt that I should 'give up' something that was in and of itself good and beautiful, when in fact, I'd been listening to the wrong voices. Needless to say, when we returned again to the mall, I bought that rainbow sticker, and proudly displayed it in my album and began drawing rainbows once again. I still enjoy rainbows to this day, even though an entirely different movement has attempted to take that beautiful symbol and corrupt it.
In much the same way, I'm not going to stop decorating my home with seasonal decorations, or discontinue many fun activities that I associate with lots of warm, fuzzy family memories of this time of year from my childhood, simply because they've been absorbed into the marketing machine that has become Halloween. And it's not a poor little black cat's fault that it's black, and that it is associated with a lot of rituals around Halloween, making it necessary for the Humane Society and other places to not allow 'adoptions' of black cats around Halloween lest they be used for evil purposes. We can't allow this world to take those things that the Lord meant for good, and corrupt them into something that is not.
My son and I stayed up late last night watching several old Harold Lloyd slapstick comedies back-to-back. We found the boxed set of them at Costco, and I knew we couldn't pass them up.
