October 10 — This is the time of year when many people celebrate Halloween. Children, both young and old, will dress up in costumes and go door-to-door to ask for candy. For most people, this may sound like harmless fun. Others want nothing to do with the holiday and choose to keep their children at home for the night and keep their porch lights turned off.
With the holiday almost here, I’ve been seriously considering whether this is something a Christian should participate in or avoid.
Growing up, I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating. When my neighborhood friends were out running door-to-door for treats, my night consisted of dressing up in my costume and walking over to my grandparents’ house. My parents were very protective of us. I guess they heard too many horror stories on the news of kids discovering razor blades, pins, and other non-edible items in their candy
When I became a parent, I decided I was going to do something different with my kids. We lived in a safe neighborhood, so I let my children go out trick-or-treating. They would sometimes go out with their cousins and their parents; other times, my husband and I would take them throughout the neighborhood. Thankfully, we never discovered anything dangerous in their candy.
I never thought much of the spiritual aspect of Halloween. The origins of Halloween were something I never thought about. At the time, I believed it was what you made of it. If you wanted it to be scary and creepy, it was, or if you just wanted it to be a fun night for the kids, it was that too.
In the Mormon church I attended, they held Trunk-or-Treat for the children in the church. The only condition placed on the kids who wanted to come was that they didn’t wear any masks. Back then, I gave no thought to the deep pagan roots of Halloween. Recently, I decided to do a little research into the origins of this holiday. I discovered that the Celtics believed there was one day a year when the dead could rise and walk the earth. They called this day Samhain, which is the Celtic word for “summer’s end”. The Celtics wore masks to frighten away any spirits they might encounter.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory 3rd established All Hallows Day, held on November 1 to honor the Saints. He did this to dissuade the Celts from their pagan practices. They didn’t want to give up their rituals and merged the two holidays, eventually giving us Halloween.
Many Christian churches have Trunk-or-Treat. My church is participating in it this year at the local Elementary school’s parking lot. Many churches in the area will be helping with candy and games for the kids. I get it that it’s a “safe” place for kids to walk around, and a place for kids who live in a rural area to have fun.
I know many who participate in the holiday believe it’s just harmless fun and don’t want to get too deep into what this holiday is truly about. Trunk-or-Treats and Fall Festivals all feel like a way of celebrating the darkness of Halloween that feels safe for people. To me, it’s like when people say they’re voting for the lesser of the two evils. The problem is they’re both evil.
God has commanded us to avoid and have nothing to do with it. Ephesians 5:11-12 reads:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”
Recently, a friend of mine shared a video on Facebook of a man who is a former member of the Satanic church and is now a Christian. He said Halloween is “the highest day on the Satanic Calendar” and is considered a high day. He went on to say that we need to pray for those who are participating in the holiday and pray they may come to know Jesus.
In closing, I think we need to be careful how we handle things like this; we don’t want to be too legalistic, but we also want to be biblical. If you decide you want to participate, one thing you might want to consider doing is attaching a gospel track to the candy. It’s one way of witnessing to someone who might not know the gospel.
In Christ,
Melissa Grimes
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We tape a “Moments with the Book” motion tract to each treat we hand out. Expensive, but it is an important ministry to us.
In love this idea! I told Melissa that we like to tape a little John 3:16 note to each piece of candy we hand out. Maybe you can send me info on what you guys do?! 🙂
I will show it to you later this week!