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Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
Without offending anyone I’d just like to say I recently had to listen to two friends condemn trick-or-treaters as pawns of Satan. According to Focus on the Family, 30% of Evangelical Christians “avoid Halloween because it is evil.” My friends’ comments and that statistic has inspired me to publically “come out” as someone who is not apart of that 30% – I am someone who enjoys dressing up in silly costumes and eating excessive amounts of candy on October 31st and imagine this – I don’t feel guilty or evil for doing it.
I don’t understand it when people – ok, Christians – start freaking out about the “origins” of holidays. If you want to be picky you can probably find pagan roots in all of our holidays, including the favored Christmas and Easter. Does this fact really have any bearing on our celebrating them today? If it does, then you might want to stop buying Christmas trees and Easter baskets. The truth is that legalism is alive and well within church communities and Halloween has become a holier-than -thou excuse to condemn non-Christians for “yet another thing they do wrong, that we do right.” My theory is that your intention is more important than the fact that hundreds, or thousands of years ago groups may or may not have had pagan celebrations on a particular day.
That at least was my experience growing up. Adults feared God’s wrath and made sure to pretend we weren’t celebrating Halloween by re-naming it a “harvest celebration” – c’mon now… kids in suburbia could care less about the change of seasons, it is the costumes and candy that they’re excited about.
I will step off my very small pedestal and go purchase the costume I’ll be wearing this evening.
Hope you all have fun collecting, or giving away candy!
I don’t understand it when people – ok, Christians – start freaking out about the “origins” of holidays. If you want to be picky you can probably find pagan roots in all of our holidays, including the favored Christmas and Easter. Does this fact really have any bearing on our celebrating them today? If it does, then you might want to stop buying Christmas trees and Easter baskets. The truth is that legalism is alive and well within church communities and Halloween has become a holier-than -thou excuse to condemn non-Christians for “yet another thing they do wrong, that we do right.” My theory is that your intention is more important than the fact that hundreds, or thousands of years ago groups may or may not have had pagan celebrations on a particular day.
That at least was my experience growing up. Adults feared God’s wrath and made sure to pretend we weren’t celebrating Halloween by re-naming it a “harvest celebration” – c’mon now… kids in suburbia could care less about the change of seasons, it is the costumes and candy that they’re excited about.
I will step off my very small pedestal and go purchase the costume I’ll be wearing this evening.
Hope you all have fun collecting, or giving away candy!
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19 Responses to “Monday October 31, 2005”
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November 7th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
on thin ice here, i guess. i am not part of the 30%. my whole family dresses up for tabitha’s birthday and the xa costume (not halloween) party. we go trick or treating. but we do carve JESUS into our pumpkin. and we don’t hang ghosts and witches and the like in our yard. evil is evil and we should not jest about it. the devil is real. demons are real. hell is real. it is just not a laughing matter to me. i am not obsessed about the origin of our current traditions necessarily. but i am not going to just blindly follow cultural customs either. halloween brings images of the dead roaming the earth, witches casting evil spells on innocent people, of ax murderers running amok. i don’t find any of these things entertaining, funny or charming. so, we don’t “celebrate halloween” in my household. is that worthy of ridicule? even if i’m dead wrong, my convictions are worthy of respect. our culture is reacting to years of legalism and hypocrisy and other crazy christian dysfunctions. i don’t want to be part of that. i’m angry about how the church has messed up our nation. how can we turn the tide? i want to respond with love and patience and grace.
our relationship is never on thin ice. i so love you.
November 4th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
i’m evil as hell.
November 4th, 2005 at 2:32 pm
If we take the “halloween is satanic” motif any further, Christmas overlays YuleTide, a pagan mid-winter festival and Easter overlays a festival celebrating the rebirth of Spring. And why not the many pagan things through our culture? Shaving is a Greek/Roman habit which countermands a biblical command. How about trousers – introduced by pagan horsemen from the steppes. The whole thing gets out of hand.
That said, I would think that American christians would need to study and understand the connection between Halloween or (All Witches Night) and All Saints Day, which Halloween leads up to.
November 4th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
I said the same thing in my blog….
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:55 pm
my parents are part of that 30%. I never once celebrated Halloween growing up because they thought it was evil. We usually had friends from church over in our basement for a Halloween party of our own, and they were always a lot of fun.
So I guess that I did celebrate the holiday back int he day, just in a different way.
November 2nd, 2005 at 8:11 pm
++!
Besides which, TAG!
November 2nd, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Esther…we must plot something to do to Nick this weekend :)
I’ll be working at a UWM soccer game on Saturday. You’re both welcome to come!
November 1st, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Good post. Funny – just this weekend I met a family who does not celebrate Easter or Christmas because of the pagan roots. I have to respect them, they’re consistent, and they don’t condemn those who do celebrate (they mostly avoid the topic because people are usually offended by their non-participation).
Somehow, Grace and Holiness coexist. That’s what baffles me.
November 1st, 2005 at 8:35 am
Yeah, so, who else is excited that it was Reformation Day? Anyone…anyone….*crickets chirping*
November 1st, 2005 at 1:42 am
I didn’t hand out any candy
I didn’t talk to my Mandy
I sat here like a goon
Listening to “Thriller” since noon
And I tell ya, I feel fine and dandy
November 1st, 2005 at 12:55 am
I wasn’t envited to a Halloween party this year. So I don’t believe in it. It’s evil and so are you for promoting it. Bad Esther, bad, bad. For that matter, I wasn’t even invited to a Harvest Festival. So harvest festivals are bad too.
October 31st, 2005 at 11:45 pm
i’m dressing up as satan himself…………no actually i’m a loser that dressed up and stayed home and passed out candy…no i’m out of candy and it’s not even 9:00…what to do what to do
October 31st, 2005 at 11:44 pm
I agree with you Esther!!
My soapbox this time of year is churches who have a “Harvest Party” and do what the “world” does with Halloween parties. Let’s call a spade a spade here. Cut the euphemisms and don’t hide behind a “Harvest Party” when you are in reality having a Halloween party… Excuse me.. doing it the same day/weekend and thinking people will think you are holy and not succumbing to the “world.”
Either have a halloween party or don’t do anything.
October 31st, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Well, Easter – your post was/is quite a bit more helpful and less confrontational / antagonising than mine.
Well done.
October 31st, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Thank you for addressing this subject head on…I love your courage!
October 31st, 2005 at 6:38 pm
preach it girl! I personally like the excuse of eating a grotesque amount of candy for no aparent reason and to be a princess for a day! ;)
October 31st, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Better yet, isn’t it better to just not care? Personally, I’m having a great Monday. I could care less that it’s Halloween.
October 31st, 2005 at 5:51 pm
You are so balanced Esther. I really like that about you. : )
October 31st, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Are we going to get this same treatment on Christmas and Easter, too? And for your information, I’ve already told my 3 children that they cannot go trick-or-treating this year.