Graham Nicholls writes for Affinity about the dilemma that many Christians face when approaching Halloween. I suspect that the dilemma arises because the event itself is messy. You are encountering not just one festival or “holiday” but several and they have all got muddled up together.
First (though not chronologically) there’s the festival from which the name comes. Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day, followed by All Souls Day on the 2nd November. It is worth noting that the former, acknowledges all believers who are now in heaven and so is perhaps more acceptable to Protestants, the latter encourages prayers for those in purgatory. All Saints in effect offers a catch all for any missed out by various “saints days.” So, whilst it has perhaps less concerning connotations than the latter, it’s not really something I’m going to get involved in.
In any case, Halloween is the All Hallow’s Eve. Over time, myths and traditions grew along the lines that the dead might come back to visit their living family on the eve of the festivals that were there to commemorate and remember them. Hence one reason for the association with ghosts and that kind of thing.
Another reason is that there were other festivals such as Samhein going further back. Those festivals tended to mark the move into winter and so lights and bonfires were lit. There also seems to have been an association with the dead, boundaries between worlds becoming blurred and so again, the possibility of contact with long lost ancestors.
Thirdly, there is in effect a more modern holiday, the specific tradition of “Trick or Treating.” This is where you get the idea of people dressing up in fancy dress, especially of the scary kind and knocking on doors looking to receive gifts of money and chocolate. This has become increasingly commercialised.
All of that has become combined together. We can also add into the mix the following. First, that whilst you might welcome the visit of a long dead sweet old grandma or maiden aunt, there may be some less welcome visitors from beyond the grave and so you might want to try and ward them off. Secondly, consider the tie up between those ancient folk religions and medieval perceptions of witchcraft along with the way that pagan deities were often used as the artistic basis for images of Satan and demons. Thirdly, the Horror film industry has a particular obsession with the day, linked to those reasons above. So, it is not a surprise that the festival also has huge associations with portrayals of evil and darkness.
It is perhaps helpful to be alert to those factors when considering our response to Halloween. To some extent, I also suspect that Halloween responses will be context and personality driven. For that reason, I’m not sure that I would share quite the concerns Graham raises. Specifically
First, Graham says
“Halloween in its modern form, can only be celebrated so freely because people no longer take spiritual evil seriously.”
I’m not sure that this is correct. First of all because abandoning Christian faith has not necessarily led to people being less concerned about the spiritual or less fearful of evil. Our society still has a concept of evil but in fact it sees evil much more in the grotesque and out of the ordinary. We divide the world up into monsters and angels and this is particularly associated with the more heinous aspects of criminality. Secondly, remember that whilst the commercialised form of Trick or Treating may be newish (if you consider the last 50/60 years as new), its rooted in older traditions.
In fact, the tradition of dressing up and portraying evil as grotesque fits with a pattern of seeking to mimic in order to ward off as well as to mock and subvert. For that reason, some Christians have even argued that we can embrace the festivities with that sense of mocking and subverting the works of the evil one. I remain to be convinced by that argument. I’m not sure how it squares with Jude’s teaching and reference to Michael insisting that it was for the Lord to rebuke Satan.
In fact, I wonder if our greater need is not to warn about the dangers of horror film style evil but the danger it presents in everyday life. We don’t deny the reality of demon possession or shrink back from warning about the occult. However for most people the real danger is in ordinary life, their conversations, thought life, actions. What they look at on their screens, what they entertain in their imaginations, what they say to and about each other to the face or behind the back.
Secondly, Graham raises questions about whether or not giving out sweets and tracts or organising light parties will be effective in a society that doesn’t grasp the seriousness of evil and the spiritual world. The problem with this argument is that it proves true much. Christmas and Easter also only make sense if we understand the problem of evil and the victor of Christ over it. They only matter because God (spiritual) intervenes in our material world. There has to be a starting point and if the starting point is a statement that we embrace joy and light before pointing people to a better hope than this world offers then I am not sure there is much of a risk in it.
For those reasons, my conclusion is that we should be free to respond to Halloween with a degree of flexibility.
I personally fully endorse Light Parties as an effective way of engaging communities and distinguishing us from the World around. They also speak to a multicultural society where people from other backgrounds also seek to celebrate light at this time of year. Incidentally, there are also lots of families who, whatever their grasp of evil, just don’t want their kids freaked out by scary stuff. However, more than just a bland reference to light or being seen as anti the scary evil stuff, we want to ensure that our events capture the sense of how Christ offers resurrection life, he has defeated death.
On a side note, these tend to be organised as full church events at their buildings. However, what if you don’t have the people to man a party or the space (eg you hire a venue)? Why not organise a smaller party at home for your kids’ friends, just as you might organise a birthday party?
Others may look at what is happening where they are and the associations of the event and decide that the best thing to do is to just ignore the whole thing. In fact, increasingly, the option to just opt out is there because stranger danger means that you are less likely to get visits after dark from Trick or Treaters unless you signal that you have opted in.
A third alternative might be to subvert the whole thing. Some of us might be as concerned by the focus on what treats you can get in this selfish age as we are about the other manifestations of sin. Do we grasp the evil of greed strongly enough. I remember as a kid that we used to go round carol singing with our church, people were all ready to give us money but we were clear that we were there to give rather than receive. One option might be to subvert Trick and Treating by taking your family out in fancy dress not to receive treats but to give them to the neighbours you visit.
I’d love to hear your ideas about how you will be approaching Halloween.
Faithroots 