Christians & Halloween

The Pagan Origin of Halloween

I’m not going to dive too deeply into all of it, but I think it’s important to recognize and understand.

In ancient cultures, the fall season was a time to prepare for the coming winter. This was a time of transition. Days were getting shorter, crops were being harvested, and animals were being killed.

This was also a time when pagan religions marked a transition from life to death. Summer represented light and life. Winter represented darkness and death. The pagan belief was that this was a time when the physical realm and the spiritual realm came together in a distinct way.

Some groups made prophecies about the future. Some people would set up shrines to honor the dead. Some were fearful of spirits or mythical beings that could bring mischief or danger. That led to practices like lighting fires or wearing disguises to confuse or repel evil forces. They could also seek to please the spirits with candles or food.

Even as Christianity began to grow in the Roman Empire, many of those pagan practices continued. In the 8^th century, which is the 700s, Pope Gregory III decreed that November 1 would be a day to commemorate saints and martyrs. This became known as All Saints’ Day, which in Medieval England was known as All Hallows, which means the same thing. The night before All Hallows was, then, All Hallows Eve, which eventually simply became known as Halloween.

Rather than reject the pagan ideas and rituals, many people simply blended the pagan practices with Christian or Roman Catholic rituals.

Eventually, you had people, usually the poor, going door-to-door promising to pray for the deceased of a family in exchange for cakes. Over time, that turned into people going door-to-door and reciting poems or singing songs in exchange for cakes, fruits, nuts, ale, or coins. Basically, they performed a trick, and they were rewarded with a treat.

The Puritans of the 1600s who came to the Americas rejected a lot of these practices, so they weren’t part of American culture until the 1800s. A famine in Ireland drove over a million Irish to the United States, and they brought with them their Halloween celebrations. So, what was once a religious observance, became more of a cultural expression. As time passed, those rituals started to change into things we see today, like making jack-o-lanterns and wearing masks. For the unreligious, it simply became a day generically focused on fun and spooky things.

Things got bad during the Great Depression. The angst in a lot of people turned Halloween into a day of vandalism and violence. In 1933, we had what is now called a “Black Halloween,” because of how terrible things got across the country.

As a pushback to that destruction, communities started to organize parties, and trick-or-treating groups, and haunted houses. The hope was that they could minimize the dangerous pranks and rowdiness and keep the young people off the streets.

This brings us to a second heading for today, which is “The Modern Practice of Halloween.”

The Modern Practice of Halloween

How did we get to Halloween as we see it today in our culture?

Some of the biggest changes that came for Halloween were a result of World War 2. During the war, sugar was rationed, which led to candy being scarce. But once the war was over, sugar came back into supply, and candy companies wanted to help us celebrate. They started selling more individually wrapped pieces of candy, and Halloween was the perfect time to advertise.

Then we had cartoons featuring Donald Duck and the Peanuts gang which helped popularize the idea of going door-to-door to collect candy.

The biggest cultural factor in Halloween today, at least in this country, is not religious. It is business. Companies want to shape your thinking about what is the proper or best way to participate. Halloween is now the second-largest commercial holiday on our calendars. Just think about all the money that is being spent on travel, movies, events, decoration, costumes, and candy.

What’s interesting is that Halloween in this country has basically become a celebration of the spooky, and a celebration of itself. Valentine’s Day celebrates romance. Christmas celebrates the incarnation of Christ. Fourth of July celebrates our nation’s independence. Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Christ.

Culturally, Halloween it’s not really a celebration of anything in particular, but it is largely associated with costumes, candy, community, and creepy things. That doesn't make it necessarily good or evil, but it should help us set it in perspective.

So, let’s move now to our final heading today.

The Proper Participation of Halloween

What should, or shouldn’t, be part of how Christians participate in that day?

This is the real sermon part. I’m not here to give you my book report on the history of Halloween; I’m here to teach the Bible and help grow in your understanding of what it means and what it means for you today.

There is no passage in the Bible telling us that we must, or we can, or we can’t participate in Halloween. So, that means that we need to do our best to piece it apart, and think about the various components.

I’d like to address this topic from both the negative and the positive sides. I want to point out things we need to be careful about, but also some ideas or topics that are always good to consider. Let’s start with some of the negatives, things we need to be careful with. And I haven’t placed these in any specific order.

One area that we need to be concerned about is fear.

Fear

Halloween capitalizes on fear, but we need to understand that concept biblically. There is a healthy fear, like fearing God, but there is also an unhealthy kind of fear.

There is no need for us to be afraid that Satan and the demons are especially dangerous on Halloween. Satan is prowling like a lion every day, and there is no day in which the spiritual realm is any closer to the physical than other days.

In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” He wasn’t talking about Satan; He was talking about God. We are called, ultimately, to fear God, not man and not Satan. We recognize the earthly and spiritual dangers that will come, but we live in light of who God is. If we have confesses and repented of our sinfulness, and if we have trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is nothing to fear eternally. God is watching over us. First John 4:4 says we have overcome. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

If we are called to fear God and to trust in Him, we need to be careful about building into our lives things that lead us to fear or to panic.

Speaking on the horror genre found in books and movies and other attractions, one author defined it as “a crude tool of physical stimulation, wholly devoid of mental, emotional, or spiritual engagement.” In other words, there might be an immediate reaction that some people like, but there is no true benefit. It turns us away from reality and away from the things of God.

The Occult

Along the lines of fear, there’s a second negative concept to be aware of, and that is the occult, or any attempts at connecting with the spiritual realm outside of prayer to God. The occult is a major part of Halloween. We see vampires and voodoo dolls and mummies and witches.

There may not be any verse that directly addresses how we can participate in Halloween, the Old and New Testaments make is completely clear that we are to avoid the occult.

In the Old Testament, witchcraft was punishable by death. You see that in Exodus 22 and Leviticus 19 and 20. God’s people were not to try to see into the future or talk to the dead. That kind of idea isn’t mocked; it’s condemned. The spiritual realm belongs to God. You don’t play around with those kinds of things.

In the New Testament, we have Acts 8, Acts 13, and Acts 19 telling us that Christianity is completely incompatible with magic and sorcery. Acts 19 says that when people came to faith, they burned the book associated with magic arts, and it tells us that it was worth a lot of money.

First Corinthians 10 tells us that pagan sacrifices aren’t really going to an idol or a false god, but they are being made to a demon. To participate in that is to participate with demons. Don’t open your life up to that sort of thing. Sorcery is also condemned in Galatians 5, and the word there include the idea of administering potions or drugs.

We need to be very careful about not glorifying or promoting those kinds of things. Witchcraft is a dangerous thing to get involved with, and because it dishonors God so much, it’s not something we want to glorify or promote.

Death or Gore

A third category to be aware of is death or gore. Death is part of life under the curse, and it’s not something to be glorified. We were created in God’s image to live forever. Death is our enemy. We are to mourn its power over us and celebrate the victory we have in Christ. Don’t glorify death. Don’t minimize the role it plays in this life.

Immorality or Immodesty

Another category to be careful with is immorality or immodesty. Halloween seems to be a time when some people think it’s acceptable to walk around with much less clothing on than usual. It’s an attempt to grab people’s attention.

You look at the lineup of costumes being sold and so many of them are no longer made to be simply be spooky; they’re designed to be sexy too. Sexy witches. Sexy firemen. Sexy whatever. That dishonors God and the proper use of sexuality which is a gift He’s given for a man and his wife.

Guys, your concern for purity might mean choosing not to attend certain events. It’s not going to be good for your heart.

Ladies, listen to your brothers or your fathers who warn you about certain costumes. Don’t worry about the attention others might get for what they wear. You trust in the Lord. Wearing a costume is not an excuse to dishonor God in how you dress. And, I will add, the same goes for going to the beach or going to the gym. Pursue purity and modesty. Help others pursue purity as well.

Immaturity

Another danger in Halloween is immaturity. This speaks to the pranks and the risks people might take, or maybe even to an obsession with candy, or to a disregard for authority.

I know that Jesus said we need to enter heaven like a child, but was talking about humility and dependence. He wasn’t saying we’re not supposed to grow up and mature. There are things that matter to kids, that shouldn’t matter so much to adults. It seems like our culture is getting more immature with every generation. Adolescence is being prolonged. And a huge mark of adulthood, which is marriage and children, is being postponed. I know there might be economic and societal factors for that, too, but let’s pursue what honors God and not be dominated by childish things.

Worldliness

Another concern I want to point out, and this could be a generic term for everything we’ve covered, is worldliness. And related to this, we could say, is materialism. We don’t simply want to do things just because everyone else is doing it. We need to realize that the pressure of the world is always there. Not everything the world does is wrong, and not everything the world does is right or required.

First John says we are not to love the things of the world. That’s talking about the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life. We’re not called to be like the world; we’re called to be like God. We’re called to imitate Christ.

Violating the Conscience

The next danger I have is violating the conscience. Your conscience is not the Holy Spirit. But it is a mechanism God has given us as a warning. And even if something is not wrong in itself, it is wrong for us to do it if it goes against our conscience. If we’re morally uncomfortable with something, don’t do it. And don’t lead someone else to do something they are uncomfortable with either.

You can read more about this in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8. Don’t do anything that you’re not fully convinced is okay for you to do. And don’t be a stumbling block to someone else. Don’t urge them to do more than what their conscience allows.

Division or Judgmentalism

A final danger to be aware of is division or judgmentalism. And this also comes out of Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8. Go ahead and go to Romans 14 with me. Here, the issue is eating meat that had been purchased from an idol’s temple. So, the person who might eat it isn’t worshiping the idol, but people had different positions on whether or not that was acceptable. Look at Romans 14:2—One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. [3] Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. [4] Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Other people, other Christians, other families may come to a different conclusion than you about what is acceptable. It’s okay to talk about those differences. But they shouldn’t lead to division or judgmentalism. We might come to different conclusions. But we should all be seeking to honor God and live for Christ.

With that, let me turn to some of the positive opportunities that Halloween presents. And I need to move fast, so I won’t spend a lot of time on each one. But we aren’t going to have a final song to day, so I think we might have time for a couple questions, if there are any. But I’m also happy to answer questions afterwards, or at the picnic, if you prefer that.

Candy or Food

First, I think it’s important to make a comment about candy, and I’ve said this before. There is nothing wrong with enjoying something tasty that this world has invented. The biblical principle concerning food is that we need to be grateful. We shouldn’t eat mindlessly, but we shouldn’t eat somberly either. First Timothy 4 says God created food to be received with Thanksgiving. Everything created by God is good. I’ve told my kids many times, “Candy is good because God is good.” To the degree that your conscience, or maybe your doctor, allows, enjoy God’s good gifts with your family.

Community

A second positive reality associated with Halloween is community. Many people have observed that Halloween may be the only day in a year when your neighbors knock on your door and you knock on theirs.

Some people prefer not to be associated with the day, for different reasons, so they turn their lights off, and kids skip over their houses. They are free to do that, I suppose.

But others see this as a time to connect with others. There’s a sense of community on that day that has mostly been lost in our culture. So, in an effort to be neighborly, they participate to some extent.

Evangelism

And this leads me to a final opportunity to keep in mind, and that is evangelism. Given the connections we make with others, some see it as a very strategic time to connect with others either for evangelism, or for moving closer to it. For some, it’s an opportunity to shine the light of Christ in the darkness.

That really is the heart behind the trunk-or-treat that has been planned. And that is also the heart of some who stay home and give out candy to their neighbors.

Again, we don’t want to judge. So, I’m not saying that giving out candy is necessarily better than shutting your lights off, but behind whichever choice you make, there needs to be a heart of pleasing God and being a testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a father, there have been and will be things that I decide my family will not participate in for moral reasons and for our spiritual health. And there will be things that we decide to participate in. But as a Christian, I should never simply be participating because it sounds like fun. I should be doing all things to the glory of God, and with a desire to shine the light of Christ wherever I go.