I have a read a lot of Christians posting about how they
choose to respond to Halloween.
Many people seem shocked about how a Christian can attend
church and celebrate life on Sunday, but then participate in a festival
centered around on death on Monday.
Then I’ve read others saying how Halloween is the perfect
opportunity to for Christians to spread light and life in the community.
To be honest, I can’t side on either extreme.
Avoidance tends to be the lowest form of response. So many
false assumptions are made that Halloween is a “pagan” holiday, rooted in
conjuring up evil Spirits. The roots of “Trick
or Treat” in Canadian society are fuzzy, but it’s generally agreed upon
that Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve began as a Christian ritual of honouring
those had passed on.
Obviously it’s morphed from what it was, but the practice of
dressing our kids up, getting them out together in the community, and giving
them gifts and candy on one of their most anticipated nights they will have all
year is not something I am ready to rail against for reasons that are mostly
based in misinformation. Let’s not be so small minded that we hide away from
what can be a truly enjoyable evening.
That being said, I have read enough and seen enough to know
that what Halloween has morphed into is quite disturbing. We train our kids to
become enamoured with death and gore, putting images into their minds that any
other time of the year we protect them from. Additionally, there is enough
information out there as well to safely assume that those who practice dark
spirituality see it as an opportunity to gain acceptance in our culture, and
actually take time to works curses on people. So I’m not about to fully embrace
a day that seeks to destroy the very thing I live my life for.
I suppose I see Halloween as just another one of those days
we need to live out our faith as best we can, in a society that doesn’t
necessarily see things the way we do.
Tonight I will absolutely give out candy to my neighbours
and share some joy. And 100%, my daughter will be out with her friends getting
way too much candy.
Yet we’ve had a family conversation about why we would never
dress up as a witch, or associate ourselves with death and darkness. We read
the Bible as a family talking about how light has no place with darkness. (2 Cor 6:14) We also read about how unless someone specifically tells us that they
are cursing us, we shouldn’t feel guilty participating in something that isn’t
inherently Christian. 1 Cor 10: 23-30.
We live out our faith with our friends, and teach our kids
about a Christian response.
If Christian’s are looking for cultural holidays to properly
reflect their faith, we are in for a rude awakening. When it comes time to celebrate the birth of our Jewish
king, we might want to check our dates put away that giant Christmas ham. Jesus
was Kosher, and he was born in the fall. But we participate in Christmas
traditions like Santa, stockings, sleigh rides and carols because it’s fun. Our holidays are not designed to be spiritual moments anymore. We can still celebrate with culture, and then take time to honour our faith separately.
Halloween is not Christmas.
But on both days, I will live my faith out the best I can.
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