Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Here's What You Need to Know

[@Vessel4MyFather]

Rationalizing! ... Ephesians 5:11 Take NO part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

[@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474]

While some argue that Ephesians 5:11 ("Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness") prohibits celebrating Halloween due to its perceived pagan origins and association with darkness, this interpretation is does not take into account the context of the verse, which is primarily focused on actively participating in evil deeds, not simply engaging in activities with a preconceived historical connection to paganism (which is incorrect) that are now widely considered harmless fun by many Christians.

[@janiekelley9563]

Witchcraft and satanism have no place in the home of a Christian!!

[@777dingo]

No, because what concord does Christ have with the devil, learn not the way of the heathen.

[@debranorton9970]

People don’t understand the seriousness in the spiritual realm.

[@daMillenialTrucker]

From paganstic perspective sure, but kids dressing up like transformers and getting candy from neighbors like bruh stop 😂 we ain't out here sacrificing the bodies of animals to please the gods, my son is just dressed up like bubblebee from transformers and getting a small pale of candy. I just cannot reconcile my kids dressing up and celebrating an American holiday as them worshipping demons and therefore condemning my entire family to hell.

[@garyv2196]

Easter has pagan roots too.

[@dawnhollenbeck3293]

NO

[@NickGagnon-u1v]

If they want to. I love Halloween.

[@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474]

Completely contrary to what many would have one believe, Halloween is not a holiday that has close ties to the ancient past, nor does it have some ‘pagan’ antecedent, nor is it a continuation of several ancient pre-Christian customs. The truth is, to say Halloween’s connections to anything “ancient” are, at best, extremely tenuous, and would be grossly overstating the facts. Halloween just does not have the “pagan precedent” so many people seem to desperately want it to. Most traditions and customs, even many of the beliefs about Halloween developed in conjunction with the medieval holy days of All Souls’ and All Saints’ day.” Indeed, most of the traditions we associate with Halloween are medieval Christian or early modern in their origin-not “pagan”. From this medieval perspective, “Halloween” is a celebration of Christian triumph over paganism, rather than a pagan holiday masquerading as Christian. Death is not celebrated; it is mocked. Pagan Romans avoided the ashes of their forebears, but Christians looked upon the graves of their dead as having spiritual importance. Christian cemeteries were not final resting places; the grave was only temporary. Christians looked forward to the bodily resurrection of their brothers and sisters, and visiting the grave of those who slept in Christ testified to this belief in the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ had rent the veil that separated the living and the dead. The early catholic church did not merely boast a universality over space, but it also claimed a temporal universality. Could death really separate the saints whether living or dead now that Christ has risen? Christians gathered at the tombs to celebrate because in this way the members of the church who still lived could include in the celebration the members of the church who had died. Heaven and earth were joined, in a sense, when Christians both living and dead simultaneously worshiped the God who would one day reunite them. All Saints' Day was a nice addition to the liturgical calendar because it gave all Christians the opportunity to celebrate the martyrs' victory over death. After all, not every city in the Roman Empire had a local martyr shrine because not every city had experienced persecution. Why should martyr-less cities lose the blessing of celebrating what Christ has done through his saints? As I said, it wasn't the pagans who were fascinated with the dead; it was the Christians, because it's only the Christians that believed that the dead don't stay dead. Summer is over and the days are getting darker. What better time to acknowledge that we live in a fallen world? What better time to remember the martyrs who died during the dark days of persecution? But even though things are dark, we celebrate with joy. We can laugh as we dress our children in images of death because we know that death no longer has a hold on God's people. Though things look dark, we mock the darkness and we mock death because we know that we haven't been abandoned to the darkness and that in the darkest days of the year, Christmas will come, and the days will get brighter. When we celebrate Halloween, we are definitely participating in a tradition with deep historical roots. But those roots are firmly situated in the medieval Christian past, not an ancient pagan one. On another philosophical/psychological level, it allows people to explore their “darker side/psyche”, if you will. A time to explore a side of themselves they would not normally expose or perhaps even consider. It’s a part of being human. I somehow don’t think God would object to humans being human. It is a time to play on a few of the basic/core fears of man - fear of what lurks in the dark, and fear of death - the aspects of these fears that people just don’t like to think about, are now exposed for all to ‘see’ and ‘experience’. A sort of annual self-check to make sure that part of our humanity is still there, so to speak. In the end, most people realize it for what it is. In the end, we are forced to conclude that, like it or not, Halloween is only ‘evil’ for those who choose to make it so. As an aside.....While some argue that Ephesians 5:11 ("Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness") prohibits celebrating Halloween due to its perceived pagan origins and association with darkness, this interpretation is does not take into account the context of the verse, which is primarily focused on actively participating in evil deeds, not simply engaging in activities with a preconceived historical connection to paganism (which is not at all accurate) that are now widely considered harmless fun by many Christians.

[@Aviole]

“Completely contrary”. Is that why the overwhelming majority of Christians celebrates it? What happened to “Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”?