Why we don't celebrate Halloween as Christians

[@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. To say Halloween’s connections to ancient Samhain, or anything “ancient” for that matter, are, at best, extremely tenuous, would be grossly overstating the facts. Virtually all of the customs associated with the modern secular celebration of Halloween developed only in the past 500 years and have no connections to ancient pagan religious practices. In short, Halloween just does not have the “pagan precedent” so many people seem to desperately want it to. Even the concept of ‘Trick or Treat’ is a relatively new phenomenon, originating from right here in the USA from about the 1920’s or so, and represents a mix of cultures, capitalism, and accommodation. Masks, costumes, trick or treating, Halloween games etc. all either have known traditional Christian origins or simply cannot be linked to anything definitely pre-Christian. Many will be quick to argue that Halloween is a day which “glorifies evil” or does “not glorify God”. When one participates in Halloween, one is not participating in ‘evil’ or ‘death’ per se; rather one of the points of the modern holiday is to mock these things. I think that’s a major point many people seem to completely miss or not quite understand. 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. One of the things that one inevitably sees are videos that ask, “Can a Christian celebrate Halloween?” and open that with “What does the Bible say?” Let’s be honest here, the Bible says absolutely zero about Halloween - accept that. Don’t cherry pick verses taken completely out of cultural and historical context and try to make them fit. Further, as mentioned, the verses used typically refer not to the historical facts concerning the origins of the holiday, but rather the legend, lore, assumptions, myths, misinformation, outright lies and religious paranoia that surround it. To take a few of these quickly, Ephesians 5:11 is construed as prohibiting 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 correct) that are now widely considered harmless fun by many Christians. Deuteronomy is a prohibition about cultural and religious assimilation as the Hebrew people enter Canaan. The bigger question here may be more along the lines of, why do some Christian denominations seem to have a genuine fear of Halloween. A few noted historians have explored this question…. To paraphrase from an article written in 2018 by B. A. Barr on the Patheos website on why Evangelical Christians seem to fear Halloween, she notes that in the aftermath of the Reformation, some fervent protestant groups (like the Puritans) regarded holy days with strong Catholic roots (such as All Saints Day and All Souls Day) with a great deal of suspicion and condemned them as “Popish inventions “. A holy day like Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), which had no direct association with the life of Jesus, didn’t have a chance with radical reformers. It was just too Catholic. This is precisely what historian Ronald Hutton argues when he wrote: “To describe [Halloween] as fundamentally un-Christian is therefore either ill-informed or disingenuous. Such an attitude could be most sympathetically portrayed as a logical development of radical Protestant hostility to the holy days of All Saints and All Souls.” Ironically, Hutton continues, “it is because of the agenda of evangelical Protestants to “eradicate” papal traditions that holidays like Halloween now appear divorced from Christianity.” Hutton goes on to say that by eliminating the doctrine of Purgatory and the cult of the saints,” the Protestants “left nothing but a vague sense of Halloween as a time with creepy associations.” In other words, it was Protestant fear of Catholicism that made Halloween appear less Christian and, in their eyes, more evil. As one commenter puts it - “This smear campaign against Halloween, in which it has been scapegoated among Christians as the ultimate manifestation of secularism and satanism in contemporary culture, only goes back to fairly recent modern times when certain Christian groups resorted to any fanciful tale to counter the emerging counterculture of the 60's and 70's that they perceived as corrupting youth. Christian leaders since then have clutched us in a guilt trip ever since about a holiday which, prior to this extreme reaction, was indeed harmless for the most part like any other holiday and had no connection with satanic rituals. It was a cultural festival which, though mischievous at times, really posed no threat to society until we were forced to believe that it did.”

[@sabrinaklass]

@@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474 Hi there! Although I do touch on the history/origins, I am not basing my stance solely on that. A quick glance at the day will reveal dark, fear-inducing, disturbing images and many costumes dressing up as demonic characters. There is a lot of emphasis on things that connect to witchcraft as well, which isn’t a small deal. Witchcraft is becoming increasingly prevalent in our culture in very subtle ways and during Halloween it is especially emulated through references, allusions, and direct practice of it. This in and of itself is a strong reason God’s people ought to have nothing to do with the day. Of course, you are free to believe and practice what you want but there is clearly so much about Halloween (in this modern era) that is dark and demonic❤️

[@shananotz9920]

​@sabrinaklass Halloween is about dragging the things Satan uses to cause us fear into the light. There is plenty scary in a world with Satan as it's prince. Bringing those things into the open on the day before celebrating that Jesus has come and made a way for us to be glorified with him after our death is quite appropriate. Halloween is only a day that "witches" try to dabble in spells because Christians have offered the day to them by not celebrating it in the Cbristian way it originated. Celebrations of our new life in Christ in all facets of life are how we drive the devil out of the culture. By eliminating all the holy days of the calendar, we gave up the cultural ground Christ had redeemed. Now look at the state of the world

[@littlealan002]

👏🏽👏🏼👏🏼👏🏽 the best decision; God in his 💚🤟🏽 Matthew 6:24 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.[a]!🌱💚🌱💚✨🫶🏼

[@NeirceVeiga]

it's is true..I don't celebrate the haloween and Christmas too..

[@MichaelTheCorpse]

Why can't a Christian celebrate All Hallows' Eve, the vigil before All Saints' Day, a Christian holiday meant to celebrate all saints in Heaven? Hallow being an archaic word for Saint?

[@sabrinaklass]

I would say there’s not much about Halloween in our modern culture that emulates godly saints that have passed away. If one were to celebrate Reformation Day (on October 31st, 1517) when Martin Luther posted the 95 theses on the Catholic Church door, that’s a different story. But Halloween as it’s known and celebrated today isn’t God-centered in any way. Also, it’s not so much as CAN a Christian celebrate as much as SHOULD they participate in such a dark holiday?❤️

[@MichaelTheCorpse]

@@sabrinaklass Then just practice the older version of Halloween, as well as the day it's actually supposed to be preparing for, All Saints' Day, as it's still observed by the Roman Catholic church, Eastern Orthodox church, Oriental Orthodox church, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodist, and more. It also might be helpful to read the wikipedia pages on Halloween, All Hallow' Day/All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. Btw, I'm not too fond of the Reformation for reasons you can probably guess.

[@californiadoll6273]

Costumes are no different than regular clothes, whats the difference? Its literally just fabric being worn! .... btw God and the devil are FICTIONAL!

[@TumbleFourYa]

I can't help but think your first two points are a bit hypocritical. "As Christians, we don't celebrate death." And yet, if a devout loved one of yours dies, do you not celebrate at their funeral/wake/etc the fact that they have left their earthly body to join the Lord? "We as Christians want nothing to do with horror, fear, blood..." Forgive me for saying so, but the Bible is a pretty horrific, fearful, and graphic book; the number of Christians I know who describe themselves as "God-fearing" is by no means a low one. I also wished that in researching the origins of Halloween, you would've been introduced to the origin of the word "demon" as well: it is Latin in origin with the original word being "daemon," simply meaning spirit. So by this logic, angels and Christ Himself would be considered "daemonic" because they're spirits. Also, would communing with Christ not be considered a form of necromancy? He's a spirit, sure, but he was also a human being at one point. And there's also the matter of Satanism. I understand why Christians are quick to call things "Satanic" and be wary of Satanism, but the fact is, like Christianity, there are many different sects of Satanism -- and a lot of them don't believe in any gods, spirits, or magick! Not trying to start a fight with you or anyone in the comments; just correcting some misconceptions and giving you some (hopefully interesting) food for thought.

[@corinnehipke1187]

When a Christian refers to demons we are referring to fallen angels. Satan was the most beautiful angel created by God, and his name was Lucifer but then he became proud of his beauty and wanted to be as powerful as God. Now consider that before this there was never any jealousy or wrong doing. God cast him out of heaven. Ever since Saten has been striving to defeat the God who created him. When Saten was cast from heaven a third of the angels followed him. These angels are fallen angels and are what Christians refer to as demons. In Latin perhaps demon means a spirit being, but when we say it in English we are referring to fallen angels. I hope that clears things up a little, but I'm glad you are interested in our beliefs.

[@corinnehipke1187]

Also, the Bible is a historic book All of history has its horrific stories. Reality is horrific. But we don't put up blood and skulls and half dead zombie creatures up in remembrance of these things. I'm not about to put Goliath's head in my yard out of respect for David. And yes, what about the crucifix? Well that is usually a Catholic symbol. I personally prefer to think of my Lord Jesus Christ as alive and risen and not nailed to a cross. I am eternally grateful for His sacrifice but I don't think of him as a man, weak and dying on a cross. I don't have a crucifix in my home and we don't have one at our church either.

[@sabrinaklass]

@@TumbleFourYa Hi there! There is a vast difference between celebrating the kind of death Halloween emulates (in the form of zombies, vampires, monsters, and dead corpses) and rejoicing bittersweetly at a beloved one’s funeral that they have gone to be in heaven with the Lord. It’s not the physical death we celebrate as Christians, it’s the work God did in their lives and their eternity with Christ that we celebrate. Second, there’s also a huge difference between reading the factual history of what happened in the Bible (which of course there’s lots of death and terrible things that happened) that ultimately is included in Scripture in order to teach us about God and how He acts in history and then the intentional glorification of the spooky, dark things of Halloween that are intended to incite fear that has nothing profitable to offer us. Also, the term “God-fearing” means God-revering - meaning that we have a reverential fear of disappointing God because we don’t want to damage our relationship with Him. It’s the same way a child doesn’t want to disobey and disappoint their parents because they love their parents and want to be in happy fellowship with them. When a child disobeys, that fellowship is strained and so having a healthy “fear” or respect towards breaking that relationship is a good thing. That is what Christians and the Scriptures mean by having a fear of God. You are correct about the meaning of the word “demon” meaning simply a spirit. But what I meant, and what most people mean when they use that word, is an evil spirit. Sorry if that was confusing, I should have clarified I meant an evil demon. Christ is the Son of God and part of the Trinity. When we pray to Him, we are praying to God and not to mere humans or other spirits. We are never to pray to or worship anything other than God. I hope these points helped you understand my view better, I’m sorry if I wasn’t very clear❤️

[@TumbleFourYa]

@corinnehipke1187 Thank you for taking the time to reply. I was actually wondering about the crucifix, but I didn't know it was more of a Catholic thing than anything else. Do you know about Lucifer in Roman mythology? He was the personification of Venus and known as the "light bringer" or "morning star;" his mythology was that of "falling from the sky" each morning to bring about the rising of the sun, and metaphorically, to a lot of Satanists, this represents the bringing of metaphysical/spiritual light. Obviously these origins have a bit in common with the Lucifer from Christianity, so what are your thoughts on that if you don't mind me asking? Or do you look at them as two separate beings?

[@TumbleFourYa]

@@sabrinaklass That makes a lot more sense. Thank you for taking the time to elaborate🙂 Can I ask what you think of religious horror movies like The Conjuring or The Exorcist? I know a lot of Christians are against them, but my line of thought is that there's a lot of accurate info about demonology in those movies, so it's better as a believer to watch them and be prepared should something bad happen. What do you think?