Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

The Christian’s participation in Halloween is a controversial subject. Some Christians celebrate the holiday innocently with their children dressing up like little princesses, cowboys, clowns and super-heroes. For them it is a harmless fun time with candy and other party activities. Still other Christians are adamant that Halloween is a satanic event that should be avoided at all costs.

Today, in the United States, Halloween is a huge holiday. Last year American’s spent almost 7 billion dollars on candy, food, costumes and decorations. And what was once the holiday for children has now become increasingly an event for adults to party. Over 50% of costume sales are for adults! Adults use Halloween as their escape holiday. It is an excuse to have a good time.

Before I give my advice on how or if a Christian should celebrate Halloween. Let’s look at its history. You may be surprised to know that Halloween is actually a very religious day. Halloween originally dates back thousands of years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st, which marked the end of harvest time and the beginning of the dark winter. This supposedly was the time when their sun god, Muck Olla, was losing his strength, since the leaves were dying and the days were getting shorter.

They believed that on the night before their new year the demons were at the peak of their power and the ghosts of the dead revisited the earth to possess and haunt people. The Celts believed that the laws of nature were suspended on this night, which allowed the dead and the powers of darkness to freely interact with the rest of the world. In order to avoid being possessed, the Celts would dress up in hideous costumes and parade around town, making all kinds of noise and wreaking havoc in an effort to scare away the evil spirits.

The Druid priests would lead the villagers in diabolical worship ceremonies where offerings were burnt over their "sacred" bonfires. Some accounts speak of human sacrifices and various acts of black magic. The people would leave delicacies and wine outside their homes so that the spirits would not "trick" or curse them. But if these pagan practices happened so long ago (dating back to about 2500 years ago) then how is it that many of these customs have been carried all the way down to our time?

The ancient Romans conquered much of the Celtic territory and they adopted a great deal of these traditions as their own.  When the Catholic church sprang up in the heart of Rome and became the official religion of the empire, many pagan rituals were unfortunately incorporated by the church as a way of making Catholicism more appealing to the heathen (remember, this was the beginning of the "the Dark Ages").

In the 6th century, "Gregory the Great (A.D. 540-604) advised the Archbishop of Canterbury to retain the Druid sacrifices and celebrate them in honor of the Christian saints. During the 7th century, in an attempt to replace the Celtic festival with a similar, but "holier" holiday, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as a time to honor "saints and martyrs" and called it "All Saints' Day". This celebration was also known as All-hallows or All-hallowmas and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and eventually, Halloween.

Then in the year 1000, the Catholic church set up November 2 to be All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated much like Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, while the people dressed up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. Eventually the three celebrations were combined and called Hallowmas.

Since the Catholics believed that their departed loved ones were in a state of limbo known as purgatory, this festival of the dead was significant. They would go from house to house begging for "soul cakes". The more cakes they received the more prayers they would offer for the dead relatives of those who gave the cakes. These practices were encouraged by the church, but were based on superstition rather than the truth of the Bible.

Halloween is still a sacred day for those who practice the religion of Wicca. And it is still full of horror and evil. Consider the gruesome decorations around some homes and movies like "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Halloween", and "Friday the 13th." Movies like these are popular viewing fare at Halloween parties. But these movies are full of sadism, sexual violence, Satanism, torture, mutilation and bizarre murders. All of this causes people to become calloused to these behaviors. And many psychiatrists tell us that every year film violence and real-life violence continues to get worse.

So, back to my original question, should Christians celebrate Halloween? The holiday is difficult to escape. The Bible, in both the Old Testament and New Testament informs us to stay away from that which glorifies evil and sorcery. In Acts 13:6-11 the apostle Paul called Elymas, a sorcerer, a child of the devil. And in Acts 19:19 new converts to Christ burned all of their evil and magic paraphernalia.

Christians are to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). We are to walk in light and not in darkness (Ephesians 5:8-13).  If you decide to celebrate Halloween with your children find some way to remove as much of the devilish elements as you can. Gather together with other believers and host an event where there is wholesome fun. But most importantly teach your children the truth that our world is filled with goodness from God (Psalm 100:5) and evil from Satan (Ephesians 2:1-3). Teach them the truth that they can be saved from the evil that brings people to destruction (John 3:16). And that as Christians they have power over evil and darkness through Jesus Christ (1 John 4:4).