What happened?
I blinked and the suburb filled with vampires!
Halloween is Not All Bad.
It is great to see local communities get out together and have a laugh. We all love a good costume. And if you give me a free lolly I’m your friend for life. I think our communities embrace of Halloween has a little to do with peer-pressure, a little desire for an early Christmas, and a big desire for common festivals in teh absence of….well, something like church. So Halloween is not all bad.
Halloween is Not All Good
Some of the community, however, find this all a little strange. Some little ones find it hard to laugh when they feel all afraid. Some costumes are almost too good and scare the pants off me too. I have worn a costume with a religious overtone that had Orthodox members of the suburb wanting to string me up from a light post. But mostly it’s just the darn pressure of working out how much to buy into it with your kids. There are a dozen things to object too and little energy to do it. So Halloween is not all good.
Halloween is Not All-American
One of the objections to Halloween is it is American. We like lots of American things - who doesn’t love a cheeseburger - but people are divided on this.
In truth, Halloween started as a Celtic pagan festival (‘Samhain’) which was held to ward off ghosts. This was the scared-at-spirits kind of thing that Christians always found sad, as Christians around the world always lose their fear of evil spirits. So a Pope had a good idea (it happens!) and in around 830AD declared the victory of Jesus over evil and death by starting All Hallows Eve and All Hallows Day. ‘Hallows’ are Christians – friends of God. When Christians remember that our much-loved friends who have died in Jesus are safe with Jesus, this is a big deal for us and helps us ‘not grieve like people who have no hope’ (1 Thessalonians 4:13). So people dressed up originally to scare off death and evil, but if Christians dress up they should do so to laugh at death!
So, Halloween is originally Celtic-pagan. Its’ name and transformation to a festival of light and love is full-Christian. America got in with some harvest overtones and added a pumpkin overlay. So there is no doubt that we are getting it imported from the U.S., but Halloween is not All-American.
Halloween and Jesus
It is an opportunity for Jesus’ news. Jesus had a way of showing up in confusion, not walking away. I think the news we can bring is to laugh at the vampire/mummy/rotting corpse. I wish we were all poking fun at death and darkness – because Jesus’ rising from the dead means we can laugh: ‘Death, where is your sting?’ (1 Cor 15:55) As an analogy - the only person who couldn’t laugh at death in Harry Potter was a guy with a Latin name called Voldemort (Volde = fear; Mort = death). He was so freaked out by death he was humourless and had to falsely prolong his life like a person on radical supplements. Christians just always have been best-prepared to cope with death.
So you might do a number of things with Halloween.
Lead your kids in not being consumers and be counter-cultural.
Lead your kids to be in the middle of community events and work out the Jesus opportunity.
Seize a time to hang out with friends. Times short for that, it seems.
Help run Light Night at church where we point out the light and life of Jesus in the middle of all dark and scary things.
I hope this might have helped you think meaningfully about Halloween. The good news is - we had more families from kids club and scripture classes at church last night than any time outside of Kids Club. By a mile. Thank all the little vampires. Praise God.