What I remember most about Halloween was dressing up in costumes to go out trick-or-treating. It was a rather harmless endeavor for us, going door to door in our quiet, suburban neighborhood, saying our line and getting candy. That was it. As for costumes, we dressed up as just about anything. One year, I did not want to go trick-or-treating with the rest of the kids, but my parents made me go anyway. So, partly out of protest, I did not dress up at all. I went door to door as myself. Another memorable costume was my sister’s infamous box. She cut one hole out of each side of a large box for her arms and a bigger hole out of the top for her head. The bottom was removed completely for her feet to be relatively free. The only reason I remember that costume is because she fell down on our porch before we left the house and could not get herself up. Brothers seem to remember those moments. We never got into spirits and demons and such things as that except for a grade school teacher or two who thought it was great fun to dress up as witches and read a scary story to the class one day every year.
And, for the most part, I do not think children of any time consider the rhymes, reasons, or traditions involved in Halloween. They just want to dress up like everybody else and get sweet treats. Children do not stop to consider the history of Halloween and its associations with many pagan traditions, including the Celtic festival of Samhain. They do not realize that scary outfits were worn to scare away wicked demons. They never give a thought to the ancient traditions of going door to door seeking dietary payments in exchange for prayers for the dead. They have no idea that jack-o-lanterns have demonic origins. They would be surprised to find out that bon-fires are named after the “bone fires” of the reformation when religious dissidents were burned at the stake. They are ignorant of the obvious and blatant celebrations of death portrayed by the images of skeletons, spiders, bats, ghosts, and witches. Kids don’t know or care about any of that. They just want to dress up and get sweets.
We might be tempted to say, “what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” But exactly the opposite is happening. What they don’t know is leading them astray. The ritualistic practices of Halloween, including the fun costumes and sweet candy, are leading children ignorantly away from God. There is a trend in our culture to go back to the dark roots of Halloween. The more kids participate in Halloween, the more they fall right in line with culture. As neighborhoods become more like graveyards every year, portraying death at nearly every doorstep, make it a point to explain the truth to your children. Halloween is a holiday rooted in evil and death. Jesus is the God of love and life.
“…You shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD…” Deuteronomy 18:9-12
“In the beginning was the Word…In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1,4