I grew up going "trick or treating". I loved it! The candy...the ghosts and goblins...getting scared...and so on. The more I got educated in a typical 1980s fundamentalist faith, I was exposed to the satanic cultish underpinnings of the holiday. I was, frankly, confused. My gut told me it was wrong, but my childhood memories were so positive. This became especially important when our children were born and Lauren and I tried to determine their participation. Fall festivals were options. Does "trick or treating" mean you have gone to the dark side?? We weren't sure.
One unexpected bonus to fleshing out the proper view on Halloween came in seminary. As the leaves turned in St. Louis in the fall of 2001, I sat back and waited to see what the seminary offered in place of the devil's night. Much to my surprise, the seminary encouraged on-campus trick or treating for the children!! In fact, our president's children participated! That was actually the last thing I thought would happen...and it caused me to ask a few questions. I was led to some interesting answers. I will never try to push a view on this controversy on anyone. What you decide for your children is your call. So, what I want to do is give you the background to make a good decision...and open the lines of discussion!
So...how did this holiday start? There are multiple streams of traditions that emerged over the centuries. There are hints of a Roman festival centuries ago. Probably the most prominent is a Celtic festival marking the transition of daylight and night (transition of summer to winter in terms of the sun's rotation). They believed that time allowed spirits to also emerge as the "darker half" of the year started. This Celtic festival started the tradition of carving turnips into funny or scary faces to scare off the spirits...yes, turnips! It was in America in the 1900s that pumpkins were used. They were easier to carve, obviously...but also a symbol of a good harvest.
The most prominent festival and celebration, though, is CHRISTIAN. The idea of trick or treating goes back to the 1500s practice of "souling" in Ireland and England (although there is evidence around that time in other areas of Europe), where the poor would door to door in advance of the CHRISTIAN holiday "All Saints Day." Dressing up in costumes were to impress or amuse the people they met going door to door...and to mock or fight off any evil spirits. This tradition came over to America and evolved into children becoming the focus only in the early to mid 1900s. Trick or treating, as we know it, is less than 100 years old!
The word "Halloween" is not an evil word. In fact, it is simply a contraction for "All Hallow's Eve". The word "hallow" means saint or holy. "All Saints Day" is still celebrated today every November 1. It is the celebration of the victory of the saints by their union with Christ! All Saints Day is a holiday that goes back over 1,000 years! It celebrates Scriptures like Ephesians 6 and Romans 16:20, where we are assured of our victory over Satan and evil spirits...as well as our own sin, by our union in Christ. All Saints Day works off the premise that although Jesus has finished HIS work, we are involved in the mop-up operations...battles are still ongoing.
Just as we truly begin celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve, the celebration for All Saints Day began on October 31 - All Hallow's Eve. Here was the concept - on October 31, the evil forces try one last time to achieve victory, but is defeated by the people of God. How do we win that victory? MOCKERY!! Satan's (and ours) greatest sin is pride. So, their method of attack was to ridicule him! Satan was portrayed as dressed up in a red suit with horns and a tail to MOCK HIM! They made evil look ridiculous. This is the ancient way of taunting. We have Jesus, yes we do, we have Jesus...how about you?
Ever wonder why Martin Luther picked October 31 to post his 95 theses to start the Reformation? It wasn't a coincidence! Halloween IS all about evil and demons...it is all about their DEFEAT! Centuries ago, children would dress up like ghosts and goblins and vampires to MOCK the spirits that might think they can defeat the forces of Christ. Halloween is about having NO FEAR of things that are scary. Psalm 2 says that the One enthroned in heaven laughs (at His enemies)...He mocks them.
We as believers often lament how Christmas and Easter have been taken from us and commercialized. We fight to redeem those holidays...but no one fights for Halloween! No holiday has been ripped from our calendar like Halloween. We as Christians avoid it. We call October 31 "Reformation Day" to honor Luther. What would Martin Luther think about that??I think he might start another Reformation! His note might say "what happened to Halloween?"
No comments:
Post a Comment