Redeeming Halloween

 

Well, it's that time of year again.  The air is crisp, the trees have begun to display brilliant colors and pumpkins seem to be popping up everywhere.  And this change of season kicks off the fun holiday season beginning with Halloween at the end of the month.  Did you know that Halloween also known as All Hallows Eve or "the eve of the holy ones" was once a religious day of observance.  Yes, that's right!  It was once suppose to honor those Christian martyrs of the early church who died for the faith.  It also happens to be the same date in history that Martin Luther (founder of the Lutheran church) posted his 95 theses to a church door in Germany (October 31, 1517) as a desparate cry to bring the church back to its original foundation.  Both of these facts are admirable and positive.  However, nowadays, Halloween seems nothing more than a secular celebration which incorporates less than godly images.  I must admit, up until recently, I fully embraced all of Halloween's ghoulish aspects and loved a good scare.  I never shied away from celebrating this spooky holiday full throttle with gravestones, scary music, witches, ghosts and of course, loads of candy.  My own family even dubbed me "The Queen of Halloween", but this year, I have decided to retire my title for a much more subdued celebration.  So what changed you ask?

 

Well there are a couple things.  For starters I became a mom and last year when I purchased the above pictured zombie at Walmart and brought it home, I was startled by my daughters reaction.  She was only 9 months of age and had never once showed feared until this monster began to rise and moan.  I could see the fear in her eyes and couldn't bear seeing the tears that started to well up in her eyes.  Needless to say, the zombie had to go.  The second major change involved my intimate journey I began with Christ this year.  I began to reflect and pray a lot about which direction I should be taking with many things in my life including Halloween.  I know that it may seem trivial to many who were raised in Christian homes, but for me, it was not.  Halloween was, not too long ago, my absolute favorite holiday. I am actually embarrassed to say that in my book, it even outranked Christmas.  So, I have gone through some major growing pains this past year with regards to celebrating this holiday.  I am proud to say, that I have since gotten rid of about $100 worth of scary decorations and have replaced it with some friendlier festive flare like this.

 

 

 

As mentioned in previous posts, I come from a family where faith was saved mainly for mass on Sundays or in the classroom at Catholic school.  We had strong religious traditions, but faith in God was not something that was regularly practiced or preached at home.  We celebrated all holidays with a combination of religious tradition and fun secular customs.   This is a stark contrast to the way my husband was raised with a strong focus on a personal relationship with Jesus and biblical teaching.  For goodness sake!  As a child, my husband lived two years in Israel with his family so that they could further achieve a deeper connection with Christ in the Holy Land.  Needless to say, they do not celebrate Halloween.  So you see, I have recently caught myself somewhere in between these two very different takes on the holiday.  So my husband and I have been praying lately about which direction we will take our own family now.  I'm left with the question:  Is there any way to seek some type of compromise without compromising our faith?  And interestingly enough, through some biblical research and  prayer, the answer for us is YES.  We have found a way that works for us.

 

I want to make it clear that this post is not an appeal to those who celebrate Halloween and all of its secular traditions to stop.  Nor is it an attempt to change the minds of those who dislike Halloween and all of its evil images to embrace the holiday.  This post is meant to help those, like myself, who have struggled with how to celebrate the holiday without compromising their faith.  In my recent quest to find answers to my questions, I came across this book and recently finished reading it.  It is called, Redeeming Halloween - Celebrating Without Selling Out by Kim Wier & Pam McCune.  Kim has a weekly Christian newspaper column and Pam has served as a missionary as well as working for Campus Crusade for Christ.  Both ladies come from strong Christian backgrounds.

 

This book helped me obtain a better understanding of how Halloween came to be, its relationship to other Christian Holidays and ways to acknowledge the holiday and even participate in some of its customs without feeling guilty.  If you feel confused about whether or not to partake in some of the traditional aspects of Halloween or to avoid the holiday all together, like many Christians do, this book is for you.  In the end, you may come to a completely different conclusion than I did, but either way, it is worth reading if Halloween is a gray area for you like it is for many of us.  Only you and your husband will know which direction you will want to follow and what works for your own family, but this book may lend some insight to the origins of Halloween and shed some new light on how or if you will chose to celebrate it.  I also encourage you to pray about it as well to gain further insight. 

 

While the Bible does specifically address topics such as sorcery and witchcraft (Exodus 22:18, Acts 8:9-24) it doesn't spell out how to approach topics such as dressing up like a princess or cowboy and trick-or-treating.  For now, I will end this post by referring you to Romans 14 which discusses issues that fall into a gray area.  Just remember to pray, pray, pray!  

 

Romans 14:22 -  ^"So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God."