Halloween: Trick or Treat?
October 6th, 2006 by Dan
Where did it come from?
Many of our Halloween customs have pagan origins, but the word “Halloween” is a contracted form of “Holy Evening”, and is Christian in origin. As they did with Christmas and Easter, early Christians provided a rival holiday to counter the pagan holiday. No one remembers Samhain anymore, but some of the pagan traditions continue, such as dressing up as ghosts and vampires, asking for treats and carving pumpkins. Note that early Christians did not Christianize a pagan festival, as is commonly and mistakenly claimed. Let me repeat this important point: Christians created NEW holidays, they did not “Christianize” the old pagan holidays. Ignorant neo-pagans and secularists with agendas claim falsely that Christians “stole” holidays from the pagans in-between burning witches and proclaiming the flat earth. Pagan traditions have crept into Christian holidays, not the other way around!
What should Christians do?
Should Christians celebrate Halloween? If so, to what extent? Hank says we should sieze the opportunity to share the Gospel. CARM has an excellent Biblical explanation. Despite getting it wrong about Halloween’s pagan origins, I like CARM’s recommendation not to trick-or-treat if it causes your neighbor to stumble. Here’s STR’s take.
We should approach Halloween, which is now full of non-Christian rituals, similarly to the way the early Christians did. We need to present an alternative. Go trick-or-treating, but dress up as a Biblical character or a chili pepper. Hand out Bible tracts with your candy. Tell your kids about All Saint’s Day. Go to a harvest celebration at a church instead of a haunted house. Inform yourself with the history of the holiday. People like to hear about stuff like this. We can reclaim the Christian origins of Halloween.
If you have no problem watching scary movies and carving pumpkins, go ahead and do it. We can still set the Christian origins apart from these rituals. If the pagan customs cause problems for your neighbors, find other alternatives.
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Ignorant neo-pagans and secularists with agendas claim falsely that Christians “stole” holidays from the pagans in-between burning witches and proclaiming the flat earth. Pagan traditions have crept into Christian holidays, not the other way around!It is funny, because it is true. This is the perception.
I also like the advice you give us for approaching Halloween. Very nice!
So what's All Saints Day about? The American version would be Memorial Day, or Veterans Day, except that Veterans Day honors the living and the dead. It's a day to remember those holy Christians who have gone before us. To remember their witness. Maybe remember how they handled similar situations to what we're going through.
The "Eve" part, is that we often start celebrating important things the evening before. We got that from our Jewish ancestry (Jesus was a Jew, as were the first Christians, Remember??)
The Trick-or-Treating came from door-to-door collections for and/or by the poor. While you're getting ready to remember how holy and generous Grandma was, It's kind of hard not to give a few pennies to a poor beggar at your door. It also has roots in a Jewish Holiday, Purim, where the essentially do the same thing.
Costumes... The "traditional" costume would be a saint. One you were named after, or maybe one who you wanted to emulate. If they had been martyred, you'd dress up like how they were killed. Heart cut out? You'd carry a bloody heart. Stephen, the first recorded martyr? You'd be black & blue, maybe carrying a stone, and reciting one of the longest speeches in the bible.
So, what's a Christian to do?? If you believe your scriptures, then remember the cloud of witnesses. Remember the holy ones before you. In your family, and friends, or from hundreds of years ago. Dress up like one of them. Have your kids dress up like one of them, and tell their story. Go Trick or Treating... Then take most of the loot to a local shelter. Do you kids really need all that extra sugar?
Now, if you've stripped all of church history away and are left with only your interpretation (KJV only please. If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!) Well, you're on your own. Do as you please. But you already were then anyway, weren't you??
1. If you don't like my explanation for the Halloween contraction, I suggest you read and respond to the Bob and Gretchen Passantino article I referenced. It gives the "Holy Evening" explanation as well as some background on All Saint's Day, which I clearly reference in my article. Please provide sources for your claims to the contrary. I would love to see them!
2. Please cite Scripture references supporting your view that "If you believe your scriptures, then remember the cloud of witnesses". You indicate the Scripture supports such behavior.
3. Take the candy to a local shelter? Are you saying we should give the candy our children shouldn't be eating to the homeless?
4. I already gave the idea of dressing up as a Biblical character in my original piece, but thanks for reinforcing what I already stated.
5. "Now, if you've stripped all of church history away and are left with only your interpretation (KJV only please. If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!) Well, you're on your own. Do as you please. But you already were then anyway, weren't you??"
I have no idea what the above means. Please elaborate.
Again, thanks for the comments. It's great to see the Christian love and kindness in your remarks.
Awaiting your response,
Dan
one year later and still awaiting your reply. You must really be thinking hard about those answers!
The problem many of us have with the alternative is that it is another invented holy day that the Lord has not given us. We believe that there are only 52 holy days a year, i.e. the Lord's day, the first day of the week. All other days are creations of man and should not be celebrated... OK, should I mention that those of us who believe this way are a very small minority, as if you haven't guessed it.
Since this is the case, inventing another day to celebrate is wrong,f or us. So what are we to do? We see both traditions, the evil and church created day, as wrong. Therefore we seek to educate and say no! But alas, we are a minority for a reason b/c little Johnny looks just so cute in the costume... :)
Blessings
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