I’ve been around church long enough to hear the claims that Halloween is evil. When I was little I would’ve never guessed this: I dressed up as C3PO, got a few scares, and a pillowcase full of candy. Since being around churches for the last fifteen years I’ve seen Halloween celebrations turned into Harvest Festivals. We still dress up, still give candy, but weed out all the ugly stuff. We don’t let our children dress up as witches and demons – that is probably good advice for three-year-olds. I don’t really want my toddler having nightmares from those sights. But according to the article below, it might not be a horrible idea for us and older kids to march around as red devils.
It’s not that I think we should all be devils on Sunday, but the thoughts are certainly interesting, especially when much of subculture Christianity communicates Halloween as nothing redemptive. Make the jump and give it a read – The Truth of Halloween.
Here’s a teaser quote from the article:
“The concept, as dramatized in Christian custom, is quite simple: On October 31, the demonic realm tries one last time to achieve victory, but is banished by the joy of the Kingdom. What is the means by which the demonic realm is vanquished? In a word: mockery. Satan’s great sin (and our great sin) is pride. Thus, to drive Satan from us we ridicule him. This is why the custom arose of portraying Satan in a ridiculous red suit with horns and a tail. Nobody thinks the devil really looks like this; the Bible teaches that he is the fallen Arch-Cherub. Rather, the idea is to ridicule him because he has lost the battle with Jesus and he no longer has power over us.”
A Great discussion on this topic over at Internet Monk.
I was not allowed to dress up as anything evil or negative when I was a kid. I completely agree with that concept. I see dresing up as something or someone is more of a celebration of that person or thing. Perhaps the original idea was mockery but like a lot of original ideas I think it has been misconstrued.
I don’t believe Halloween is evil, no problem with celebrating, but our culture has taken the whole death thing a bit far- just look at the decorations around you. Philippians 4:8
one could pose the argument: Isn’t the greatest form of flattery, imitation?