Christians, Let’s Take Back Halloween and Own It!
The question comes up every autumn. Should Christians celebrate Halloween? Our family, like many of our friends, has been thoughtful about how to approach the day without glorifying evil. When I taught speech classes at a Christian university, students often chose the subject of Halloween for their persuasive speeches. Some claimed it had pagan origins. Others claimed it was a Satanist’s holiday and that participating in any festivities opened the door for demons. Still others claimed that is was just a way to have some fun as long as you didn’t practice anything occultish.
Well, it turns out they were all wrong. The truth is that Halloween is a Christian holiday
The Myth of its Pagan Origins
“The belief that Halloween is pagan in origin is a myth. Many neo-pagan websites claim that it was an attempt by early Christians to “baptize” the Gaelic harvest festival of Samhain. Because of this persistent myth, some Christians are hesitant to participate in anything associated with Halloween.”- Halloween or Samhain, Catholic Answers
Halloween began as a Christian celebration but it has been hijacked by neopagans who have misrepresented the history and corrupted and obscured the true celebration of Christ as victor over death. Its has also been misrepresented by numerous Christian sources. (The video below documents many of those sources). The result is that many Christians have become fearful of something that they should own. Its time to take Halloween back and own it.
Storming the Gates of Hell: Don’t Hand Over Halloween
Words mean things.
Halloween means “All Hallows Eve” or “All Saints Eve”. Taylor Marshall asks if Halloween ” has been corrupted by our culture and consumer market? You bet. However, Christmas has also been derailed by the culture. Does that mean that we’re going hand over Christmas? No way! Same goes for Halloween. The Church does not surrender what rightfully belongs to her – she wins it back! Hell is on defense since Jesus Christ came. It’s the “gates of hell.” Gates are defensive. We are supposed to be storming the gates of hell.” –Is Halloween the Devil’s Day? Catholic Perspective from Dr Taylor
Christian Alternative to a Christian Holiday? Huh?
Our family has attended several Harvest Festivals, Fall Festivals, and Reformation Day parties that were thrown to avoid the “evil” of Halloween. (Ok, the Reformation day parties were also to celebrate Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses of local abuses {that the church was already working to correct}, but that’s a post for another day). The point is that the parties are all Christian alternatives to participation in Halloween activities. Wait. That makes them a Christian alternative to a Christian holiday? That’s illogical. Taylor Marshall calls it like it is when he says,”That’s like saying, “commercialism has destroyed Christmas, so let’s instead celebrate a “Winter” Festival” on Dec 25. It’s All Hallows Eve. Don’t change the name.” –Top 10 Christian Halloween Ideas by Dr. Taylor Marshall
Many Christians have lost sight of the spiritual meaning of art forms that depict dark things like gargoyles. Gargoyles aren’t intended to celebrate evil! They are intended to remind people that Christ overcame death and evil and that He keeps evil outside his church. One of the purposes of Catholic Church for the construction of gargoyles was to represent the Pagan converts who were generally illiterate. The gargoyle would serve as a warning to the people and a reminder of evil and destruction”.-Medieval Chronicles
So, gargoyles served a similar purpose as stained glass artwork-religious instruction. Stained glass art was used to illustrate the faith for people who couldn’t read. The artistry is beautiful, but more than that, it is a tangible, visible expression of truth. Gargoyles reminded people of evil and their need for God.
Did you know that skulls in religious art signify that Christ, the second Adam, conquered death that the first Adam brought to mankind? They are a reminder that from dust we came and to dust we will return. That our focus should be heavenward and eternal. The painted skulls used in celebrating the Day of The Dead isn’t to celebrate death or evil. They are to remind us that we came to dust and to dust we will return.
Bishop David Konderla notes that our popular culture distorts the devotional meaning behind the visible symbols of death and reminds us that we want to be intentional in avoiding things that are contrary to our faith:
“In contrast to popular culture's observance of Halloween, even the customary appeal to the "frightful" has a devotional meaning in the Catholic tradition. Props such as skulls and scythes have historically recalled our mortality, reminding us to be holy because we are destined for judgment (Heb 9:27, Rev. 14:15). Visible symbols of death thus represent a reminder of the last things---death, judgment, Heaven, and hell (CCC 1020-65). While the "Gothic" aspect of Halloween reminds us of Christian teaching about the resurrection of the dead, our culture often represents this in a distorted manner, for when the dead are raised they will in truth be "clothed with incorruptibility" (1 Cor 15:50-54). Separated from Catholic teaching, grim or ghoulish or "Gothic" costumes can furthermore be mistaken as a celebration or veneration of evil or of death itself, contradicting the full and authentic meaning of Halloween. For the Christian, Christ has conquered death, as has been prophesied and fulfilled, "Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55; cf. Hos 13:14). Christ has conquered death by his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, the Paschal Mystery whose graces are evident in the glory of all saints.
We also want to intentionally avoid those things that are contrary to our Catholic faith but have become popularized through the secular adaptation of Halloween. Turning to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we want to refrain from glamourizing or celebrating anything involving superstition, witches, witchcraft, sorcery, divinations, magic, and the occult (cf. CCC 2210-2117). We want to be good models of Christian virtue for those we serve and make clear distinctions between that which is good and that which is evil”.
This video explains that and so much more like the true meaning of Halloween, where they myths and legends about Halloween originate from and how we can take back Halloween and celebrate it for what it is: a reminder that death has lost its sting through our Lord Jesus Christ.