Halloween Debate Thread

[LoverOfChrist36]

On one hand, Halloween is rooted in the occult and started as a pagan festival once called samhain (pronounced sow-een)

On the other hand, one could argue that since it became all halows eve, the date has (for most people) become far removed from the evil it once was.

So what's the harm?
Should Christians celebrate halloween?
What say you about the topic in general?

Would love to know your thoughts.

 

[Lamb]

I'm a Christian and I celebrate Halloween. I like the fellowship of my neighborhood when it's trick-or-treat time!

 

[Stephen]

According to Wikipedia (not always the best source) "From the 4th century, feasts commemorating all Christian martyrs were held in various places on various dates near Easter and Pentecost. In the 9th century, some churches in the British Isles began holding the commemoration of all saints on 1 November, and in the 10th century this was extended to the whole Catholic church by Pope Gregory IV"

Some people claim the Church did things like that to "Christianise" a pagan festival but I think it was to give Christians an alternative to celebrating Samhain, to try and put the focus back on Christ

A few years ago in England one Catholic group tried to encourage Christians to put a candle in the windows to proclaim Jesus - light of the world.
A few times I went with a group around a few streets locally with lighted candles and singing hymns, and met up with some other local Christians. Again the idea was to put the focus on Christ and not on pagan rituals like dressing up children as witches.

 

[Albion]

On one hand, Halloween is rooted in the occult and started as a pagan festival once called samhain (pronounced sow-een)

On the other hand, one could argue that since it became all halows eve, the date has (for most people) become far removed from the evil it once was.

So what's the harm?
Should Christians celebrate halloween?
What say you about the topic in general?

Would love to know your thoughts.

It all depends on how one observes it--like some ancient pagan or like a Christian would. And it is a wondrous event for children, so what's good about depriving them of this innocent fun? Be sure what the events and costumes actually are, but then let them have the day.

 

[NewCreation435]

One of the holidays I like the least. as a diabetic it is difficult not to eat too much candy. I do like seeing the costumes some of the kids wear.
I think for most of us it is a harmless fun.

 

[Lamb]

One of the holidays I like the least. as a diabetic it is difficult not to eat too much candy. I do like seeing the costumes some of the kids wear.
I think for most of us it is a harmless fun.

Sometimes they give out coins at trick-or-treating I always loved getting dimes and quarters!

 

[LoverOfChrist36]

In doing some reseach on the topic I found some helpful articles on the topic on if Christian should celebrate Halloween or not.

Christianity.com - Should Christians Really Celebrate Halloween?
Gotquestions.org - Should Christians celebrate Halloween?
BibleInfo -What is Halloween and should Christians celebrate it?

 

[Andrew]

holidays based around solstices were just a form of outerskirt community vigilance and was only recognized as "pagan" (meaning outside the city/town) by in town citizens (the city dwellers) who turned them into satirical celebrations. I do believe that the Catholic Church intentionally re-adopted and redirected many pagan holiday traditions towards a Christian approach, to break generational pagan courses, however Halloween as we know it today seems to have been a 20th century transformation stemming from the observance of the dead to decorations unto dressing oneself up as that of a dead person..

Some SDA will claim that it comes from pagan tribalism who celebrate death by dressing up as the walking dead, Australian aborigines still do this with white powder as the ancients saw the dead as pale and upon seeing the white man they believed they were the walking dead, this ritual never made it to civilization until the past 500 years but the observance of the fall months have been known throughout history prior to the colonialism.

All in all, the fall has always represented the harvest season and death has always been symbolic of the reaper, it is what it is.. I personally don't care for Halloween but as a kid I was all about dressing up in costumes and filling up my bucket with candy.

 

[Stravinsk]

(snip)

All in all, the fall has always represented the harvest season and death has always been symbolic of the reaper, it is what it is.. I personally don't care for Halloween but as a kid I was all about dressing up in costumes and filling up my bucket with candy.

Where I grew up in the USA Halloween was a fun celebration peppered with warnings about razor blades in fruit/candy that gave it that extra fear element but always ended up (for me anyway) as a debaucherous sugar over-indulgence that ended in feeling sick afterward.

It's not widely celebrated in Australia, thought of more as an American holiday, not least because the seasons are reversed here and we are in Spring while the northern areas are in Autumn. I've seen more commercial outlets try to capitalize on it, but I don't know how successful that really is.

Christmas, on the other hand...is still celebrated (sleighs and all in some places) in the heat of summer with the winter trappings inherited from tradition attached (in decorations and the like) for many people.

I'm not a big fan of halloween primarily because I don't believe in the premise of some of the themes (ghosts, for example), and also because it is celebrated by groups of some Satanists who preform ritual killings at this time.

 

[Faith]

I'm a Christian and I celebrate Halloween. I like the fellowship of my neighborhood when it's trick-or-treat time!

Same here except most all the kids on my street have grown up. I love Halloween. It’s just a fun time.

 

[Josiah]

It all depends on how one observes it--like some ancient pagan or like a Christian would. And it is a wondrous event for children, so what's good about depriving them of this innocent fun? Be sure what the events and costumes actually are, but then let them have the day.

I largely agree.....

MY parents didn't allow it. They regarded the whole thing as negative. They DID have candy ready for kids who came to the door, but we kids were not allowed to do so (we were given candy).

My beloved;s parents allowed her.... insisting that it NOT be about sin or Satan or death but just a fun day. Costumes were just fun - not evil.

We're pretty much following in her custom. We realize the history here.... but also the evolution.


.

 

[Albion]

I largely agree.....

MY parents didn't allow it. They regarded the whole thing as negative. They DID have candy ready for kids who came to the door, but we kids were not allowed to do so (we were given candy).

My beloved;s parents allowed her.... insisting that it NOT be about sin or Satan or death but just a fun day. Costumes were just fun - not evil.

We're pretty much following in her custom. We realize the history here.... but also the evolution.


.

Good. I don't know why more Christians who have some degree of concern don't just take the route your wife's parents did.

And when it comes to younger children--the ones most interested in trick-or-treating and choosing a costume--most of them never would think of the day or the dressing-up as having anything to do with pre-Christian Pagan religions or Satan unless someone lectured them about it.

But you know how history has a funny way of evolving. Recently, fears of disease, predators, and such have given rise to those trick-or-trunk events and to parties instead of having the kids hit the streets. So, the connection to those Pagan or satanic origins, true or not, are getting fainter and fainter anyway.

 

[Pedrito]

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Seeing that Halloween, Easter and Christmas were all originally pagan festivals, shouldn’t there be a consistent perspective with respect to all three?

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[Albion]

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Seeing that Halloween, Easter and Christmas were all originally pagan festivals, shouldn’t there be a consistent perspective with respect to all three?

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Yes. Don't celebrate the pagan festivals, but do celebrate the Christian holidays of All Saints Eve, Pascha, and the Nativity of Our Lord--even if society has continued to use the older terminology for these days.

 

[Sharon]

In my opinion, Halloween is a great opportunity to be in community with believers and non-believers. It's a chance to spread the good word and interact with individuals you normally wouldn't engage with. I enjoy Halloween because it kicks of the part of the year where there is so much to celebrate - Thanksgiving and Christmas and ultimately New Year's.

 

[Pedrito]

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It’s already the second day of November where I live in Aussie Land.

So for me, Halloween has become Goodbyeween for yet another year.

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[Fritz Kobus]

My kids dressed up in costumes but never anything evil like a witch or devil. My pastor back then said no witches, because they are real, but ghosts are okay because they are not real. We decorated for halloween, but never with really evil-looking decorations, spiders, webbing, scarecrows, smiley pumpkins, oh and a skeleton on the front door and black light. We would hand out candy and little Bible verse booklets. The past two years we didn't do anything. I suppose we should have kept up the candy and Bible verse booklets though. Also we had been visiting a local historical village that put on Halloween nights for a few years in a row, but a lot of the stuff was rather creepy and we just didn't desire to do that anymore. Now, when I walk the dog and see houses with skeletons, coffins, tombstones, and other decorations, I just find it a bit creepy, and think, I would never want all that stuff in front of my house, let alone have to store it all year long. Don't want it in my house. I even got rid of my Edgar Allen Poe collection when I was born again (1984) and have no desire to read a lot of it any more, not that all his works were that bad, but in general it just seemed like a direction I should not have my mind going in as a new creation in Christ. I do still appreciate his poem, the Raven, though.

 

[tango]

When I lived in the suburbs of the big city it was always nice to see the kids coming to the door while one of the parents would stand on the street a few feet away making sure they were safe. They got to go door-to-door in their costumes collecting candy while an adult watched over them to protect them.

Now I live in the countryside so there aren't very many people coming that we don't expect. We usually let friends who have kids know what time we'll be available, so it's just a question of whether they show up with their kids or if their kids bring some friends.

 

[Tigger]

We only had 1 set of kids on Saturday night and 3 sets on Sunday. This was the lowest number we've ever had

 

[Faith]

Same here except most all the kids on my street have grown up. I love Halloween. It’s just a fun time

Kids from other streets in our neighborhood plus new families that moved onto our street made for a busy night, but we didn’t participate because we didn’t think there would be that many trick or treaters.
We went to our daughter and son in laws house mid afternoon to see our new grandson in his first Halloween costume.