I came from a family of Halloween fanatics. We were always the hide-in-the-coffin, giant chocolate bar, creepy music piping from the window house. I waited each year impatiently for the huge and ever-growing box of masks and costumes to come down from the attic. Pumpkin carving was almost an Olympic event. It came as more than a shock to me some time in my childhood to realize that some people DIDN’T CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN AT ALL. My own future husband was one of those mysterious “nothing but the Holy Ghost” people.
At first I thought this was nonsense- an unnecessary overreaction. Why deprive yourself of harmless fun and one of the few opportunities in life to be genuinely creative and crazy? Then, over the years, I started to look more critically at the whole holiday.
I realized that I (and my family) had always instinctively avoided certain costumes, masks, and decorations. While I might have had fun dressed as a sunflower, a bat, a nun, and one ill-fated jaunt as Fidel Castro- I never would have chosen (or been allowed to choose) one of the many masks featuring disfigured, demonic, or gory motifs. Likewise, “creepy” clothing that would be more at home in a strip club was off the table. Those things have a decidedly different feeling to dancing skeletons or little girls in pointy striped hats. It’s hard to quantify what tips something over the edge from silly or creepy to evil, but my husband used Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous words to describe it: “I know it when I see it.”
Though bothered for years by these darker elements, the first time I genuinely questioned the holiday on a deeper level was the year my father died. Months after he passed- while coping with the harshest possible realities of physical death- I drove past yard after yard covered in gravestones that were cheap facsimiles of the one I was visiting in real life. Some even featured decomposing body parts reaching out of the grave. At that time in my life, it seemed truly insane that people were reveling happily in death and dying. WHY were they doing that, anyway?
I think there are so many reasons. One of the deeper ones to unpack is the idea that death is deeply terrifying to us all on a very human level. Halloween is an opportunity to laugh in the face of death for some. It’s a chance to cope with those ideas and make light of them. In a way, it’s a chance to gain mastery of death.
For others, it is just a chance to let loose and have fun. We can be someone or something different for a day. We can ingest copious quantities of candy with (almost) no guilt. We can be sillier, or prettier, or scarier than we would be in a normal setting.
For yet others, it really is an opportunity to tap into something darker- more demonic. It’s an occasion to dress as a serial killer and truly embrace the feeling of being something evil. It might actually be an opening for a dark ritual. Less seriously- but still of concern to a Christian- it might be a chance to inspire lust with an outfit we’d never wear in the light of day.
So what should a Christian do about a holiday that easily steps over the line from playful to evil? Should kids even trick-or-treat when some of the yards they walk down will embrace the darker themes and some of the kids they pass will have masks with bloody screws or gaping eye holes? What if your daughter just wants to be a princess or your son just wants to be Spiderman?
I think for Christians, much of this is a matter of conscience. My own conscience has changed over the years. I’ve rested at a place where I feel we can participate, but CAREFULLY. After watching a group of little kids stare wide-eyed at the Halloween store as their father laughed and inspected a ghostly animatronic that appeared to suck the soul out of a little girl (complete with real smoke), I said to myself, “Nope. WAY too far.”
I decided that for the time being, my little one wasn’t going in that Halloween store, even though I think it’s mostly a lot of fun. For me, there are other places he can have a bit of Halloween fun without his three-year-old mind ingesting zombies with saws for arms or soul-sucking demons. When he’s much older and wiser and has his own metric for evaluating good and evil, that might be different. After all, I went in the store, and I can tell the difference between a fun accessory and an evil one. Many kids can’t, and their parents are their moral and spiritual guides.
For me, pumpkin carving is ok. I don’t see anything wrong with a creative jack-o-lantern. We had a great time picking *perfectly* shaped pumpkins for our masterpieces this year. We’ve carved everything from stuff-able pumpkin ballot boxes (in an election year) to Mario and Luigi. It’s just pure fun.
For us, trick-or-treating is on the menu, too, but our little guy will be dressed as a policeman instead of a ghoul or demon. We’ll also be dressed up- but as robbers to go with his policeman- not as sexy cats or demonic creatures.
I’ll give out candy (only the best, of course) and decorate the front of the house- but the decorations will be fun (glowing yard flamingos) instead of evil.
I recognize that for other Christians, the whole thing is a “no,” and I respect that more than I ever have. Even with care, the holiday is tricky. Not only will the little ones certainly come in contact with some questionable elements no matter how hard you try to keep it light, but if you’re not careful you can give the appearance to non-believers that you revel in the darkness. Make sure that’s not a possibility.
No matter what you choose- do it prayerfully. Think carefully about costumes and decorations. It is indeed a burden to be a Christian. Nothing can be done as lightly. We have to give some things up because we’re concerned about something greater and less temporal. For some that will mean abandoning this holiday entirely, and for others it will mean being thoughtful about it on many levels. I’m more thoughtful about it than I ever was before, and I’m always evaluating year by year. I encourage you to do the same. Whatever you choose- enjoy your October 31st, and remember that as Christians we believe that death has been conquered- by Someone greater than us!
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Phillipians 4:8
Here are a couple of videos that I found really useful in sifting through the intricacies of this topic:
Mike Winger’s take on 7 Things to Consider for Halloween:
Allen Parr’s thoughts on whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween:
About the Author
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Jackie Chea is a blogger from San Antonio, Texas who holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Community Counseling from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She writes on political and cultural issues from a conservative, religious standpoint. She lives in the Lone Star State with her husband Nick, her 5-year-old son Lincoln, and her rescue dogs. |
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