Ghosts and witches clutter the landscape, and I am confronted once again with the dilemma of What To Think about Halloween. Only this year, for about the first time, there is no easy cop-out.
We never celebrated Halloween when I was growing up, and the extent of the holiday consisted of all the post-Halloween candy we got on sale. I learned at an early age about the pagan origins of the date, and always accepted the fact that, because of its religious significance and strong association with satanic rituals, it was not an appropriate holiday for Christians to celebrate. Sometimes we’d participate in church-sponsored ‘harvest parties,’ but only if they were careful not to label themselves ‘Halloween alternatives’ and didn’t involve dressing up, because offering a mere alternative to evil was a form of imitation and showed a spirit of discontentment with not following the crowd. I was taught that it was a form of hypocrisy (straining at a gnat) to draw such fine lines as dressing up as long as you’re careful not to dress up as anything wicked (ghost, goblin, etc.) – after all, the whole point of dressing up was in remembrance of the disguises donned by druids.
I never regretted missing the whole trick-or-treat experience, and I never felt deprived or left out because everyone else got candy. So what? I got tons more candy the day after, and it was all good stuff, because my mom would buy it for us all!
There were glitches in the system, of course. I remember once, when I was probably six or seven, being asked by a friendly man in the elevator whether I was ready for the Great Jack-O-Lantern to come down that night and bring me candy, and replying very seriously that we didn’t believe in jack-o-lanterns. Hence a talk on the need for discretion and tact on the topic of Halloween, as on all other topics, and an admonition that it was not necessary to make other people feel bad about celebrating Halloween, especially since so many Christians did, as well.
Now we’re confronting the question of whether we’ll let our kids celebrate Halloween or not. I hadn’t ever given this issue much thought, since I’ve decided that, regardless of the validity of my parents’ concerns, it was certainly no hardship on me to miss out. I’ve tended to regard this as a kind of meat-offered-to-idols issue: it may not be actually wrong, but it certainly offends many people, and it doesn’t hurt to abstain.
However. Michael has very happy memories of going trick-or-treating as a kid, and remembers with fondness the whole excitement of dressing up, prospecting for candy, and sorting out the good stuff from the mediocre stuff. He went into raptures reminiscing about the whole experiences – ‘And there were always those little old ladies who’d make popcorn bars, and of course the neighborhood dentist would pass out toothbrushes instead of candy, and sometimes you’d score big and get a whole candy bar…’ He never picked up on any heathen overtones while trick-or-treating. Besides, he pointed out, Easter was originally a pagan holiday – yet I have no qualms about celebrating that. Christmas in December was originally a pagan holiday – yet we celebrate that. I countered by pointing out that these both were adopted by Christians for specific Christian events, and were thus completely transformed – we have nothing to celebrate about Halloween, and any attempt to ‘claim’ it now would just come across as a weak attempt to offer some lame alternative. Anyway, I told him, do we really want to teach our kids to panhandle candy from innocent homeowners? What kind of values system is that??
Regardless of the pagan origins of the day, it arguably has no religious significance now. I grant that. No one thinks of Satan worship when they send their little kiddies into the world to accumulate candy. So what should our attitude toward it be? I just don’t know. I haven’t done enough research into the pagan history of the day to know to what extent paganism permeates the holiday, and I don’t have enough information to decide how much that should affect our response to it anyway. And the next Halloween is staring me in the face, and I have no intention of going out and wasting money on candy just to hand it out to greedy little tykes who will promptly get cavities from it.
So, my friends, I pose the question to you. Did you grow up trick-or-treating? And do you plan to let your kids do it? Why or why not?
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7 comments:
We didn't not trick or treat though my parents let us dress up to greet trick-or-treaters and we would bob for apples. My interest only lasted about two years, however. My feelings on the holiday were solidified when I studied in London at a theological seminary. The Americans planned to celebrate and our English peers were horrified. It is seen as a demonic holiday and a Christian would never participate. We instead celebrated All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and dressed up as saints, celebrating the lives of Christians past, rather than the deeply-rooted holiday of the pagans. I intend to the same with my kids and I think??? my husband is in agreement.
I grew up either trick-or-treating OR going to church harvest parties. I often think it would be fun to dress my kids in cute costumes and go trick or treating. I loved doing this myself, as a kid. (I have "good memories" too, which of course doesn't justify anything.) But the more I think about it, the more uneasy I am about participating in a holidy that has Satanism at its roots. I think kids should be given a fun alternative. Our church celebrates Reformation Day. 10/31 is the anniversary of when Luther nailed his 95 thesis on Wittenberg gate and paved the way for the church to break free from snare of Catholicism. I think I'd want our family to celebrate Reformation Day instead. The only thing I'd miss would be 1) dressing up and 2) the candy. But we could always have costume parties later on in the year and, with me, a lack of available candy is usually not a big problem. ;-) So I don't think we'd be "missing" anything.
I didn't do much trick-or-treating because we lived a couple of miles out of town. By the time I turned eleven or twelve, the holiday had become Evil and we avoided it entirely. I certainly can see why, too. I really don't get the joy of decorating your yard with skeletons and gravestones. But, then again, I dislike Santa Claus, and the discussion is ongoing in our household as to whether he'll ever visit our kids; but I'm all into Christmas.
Like Michael, Darren celebrated Halloween for much of his growing-up years and has very fond memories. Since it's not a point of conviction on my part, we're taking the kids to a couple of houses this year because we know they'll love it. We've also handed out candy for the last two years, and had a blast seeing the kids from the neighborhood.
I am unethusiastic about Halloween alternatives. If you're going to commemorate the day, just do the real thing. How are Christians supposed to reclaim anything if they just pull out of it?
Besides, as an added justification, we do celebrate All Saint's Day on November 1st. :) -- SJ
When I was growing up, my parents always let us go trick-or-treating, and I can remember quite a few church Hallowe'en parties. It was rather a shock to me when I entered Christian school in 5th grade and found out that there were Christians who didn't celebrate it, and in fact thought I was wrong in doing so. (They also thought our family shouldn't read the Narnia books, though, so I never took their views on Hallowe'en too seriously.)
I don't think we'll make a big deal of it as the kids grow up. As Sara said, we'll take them to a few houses this year, and I always enjoy handing out candy, but we don't decorate for it (I think decorations for this holiday range from tacky to evil, with the majority being just plain aesthetically heinous).
But I'd take some issue with the comment, "we have nothing to celebrate about Halloween, and any attempt to ‘claim’ it now would just come across as a weak attempt to offer some lame alternative." I disagree. All Hallows Eve is as Christian as Christmas Eve; it's the vigil of the day when we remember the heroes of faith. To allow the pagans to take it back over is a abnegation of our responsibility to "redeem the time" and bring all things (including days) into subjection to Christ. Bring on the parties where we dress up as saints and remember Christ's atoning work on behalf of us sinners, I say!
--DJ
Of course, Darren. You're completely right. How could I forget Reformation Day? Too long have I been away from HSLDA's Communication department. And All Saints' Day! What was I thinking? Obviously I would have remembered if I had received an invitation to the Jones' Annual All Saints' Day party this year. =)
~Rose
This is a very timely discussion. My family lived out in the country and generally thought it was bad, but frankly it just wasn't an issue. Nobody came to our door, and we could ask Grandma for candy any day of the year. :-P DOB's family lived in a neighborhood when he was small and pulled the blinds and turned out the lights so that they would not participate in any way. He was assuming this was what we would do. Then I woke up this morning thinking, "We shouldn't just hide out when we have a chance to reach out to the kids in the neighborhood."
So we are reconsidering. I am inclined to DJ's point of view. Besides, I love dressing up.
But now DOB is wondering why I didn't think of this sooner. Tonight is "Beggar's Night" in our town, so if we want to do something I'll have to go to the grocery store this afternoon.
As for our kids celebrating it--I'm not sure I want them to have that much candy.
Here's an interesting link I found on the subject (if you really want to read up on it): http://www.new-life.net/halowen1.htm
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