Repurposing "All Hallows Eve." (Halloween)

    For hundreds of years, Christians debated whether or not to celebrate Halloween. Halloween possesses well-documented pagan roots. It started out as the Celtic Festival, Samhain. It was believed to be the day when the dead could walk among the living. Thus, much was done on Samhain to appease evil spirits. It also consisted of bonfires and human sacrifices to false idols. From a Christian perspective, Halloween does not look suitable. God does not condone worshipping idols or murdering people. In fact, to do so violates two of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:3, 13). Consistent with the repurposing theme of our blog, the early Christians transformed the holiday. Instead of worshipping darkness, the early Christians proclaimed Jesus's victory over Satan. Instead of fearing the terrors of the night, the Christians declared God's victory over them all.
    According to Roman Catholic theology, "All Hallows Eve" was a day to pray for those souls who recently departed and were now in Purgatory. Halloween is the hallowed (holy) eve before All Saints Day. All Saints Day celebrates the lives of the great Christians before us. The idea of Purgatory is not found in the scriptures themselves, so there is no reason to hold on to this idea of praying for souls. However, the Roman Catholic celebration teaches us that prayer should occupy a central, not peripheral, role in the life of faith. Celebrating All Saints Day is a good and virtuous thing to do. Hebrews 12:1 teaches us that a Great Crowd of Witnesses is cheering us on in our walk with Jesus. Who is this Great Crowd? It is presumably the Christians who have gone on before us. Remembering their lives and their lessons encourages us to walk faithfully with Christ.  
    So then, what does one do with dark and scary costumes? I think the answer is to refuse to buy them. Christians today, just as the early church did, can decry Satan. Whenever we choose not to wear a scary costume, we communicate to Satan that we are consciously choosing to redeem the holiday. We're choosing to value light over darkness. All this being said, every Christian must be aware of the pagan roots of Halloween and consciously resist participating in them. For many Christians, this means not participating in Halloween at all. We should respect those who, in good conscience, cannot celebrate the holiday. For others, a genuinely Christian response severely restricts their participation in events and the choice of costumes. Whatever the case, the early Christian celebration of Halloween teaches us that keeping Jesus at the center of celebrations is critical. Similarly, we celebrate the faithfulness of those Christians before us because they chose to follow Jesus Christ.


Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Jane Shoemaker

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