How OR Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
Before I begin, I want to make it clear that this is NOT going to become a mean spirited type of discussion. We are all sisters in Christ and we should act accordingly. If ANYONE posts a mean come back or has the profound need to force others to believe what they believe to the point of arguing, their comments will be deleted and never again approved on this site. So play NICE!
OK…on to the discussion part…
Do you think Christians should celebrate Halloween? Why or Why not?
Also, if you do not actually celebrate Halloween, but DO participate in “alternative” fall festival type events, don’t you think that is also a form of celebrating?
I ask this, because we do not “celebrate” Halloween in and of itself. However, we do go to our church fall festival every year and dress up and participate in the activities there. The other day, I was thinking about it and I had a sort of epiphany…AM I CELEBRATING Halloween??? I think yes!
I would also like to know what other Moms of Faith think!
“I see Halloween as a day of celebrating being a kid, dressing up and having fun.”-Queen of the Click
I totally agree with you, Queen. Halloween, while it’s origins are pagan, is simply a fun day for everyone, that has nothing to do with trying to worship the dead or the devil. After reading the above posts, however, I also believe that we should not dress up or decorate as anything that appears evil. I honestly hadn’t thought of that before reading these posts.
I don’t see the harm in letting the kids dress up and take them to a Fall Festival at our Church or other local churches and get some goodies and enjoy playing games. We don’t go trick or treating mainly because it has become so unsafe that we would just prefer to stick with Churches that offer a fun alternative. We don’t decorate with any halloween stuff…I use fall looking stuff for October/November. So I guess we don’t celebrate Halloween but celebrate fall :-)
I grew up doing the Halloween thing as a child, but I didn’t know the origins, nor did I care. As an adult with children of my own and having since given my life to Christ, I take very seriously what the Bible says about everything. The origins of this holiday can be traced back to the Celts where they say there was a blurring between the worlds of the living and dead. My Bible clearly says there’s heaven and hell…no blur. I also take Deut. very seriously when it talks about witchcraft of any sort. Unfortunately, that is what the masses do ~ witches, ghosts, goblins, even mass murderers (in a “entertaining” way) like Michael Myers, Jason, etc. So as a family, we’ve chosen to not celebrate simply because of the basis of the holiday being created. We dress up all year long, just for fun, like cowboys, Indians, super heros, etc. We don’t limit that to one time a year, and my children have never had a problem with that, and in fact support the decision because they don’t feel comfortable with it either. We would never judge another family who would celebrate it. We all feel our lives call for a certain standard. We’re not ones to say ours is any better than anyone else or other others are wrong because it’s not what we believe.
I’m not a mom (I’m believing to be one day :-)) but I’m an educator (teach 2-5 year olds) and volunteer in the childrens ministry at my church. My church’s alternative, Hallelujah Night, is a big hit every year that the children really enjoy. This will be my first year participating as a volunteer so I get to see how it all plays out. It sounds like fun. There’s face painting, games and prizes and a skit that explains the origins of Halloween and why we celebrate Hallelujah Night instead.
As for me, as a child I didn’t celebrate Halloween often. My mom would ask me if I wanted to dress up and if I did she’d make me a costume. My birthday is 3 days shy of Halloween so there have been times when people have dressed up when they came to my bday parties but we never asked them to. I grew up in a Christian home (for the most part). My mom was very cautious about my celebration of Halloween but she’d let me go trick or treating with my neighborhood buddies and even our house gave out candy- we still do. This is a touchy topic. My cousin who is Christian as well has a COMPLETELY different outlook and wouldn’t dare let her daughter even think about dressing up. To me, I think it walks a thin line. I’m not particularly sure I’d let my kids celebrate Halloween and I’m torn between the Hallelujah alternatives. One great alternative that I’ve always loved, however, is something called Books Come Alive. It’s a Fall tradition that the elementary school I went has kept for years. Each year around Halloween teachers, faculty and staff dress up as different childrens book characters and they have a huge assembly where the principal and other staff members read their favorite books/stories! I absolutely LOVE books come alive and so do the kids. They get a kick out of seeing their teachers dress up and be silly. I think that’s a great way to dress up and have fun and create more wholesome memories without walking the lines of paganism and other worldly nonsense.
I personally think Halloween is satan’s way to luring Christians to celebrate. It is just fun, it is alright to enjoy it – just as he had tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. My family does not celebrate it at all, and I do not like the idea of Church having ‘truck or trick’ during this season too. Instead of focusing on Halloween, why not focus on Reformation Day, which is also on the 31st October. Here’s more information on Reformation Day : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation_Day