Last night in the little bit of blog surfing I did, I found a plethora of posts on Halloween.
Halloween as a sacred holiday honoring God. Not “Christianizing” it but claiming it already is Christian.
A number of bloggers questioned whether Christians should celebrate Halloween at all. Ooh! Just read Mama says…. take as well.
Families uncomfortable with the festivities, but seeing Halloween as an opportunity to connect with neighbors.
Families who would be taking part in fall festival activities in their church instead.
Families who plan to celebrate Reformation Day.
Unfortunately, I lost the post which most reflects my point of view so cannot give any proper credit. But it is summarized in the difference between biblical convictions and personal convictions.
Biblical convictions come directly from the bible. Personal convictions are (hopefully) derived from principles we glean from the bible. (Update: This is not the entry I was thinking of, but Demeter pointed me to another good entry making the same point, over at Where the Kudzu Grows.)
We do not celebrate Halloween, but I view it as a personal conviction born of our understanding of scripture. I think there can be danger in claiming absolutely that anything associated with Halloween is evil and that it has no place in a Christian home.
So where do you stand and why? Will your porch light be on this evening? Will you even be home? Or will you be out canvassing the best neighborhoods for candy?
[tags]Halloween, holidays[/tags]
Welcome to Roscommon Acres, my little home in the country. I write here about life more abundantly, from the joy of a baby’s smile to the almost unbearable grief of losing a son. I am seeking beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3).
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Great post!
I actually started a similar discussion on WritingThoughts before I saw this one.
We attend an alternative Fall Festival at our church this time of the year.
Today, we’re off to another local farm to gather more pumpkins, squash, corn, and other fall treats. This evening, we’ll attend a Harvest Party at church with two princesses, a Superman, and a Thomas the Tank Engine. It’ll be apple bobbing, cake walks, face painting, and other good fun.
We decided not to do Halloween this year because we have been dealing with some pretty intense spiritual battles this year. We just want to steer clear of all the faux occult stuff, even if it is meant “in fun”.
Interestingly, my 10-year-old is extremely offended by all gory Halloween decorations this year.
We are staying in and having a family movie night. I bought some candy and made small bags for each of them.
The only TV we have is a small one in our bedroom, so we are going to shut off the other lights and put a sign on the door that we have no candy. That way no one will interrupt our movie. (I think I’ll take down the sign that says our door bell is broken, too.)
I’m not opposed to giving other kids candy. We did last year. It really interferes with our movie, though.
I agree with you that this falls under the personal convictions. Great post!
I’m entering the discussion here (instead of at some of those links your provided) because of your reasonable approach. This seems to be a matter that Romans 14 applies to – a matter of conscience. I had a theology professor who had an interesting approach: he said that the only people who hate halloween more than Christians are witches. Why? Because it is a mockery of all things evil! We don’t let our kids even mess around with anything that is remotely close to evil (i.e. no witches, ghosts, scary murderers…etc.), but I remember that this is not a day to glorify evil. It’s a day to laugh at evil – and we (as Christians) are the only ones standing in a safe place where we can safely laugh at evil. Our God is bigger and stronger and better and He’s on our side. So, really we have nothing to fear.
Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but I will be handing out treats tonight. My kids are going trick-or-treating with friends, and I want a chance to meet neighbors in our new neighborhood. I think it would look and be really unfriendly for our house to be dark tonight. We’ll have a smiling jack-o-lantern and good candy. No scary stuff.
Jesus has conquered death and darkness, and we can celebrate that today for sure.
I agree with you that it’s a personal conviction thing, and that we should not bind another’s conscience with something that is not specifically spelled out in Scripture.
I bet you’re thinking of this post!
http://kudzugrows.blogspot.com/2007/10/biblical-conviction-vs-personal.html
Thank you, everyone, for your comments. Tonight is actually AWANAs so we will be at church for that, but the kids are dressing up. I even found a little suit for the baby. : )
Demeter, thank you. That wasn’t the one I read first, but it makes the same point. I’ll add it to the post.
Enjoy the festivities at your churches, Laura and Jennifer!
What movie are you guys watching, Charity?
Heather, I never really looked at Halloween like that. It is an interesting idea. But you are tight that we have nothing to fear from evil.
I know this isn’t exactly what is being discussed, but the whole discussion reminds me of this passage in Scripture:
1Co 8:7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
1Co 8:8 But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
There is nothing wrong with eating candy in and of itself. It is the degree to which it is connected to idolatry that is the issue. It may not be relevant, but in my mind it seems to be.
Anne, I definitely understand that stance. It is an opportunity to build relationships in the community.
Note to anyone handing out tracts tonight: Make sure you give decent candy, too! I remember what I thought of the people who only gave out tracts on Halloween.
We have never done Halloween as a family, but last year as a new pastor’s family in a new parish, we decided to take the hint from our parishioners who suggested that we would get a lot of trick-or-treaters and we might want to be prepared with some treats. So we tied some cards inviting children to our Sunday school onto about a hundred tootsie pops. We got ONE trick-or-treater. Turns out the city held a big do downtown and everyone trick-or-treated at the businesses on Main Street instead of around the neighborhoods! So this year, we’re keeping the light off and hiding out at home as usual.
Rebecca, I think that is about how it would be around here. There are not too many kids in this neighborhood and the few that are here generally either go down to the church or into town.
It is nice that you made the effort…I wish it had been more fruitful!
I started to make a H’ween post, myself yesterday. But my thoughts just weren’t clear.
Thank you for being clear on the difference between Biblical and personal convictions. We Christians have a way of beating one another over the head with our personal convictions and calling them commandments.
We have not done H’ween since 2000, when I became convicted that we should not participate. We don’t do any alternatives either. Nor do we receive trick or treaters. We’ve been in this house 7 years and have only ever had ONE. Poor kid, I felt bad…anyway.
Great post.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and for posting a comment!
To answer you questions, my family and I will be staying home this year, we haven’t been trick or treating in like 3 years. I made a post about it today on my blog, and I am in total agreement with you on this, we don’t celebrate the holiday anymore, but I would never question and/or judge another brother or sister in Christ for actually celebrating the holiday.
Our policy is that Halloween m just like any other holiday is a personal decision based on conscience. Sometimes the kids dress up, sometimes they tick or treat, and sometimes we have avoided it all together. This year we planned to let the kids sty home all dressed in non-threatening costumes and give out treats. After a while when no one showed and our entire neighborhood had their lights on I let them go from door to door and say hi–they like to give out chocolate chip cookies to all the neighbors. It ws nice this year–for the most part they were the only kids our elderly neighbors got.
We don’t “do” Halloween either. As always, everything we do around here has history connotations. So we remember Reformation Day and thank God for men like Martin Luther!
WOOOO!!! Happy Reformation Day, Dana! (Or, Reformation EVENING
).
God bless.
Well, it sounds like most of you have had a reflective evening, anyway! Everyone else is probably busy with their festivities. : )
Heather, I like that…go door to door and pass out candies!
Funny story: My brother really gets into Halloween. Last year, he put a bowl of candy outside the door with a sign that said “take one.”
Well, he had a video camera on it and someone sitting in the basement watching the monitor to see how much candy everyone took. When they took one, nothing happened. When they took more than one, the person watching the monitor radioed him and his other friends an they would run out of the ditch in their camouflage and with their air soft guns shouting, “You took more than one!”
We celebrate Halloween at our house, but I’d thought I’d mention a Jewish holiday with some of the same “accessories”: Purim.
Purim, to my time-challenged memory, occurs in spring. We dress up as characters from the Magillah (not in the Torah, but an adjunct book kind of sort of), eat sweet pastries, and make lots of noise. This holiday is celebrated in the synagogue with a interactive reading from the Magillah and at home with a meal & treats.
That is interesting, Rob. I was not familiar with that holiday. Thank you for sharing about it!
We’ve run the whole gamut from no celebrating at all to passing out candy to harvest fest to full blown trick or treating. I find it interesting that the years I’ve felt most fearful have been the years when I was shunning the holiday entirely. I guess for me, I fit best in the laugh at death setting. Also this year we did Boo bags, where we filled a couple bags with treats and a poem and secretly gifted them to neighbors. We had so much fun picking out the contents for one Japanese family that lives in our neighborhood. I’m hoping to do something similar to them for Thanksgiving and Christmas and have a chance to share something more joyous than just candy and toys.
That is an interesting observation. No matter where one stands on the issue, I think one thing is certain: Christians have no need of fear. The Prince of this world has no power and THAT battle has already been won!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts…and I just read about that secret candy gifting. I liked the idea a lot.