Is there any such thing as a "Christian" Halloween?

Yes

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by Rose Calder

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When I was in the Marketplace on Farm Town the other night, I had an interesting chat with another farmer about Halloween. Some of the other farmers had been talking about needing to remember to take down all their Halloween decorations from their farms, and this gentlewoman piped up with the opinion that she would be glad when people started taking their decorations down, and that she wondered "what God would think" about people decorating their digital farms with pumpkins, ghosts, witches and the like.

This is a common enough discussion around this time of year, when the world seems to become swathed in orange and black, jack-o-lanterns glow from every porch and certain neighbors bedeck their yards with fake grave markers and skeletons. That's when you start to hear the righteous grumblings here and there about how evil Halloween is, how unchristian it is, and how God would not approve of such shenanigans. In short, the argument seems to be that it is impossible to be a good Christian and celebrate Halloween.

To an extent, I can understand why some feel the way they do. Really, I can. After all, Halloween has roots in the pagan holiday of Samhain, wherein the ancient Celts believed that the dead would return the land of living for one night. That is enough to give some people pause before buying candy for trick-or-treaters. But at the same time, it also has roots in the Christian holiday of All Hallows Eve, which is the night that precedes All Saints Day, so if you're going to make a point of tossing the baby out with the bathwater, you might as well admit that that baby is of Christian heritage as well. And even then, the current holiday that is celebrated by the majority is a secular affair, and has nothing to do with either pagan or Christian roots. If you're going to get bent out of shape over a secular holiday, we might as well get rid of Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Veteran's Day, as that those are entirely secular events. Also, I don't see nearly as much fuss put up about Easter, which is also a holiday hybrid of Christian and pagan beliefs and practices.

Really, it seems that the problem so many people have with Halloween is that it doesn't jive with their personal interpretation of faith because the holiday seems to overwhelming trivialize evil and the occult, and that is something that they feel a truly faithful person would not do. Which is a rather judgmental statement to make, because they are judging the level of faith in their neighbors. To say that a family that allows their children to go trick-or-treating or hands out candy is unchristian is to make a judgment call that only God can make, which He will do in his own good time without any help from the peanut gallery.

Besides, it's not as if there aren't alternatives to hiding out in your home on Halloween night, ducking out of sight of trick-or-treaters. Many churches host what is called a "lock-in", whereupon children and adults of the church basically have a sleepover in the church, complete with food, movies and music. Other churches focus more on the saint aspect of the holiday, holding a festival of saints in the church, where children can dress up, play games and receive candy instead of trick-or-treating. So yes, for those who feel that Halloween is more evil than good, there are avenues they can take to celebrating something more in tune with their particular interpretation of Christianity, but again, just because someone celebrates Halloween doesn't make them unchristian. It just makes them a different kind from you, which is up to God to decide as to whether or not that is an unforgivable sin.

In closing, Halloween is what you make of it. If you feel that it is innocent fun that is in no way at odds with your Christian faith, then by all means celebrate it as you wish. If not, then find an alternative that better suits your beliefs. But don't tell me it's impossible to be Christian and participate on Halloween, because I don't agree with that in the slightest. To say that is to create a false dichotomy, and to wield personal interpretation of faith as a means of self-righteousness and judge others. Which, last I checked, was far more unchristian than a hollowed-out gourd with face carved in it.

Learn more about this author, Rose Calder.
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