by Rebecca Hurt

Created on: February 01, 2008

When I was young my family, as Christians, never celebrated Halloween. For that matter, we still don't celebrate Halloween, but it was only when I was very young that I ever thought about it. When I was young I wanted Halloween. I mean, what child wouldn't? Getting to run around all done up as a princess while people gave you loads of free candy? Sounds like fun to me. But as a child I couldn't fully see why my parents had wisely decided to not celebrate Halloween. It wasn't that they had a problem with princess dresses and free candy, but with the general celebration of evil that has become the trademark of Halloween.

Yes, you know it must be that time of year again when in September(commercialism never ceases to amaze me) littered through grocery stores and malls, the Halloween paraphernalia comes out. Everything turns black and orange, skeletons, ghosts, witches, graves stones, all things dark spring up everywhere. When did we decided it was normal to rejoice so much in the dark and evil?

Now I know that Halloween is an old tradition. It was originally a pagan holiday when supposedly the dead came back to reek havoc. That is until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved All Saints Day to the day after, thereby Christianizing the day. The night became All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day, a veneration of dead saints. But now it seems that we have reverberated to the pagan roots of the day, not just remembering dead saints, but anything dead or deathly that can be thought of. As I have grown older I can see more clearly why we didn't go trick-or-treating, indeed a harmless activity, but when you really think about what is being represented it is easy to see why as Christians we avoid it.

On a similar note, we have changed the time of year for our family. At the end of October I no longer get creeped out by the general creepiness as I did when I was little. In fact, I hardly think about it. In my mind October 31st is Reformation Day, the day Martin Luther(my hero) bravely nailed his 95 Theses to the church door. Our church has a celebration to correspond and we also celebrate All Saints Day with games, a picnic, pie contest and even a sponsored 5K race.

As Christians we should be leading the culture, not let the culture lead us. We can do this by doing something fuller and richer than dressing up as goblins and throwing eggs through people's windows.

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