Everytime October rolls around, the church’s age-old dispute over Halloween begins all over again. Christians everywhere step up to the microphone and take to arguing back and forth about whether or not they should be participating in the activities. One group reminds everyone of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, and the evil origins of carvings, costumes and candy. The other group tries to point to Halloween’s more Christian roots and the transformation of Samhain to All Saints Day and All Souls Day, to All Hallows Eve and eventually to Hallowe'en.
Every year October 31st passes and November 1st arrives and nothing really changes, except that one group has a little more sugar in their blood and both groups are a little more annoyed and even angry at the other.
Now here’s the thing. At the end of the day I think that there is validity to both arguments. Both groups are right. Halloween probably does have pagan roots and ties to Samhain, and it also probably can be traced back to All Hallows Eve. That being said, I think the issue of participating in it or not is a little more complex than either of these arguments make it. I don’t think it is as simple as calling Halloween an evil holiday and throwing it all out, or calling it a Christian or even neutral holiday and taking it all in.
Forget about the pagan and/or Christians roots for a second and think about Halloween from some other angles. What about the commercial aspect of Halloween and the fact that its revenue in America is second only to Christmas? What about the imaginative part of it that reeks of people wanting to escape the weariness and boringness of life and find some sense of adventure? What about Halloween’s obvious emergence out of an anxiety that people felt or feel between summer and winter, between life and death? Or what about the focus of many communities to make Halloween “a safe day for our children” in response to the vandalism that has so often overtaken it?
There is so much more to this single October evening than we often realize, both good and bad. There are evil roots and beautiful roots. There is violence and vandalism. There are smiles and laughter. There are opportunities to be salt and light and opportunities to be consumed by the darkness. It is a complex day, and the decision to participate or not is a complex one. So complex that I do not believe the church will ever be totally agreed on it. And frankly I think that is OK. God has allowed us the freedom to think biblically about complex cultural issues and to not always completely agree on them.
In fact, I would say that agreeing about Halloween is not what matters most. Here is what I think matters most when it comes to using discernment on complicated and divisive matters like this one: Having grace for your fellow believer.
No matter how we interpret and engage with Halloween, are we willing to have grace for other Christians? To not judge, but to have the humility to say, “This is what I have discerned. This how I am going to respond. But I know that I could be wrong.” Wouldn’t it be something if instead of unbelievers recognizing how much Christians fight about Halloween, they saw how much grace we had for another and how much we loved one another even when we disagree?
All cards on the table. I am going trick or treating in a few hours with a lion, a cow and a little fireman. I cannot wait. I know others in my congregation have come to different conclusions, and they will be at home enjoying the evening doing something completely different. And that is OK! What matters most tonight is that that my participation is based on me trying to think biblically about Halloween, and my engagement with and my speaking about other Christians who disagree me is saturated in the kind of grace that reflects the Savior that we will together gather to worship this coming Sunday, side by side.