Don’t forget about God on Halloween

As the fun-filled holiday of Halloween approaches, it is good to remind ourselves of what we as Christians are and should be celebrating. Halloween, a contraction of the words “Hallows” and “Eve”—hallows meaning holy—is the eve of All Saints Day (all Hallows’ Day). This is a Christian holiday on which we celebrate all the Saints in Heaven. Some may make the case that Halloween is not a Christian holiday and so we should avoid it. This is not true. It is a Christian holiday, but it has in some ways been perverted and has lost its true Christian meaning in our culture since it has been secularized and capitalized on by the markets. So, we should celebrate it, but we should be mindful of how we do so. I think that we must keep two things in mind in order to do this.

First, we should keep this day holy by celebrating it in an explicitly Christian way by remembering the saints. We should set aside time for prayer and reflection and we should go to church if possible. We should generally theme our day to the remembrance of the saints in many creative ways. For instance, parents could give coloring books of saints to their kids, one could dress up as a saint, cook or bake with a theme, watch movies about the saints, or read accounts of the saints in the Bible or in other documents.

Second, we must at the very least avoid giving honor to demons and other objectively evil things. For example, while costumes are generally harmless and fun, dressing up as Satan, even for fun, is not good. Even if one does not intend it, Halloween costumes like dressing as the devil, makes Satan either appear trivial and non-serious or gives glory to him. One must also take care to avoid the occult (which tends to be more prevalent during Halloween)—things like tarot cards, divination, Ouija boards, etc. These things may seem harmless but are very dangerous because their use is not only sinful because it is an attempt to find knowledge outside the means God intended, but it also encourages demonic forces to enter one’s life. For instance, even if one follows the so-called rules of the Ouija board, nothing holy or neutral will ever be present, anything one may find is demonic and so very dangerous. Making ourselves open to evil is not what Halloween is about.

Halloween is a Christian holiday and should be treated as such by celebrating the saints and not dabbling in evil.