Last weekend I helped my friend out at the school he works at. The school building had been transformed into a “haunted house,” complete with strobe lights, skeletons and an army of junior high kids in monster costumes. They ran out of costumes for the volunteers, so I had to be content with the old “zipped-up coat headless man” gag. As hordes of grade school children tromped through the creepy maze we’d created, some laughing and some crying, I was reminded of all the things I love, and hate about Halloween.
As a Christian growing up in a Christian family, Halloween was tough. For a few years we trick-or-treated, then we felt convicted and only gave out raisins, then one year we pretended we weren’t home. One of my favorite Halloweens was only a few years ago. We were visiting our Grandpa Bob, and it just so happened that the community he lived in celebrated trick-or-treating when you’re supposed to–at night in the dark! My brothers and I dug through some closets and created our own costumes from scratch. It was a fun night!
I think the problem that most people have with Halloween isn’t so much with its pagan origin (Christmas comes from the same pagan traditions for goodness sake!) than with its celebration of death. As I stood ominously in my assigned corner last weekend, waiting for more kids to scare, I heard the junior high kids across the hall screaming bloody murder and acting as ghostly victims of horrible murders, in what amounted to “an odd confluence of a youthful exuberance celebrating an ominous restless afterlife.” (Michael Koresky-reberseshot.com)
Does God want us to celebrate Halloween? One of my Bible teachers here at school says yes. His argument is that Halloween as it stands today is a costume party for kids who love candy, and that being out there in your neighborhood, handing out candy, even letting your kids participate, is a good way to witness the love of Christ to those around us. We shouldn’t celebrate death as some do on this day, but by celebrating Halloween as it is now, we can connect with those in our community in a way that is growing harder and harder these days. So, with a clean conscious before Christ, Happy Halloween everyone! Just don’t go to that house–they’re handing out raisins.