WHAT WOULD YOU SAY: Should Christians Celebrate or Avoid Halloween?
(SIX-MINUTE READ) — It’s Halloween time and that means lots of folks are wondering, if they are Christians, whether they should be celebrating the holiday at all, as well as many more who aren’t followers of Jesus Christ but who nevertheless ask from whence does this curiously popular festival of gore and goblins come?
Does this look like fun? (Screenshot from YouTube).
In the latest of the excellent “What Would You Say” videos (5:42) from the Colson Center, we learn that the holiday that sees Americans consume vast quantities of candy is likely not of pagan origin, as widely thought.
More likely, it developed out of an ancient Christian celebration, All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day, which was a celebration of family members who had passed. That was then.
Today, Halloween is a huge profit-maker for candy, booze and costume companies, as well as the occasion for displays that glorify or otherwise exhibit gruesome murders, all kinds of human gore and ghastly, evil beings bent upon inflicting death to folks young and old, male and female, Democrat and Republican.
Which raises the fundamental question here: Jesus said we are to love God with all of our hearts and minds and souls, and our neighbors as ourselves. But how does displaying severed human skulls, grotesque imagery of the darkest nights, and assorted other witches, monsters and devils encourage anybody to love the Lord and neighbors?
Why not simply buy the candy, have a party, invite the neighbors over, dispense with all the horror stuff and have a good time??? Something to think about.
Hello HillFaith and my namesake, Jonathan Rude,
It’s been a pleasure to follow your insights. I am indeed a follower of my Lord Jesus Christ, and having been raised in the church, I have always participated in the commercial aspect of Halloween, loving the “candy loot” we gathered from our neighborhood, there was always this background darkness of October 31st, but it was mostly suppressed in my youth.
I never thought too much about it’s negative aspects. My wife was always a bit turned off by the darkness and death celebration of the day, but did allow our boys to participate when they were young. Lately, I have tried to redeem the day via All Saints Day, but I would agree the evilness of recent times has made me contemplate how it’s come to this point. Most likely because Christians are generally not being salt and light in a lost world that desperately needs salvation.
Now with grandchildren on the way, I am committed to workout how this day, which the Lord has made, might be redeemed.
Thanks for your commitment to Christian values and Christian publishing. As always, Praise His Holy Name, Jesus Christ!
Thank you very much, Jonathan, for a thoughtful and compelling analysis. Very much appreciated and I suspect it will help a lot of our fellow followers of the Lord to come to grips with the reality of what Halloween has become. BTW, I’ve used JR as a nom de plume since 1971.