Trick or Treat: Why I no longer celebrate Halloween

​Like many people in Ontario (and North America) I celebrated Halloween when I was growing up, giving little thought to this secular holiday. Most of it was naively innocent, it was a time for candy, dressing up and visiting, in my case, predominantly friends, family and neighbours. It was fun. Beginning in my early adult life, however, I began to become uneasy with Halloween as a Christian. During our time in the UK, where Halloween has been a recent North American commercial import, its newness and foreignness gave me opportunity to pause and reflect further upon a holiday so many celebrate (including Christians)

Rather than an innocent event the origins of Halloween are quite dark, not to mention aspects of how it was traditionally and is now celebrated. Is Halloween “Happy” as folks wish? No, it is more a trick than a treat.
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Modern Halloween is an amalgam of old and new traditions:

• The ancient Celts celebrated Samhain on November 1. It was a festival of summer’s end, the period between the life of the harvest and the dormancy of winter. A time between life and death. As such it was believe it was a time when the physical and spiritual worlds met. A “thin place.” The night before (October 31) was thus a time when the dead could return as ghosts. Food and wine would be set out to appease them and if you left the house you’d wear a disguise so they would not recognize you.
• Enter Roman Catholicism.  Catholics took this festival and Christianized it transferring the traditional date of All Saints Day, or Hallowmas, from May 13 to November 1. This was a day that emphasized the spiritual bond between the Church Triumphant (in Heaven) and the Church Militant (on earth). It celebrated and remembered those who’d attained salvation and offered prayers for those who were still in purgatory. It was especially linked to the worship of Saints and their relics. It is a holy day of obligation for Catholics still to this day. The night before Hallowmas was known as All Hallows Eve (Hallow E’en).
• In medieval Britain people went souling, offering to pray for the dead in exchange for cakes. People even began to dress up (wear a guise) as a show for gifts. Though this tradition waned it was revived by 19th century Irish immigrants in North America, even carving out turnips and placing candles in them.
• Beginning in the 1920s this became part of North American Popular Culture. People held parties and parades. The new film industry, such as The Silly Symphonies: The Skeleton Dance (1929), along with rationalism and materialism, did much to soften or eradicate belief in a spiritual realm and made Casper “the friendly ghost.” (c.f. Eph 6:12). By the 1950s modern Halloween was here. Since this time commercialism and the media (think Halloween, Twilight, Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown, sitcom specials and Buffy) have done much to perpetuate it.
• With the decline of Christianity also came the rise of neo-paganism, for which Halloween is a real religious high day just before their New Year. They maintain views of the ancient Celts that the spirit world is very close on this night. Therefore it is the perfect opportunity to perform ancestor worship, hold séances, practice magic, summon spirits, conduct sacrifices, worship and hold feasts. This is often done in isolated areas, dark rooms, places of symbolism, and can involve bonfires.

From its Celtic origins, Catholic additions and modern adaptations Halloween isn’t just about dressing up, it is a celebration of the dead and darkness (Samhain), a mockery of what the Bible teaches about the afterlife (Catholicism), an insult to the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness (commercialism), and even bonafide spiritual evil (neo-paganism).

Christians who participate in Halloween embrace, often naively, something that is actually dark. They’d do better to practice goodness and celebrate what God has actually commanded.
While I sympathize with those Christians who seek to use Halloween as an opportunity to witness by giving candy-Gospel-tracts or hosting alternative light parties, in my opinion it would be better to simply not engage remembering verses like:

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph 5:11)

 “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9b)
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“Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8)