Not Celebrating Halloween Isn’t as Easy as You Think
Like the history and traditions of Christmas and Easter we’ve talked about on this blog before, Halloween’s roots are a compromise of paganism and Christianity.
Over 2000 years ago, Celts in the British Isles area celebrated their new year on November 1st. They believed that at this time, souls of the dead traveled to the other world — but in doing so, roamed the earth right before departure. To help the dead along their journey and keep the living from being affected by those of the dead who were evil, the Celts held a festival called Samhain. During Samhain, they would dress up in animal skins and wear animal heads, light bonfires, and make burnt sacrifices with the harvest and of animals.
When the Christians entered the area, the church declared Samhain to be an evil observance. Because they were trying to influence the Celts to follow the church, they attempted to make the festival more Christian oriented rather than pagan in nature (instead of just guiding new Christians to leave their pagan traditions behind them.) In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV proclaimed November 1st as “All Saints Day”, which was also known as “All Hallows” or “All Hallowmas”.
The evening prior to “All Saints Day” or “All Souls Day” was still observed by many Celts by leaving gifts of food outside their doors to appease the spirits. (much like handing candy to the “ghosts and goblins” that come knocking on doors Halloween night.)
We don’t “celebrate” or “observe” Halloween in any respect in our family. We do not believe that Christian-izing any pagan holiday or traditions glorify God in any way. There was a time when we thought we could mix the two, but now we just don’t feel like we can and have it be pleasing to God.
However, we also don’t condemn those who do choose to celebrate or observe Halloween. This isn’t something that I can open the Bible and say, “This verse here clearly identifies Halloween has wrong.” It’s one of those areas where you’re to read your Bible and make your own decisions, draw your own conclusions, and let the Holy Spirit convict you as He sees fit. In fact, our church will even be having a big trunk-or-treat, and knowing how awesome the children’s ministry is in our church — I imagine it will be an amazing event.
It’s hard in our society today, though. Because everyone does something, and when you have young kids you can’t avoid it. Jeb had a “harvest party” at school – which is fine because they didn’t dress up and all they did was create Christmas ornaments that they will sell during a fundraiser and donate the money to a local charity. However, in his backpack were two treat bags filled with jack-o-lantern, ghost, witch, and mummy toys and candies — and he goes to a Christian school. MOST of our friends will observe Halloween, and most of our friends are Christians.
Scott’s school is dressing up in costumes on Halloween day and trick-or-treating in an area near the school. We could disallow his going on the “field trip” to the trick-or-treating, but he would be at school all day with friends who were dressed up in their costumes, excited about Halloween — and that would do nothing but make him feel excluded and stressed out. Why would we do that to our young son? Instead, he’ll have to miss the entire day of school.
It’s all part of being in the world but not of the world. It isn’t easy to constantly affirm the fact that we do not celebrate Halloween with boys who are exposed to it on such a level. Even trying to keep it out of our home, images and decorations and discussions about it are EVERYWHERE. This is a holiday that is a huge part of this culture, so since we live and learn and shop within society, there’s going to be exposure. Much like Santa Claus, we just constantly encourage, talk, explain, and encourage some more.
And when all of the talking and encouraging are done, we deal with the confusion and tears about not getting to go trick-or-treating to get all of that candy (made with processed sugars and artificial dyes – another post entirely – haha!).
Do you observe Halloween? How do you reconcile it with your children?
Hallee
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How dare you take the “fun” away from your kids? I say this tongue in cheek. I have had a rough go of it in regards to not celebrating Halloween, not just this year but other years. I am so tired of fielding the “what are you dressing up as for Halloween” and my kids inevitably awkward looks like “What do we say, mom?” because they know people don’t really WANT to know my answer. They make it clear when they get it. Never mind I make it clear we don’t feel that is decision we believe EVERY one needs to make. I almost emailed you the other day about it lol.
We let our children celebrate Halloween. We allow them to dress up in silly costumes, trick or treat and have lots of fun with their friends. But, that is all the day is to them. Fun. They know that wearing a princess and a sniper costume are not going to ward off any evil spirit any more than it would if they yelled “Boo!” at it. The day is just a fun day to explore their imaginations and let them have a break for the normal routine. I’d never say that we are trying to “Christian-ize” a pagan holiday, just that we are letting our kids rack up on candy made with processed sugars and artificial dyes all in the name of fun! :) But that is just the way our family believes. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong or it’s right. I also support your family’s belief in not celebrating the day. I know it is difficult to go against the grain, but I think we should be so thankful that we live in a place and time where we can be free to make that choice!
The way I see it, if we only celebrated holidays that don’t have Pagan roots, we’d only celebrate Channuka, Passover, Yom Kippur, etc. Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine’s Day, and so on are all Christianized versions of pagan holidays. Yet, I bake cookies, sing carols, and set up my manger scene because, like everything else in life, holidays are what you make them. I lump trick-or-treating into the same category as having a Christmas tree (a Pagan tradition). Halloween is about devil worship and witchcraft IF that’s what you make it about. It’s about kids taking candy from strangers IF that’s what you make it about. Or it can be about pretending to be an angel, superhero, monkey, etc. or as a celebration of God blessing us with a plentiful harvest and cooler weather.
We go trick-or-treating, but I respect that families choose not to. That’s cool as long as you don’t yell at my kid about how he’s worshiping Satan because he’s wearing a Thomas the Tank Engine costume and getting candy that we’re going to throw away.
The more I study, the more I feel that those are the holidays we actually should be celebrating in lieu of our western traditional holidays.
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In fact, our family has entirely forgone Easter in place of Passover. This year, we will be observing Hanuka, but we will still do a very mild and toned-down Christmas. So, our changes have been gradual, and not radical — and I still don’t think that people who do otherwise are doing anything wrong in choosing to celebrate, necessarily (thought I do believe that there elements within some of the celebrations that Christians shouldn’t partake, but I’m not going to be specific in an attempt to not make someone feel defensive or judged). There’s a time for everything – celebration and fellowship being part of that. As humans, we need times of celebration and observance to restore ourselves.
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I don’t believe that people who observe Halloween for the fun and gaity of it are worshiping the devil, and I’d never pretend to think that.
Sniper – haha – I hope I get to see him.
We didn’t celebrate Halloween when my kids were at home. One year they dressed up and we handed out candy. Another year, in a different neighborhood, we passed out candy. But both times bothered me. All other years we had a tradition of turning off all the lights, ordering pizza and eating pizza and watching a movie. So my kids didn’t care that they weren’t celebrating because we had a really great time at home.
Like you, I don’t care if other people celebrate. We just chose not to. I don’t have any regrets.
We don’t really celebrate Halloween but I love costumes no matter what time of year it is (My bridal shower was a costume party!) so our kids get costumes and we usually go to a local church’s Fall Fest. I’ve never been trick-or-treating in my life so I don’t miss it and my kids have no idea that people do that (they’re 1 and 3) so they don’t miss it either. I love this time of year though so we do carve pumpkins and roast the seeds and make fall crafts. I don’t have anything Halloween related in my decorations only pumkins, fall colors, leaves, etc. And they stay up through Thanksgiving. Most of the people we know do the whole trick-or-treating thing and last year I did feel a little left out as familes from our home group left the Fall Fest to go trick-or-treating afterwards. It was like a party that I wasn’t invited to. But I didn’t want to go. It gave me a little bit of a feeling for what my kids are going to go through when they get a little older. I was very interested to read your article. Do you have any fall related traditions? I love pumpkins so we always go to a pumpkin patch to take pictures. I’m just wondering if by not celebrating Halloween you mean just trick-or-treating and costumes or do you lump all of that stuff together? Just curious!
We don’t trick-or-treat, and we don’t decorate with Halloween stuff. I do have pumpkins (uncarved), scarecrows, fall leaves, autumn colors, etc., decorating my home and outside.
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We used to do everything – I even have one of those crashing witch decorations down in the basement. Kaylee trick-or-treated her whole life.
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Last year, we did participate in our church’s trunk or treat, but many of the trunks were decorated full blown Halloween. We decorated ours in harvest, fall, hay bales, etc., and even won a prize for 3rd place in the decorating competition. But because there was such an element of Halloween to the event, we decided not to do it again this year.
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BUT — in the process of typing this reply to this comment up, Kaylee and I ran up to the store and I saw a good friend — the person in charge of this year’s trunk or treat at the church. She told me that there would be nothing scary nor remotely Halloween-ish in the event. When I came home, Gregg and I talked about it, so we will be doing that again this year. The boys will dress as Captain America and Spider Man.
We allow the boys to dress up and go trick or treating in our neighborhood – basically the street behind us. We got with a couple of other families and it’s a lot of fun for all involved. We don’t allow scary costumes. Like someone else mentioned, for us the day is not about chasing away evil spirits or anything like that.
Interesting for me because growing up with a partially Jewish family, I always thought Passover and Hanukkah were Jewish holidays.
We always participated in Halloween. It would have been bery hard not too. But I always told my kids the “Truth” about Santa and The Easter Bunny. A lot of people had a fit about that!
They were feasts handed down by God to the Israelites via Moses at the time that He gave him the Ten Commandments and the Law. Christ observed them, as did Paul and his disciples.
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In the early early church days, as pagans intermingled with Christians, Christian tradition gradually incorporated pagan holidays and let go of God’s appointed holidays. Passover for Easter, a pagan holiday that originally paid tribute to Eostre — the Roman observances of the “birthdays” of the gods Dionysus, Attis, Baal, and Mithras became the observance of the birthday of Jesus Christ, despite the fact that he was born in the autumn, instead of celebrating the Feast of Dedication (Hannukah).
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By the church incorporating these pagan holidays, they attempted to win over the hearts and minds of the people. This eventually, melting pot style, became our traditions and holidays, and we left the God appointed times out of our observances.
I’m curious to see how Scott handles it in school this year. I have no doubt he’ll tell kids Santa isn’t real, just like he tells them Trix cereal is bad for their bodies when he sees them eating it. He’s just kind of matter of fact about it – lol.
I’m emailing you now.
We don’t do Halloween in our house either. Since Annie is only 3, she doesn’t really ask yet…not sure exactly how we’ll handle it then.
It’s very hard with Barry’s side of the family. We’ve told them approximately 1 million times that we don’t do Halloween – and yet Annie still came home from her house last week with a treat or treat bag full of Halloween candy (that we don’t even eat). Oh, she also brought a treat bag for my 8 week old. :-/
Great post, Hallee….as usual. :-)
We do celebrate Reformation Day and focus on the Five Solas on this day!
We do exactly what you do and it’s discouraging to hear even Christian radio stations referring to Halloween. My kids are still very young (3 1/5 and 2), but now they have been asking why they can’t have Halloween and explaining to them has been difficult (so that they understand). My husband and I just cannot justify celebrating a day that does the opposite of glorifying God, and on another point, serves candy that my kids aren’t allowed to have. I am planning a harvest party this weekend with caramel apples and a few friends. We do love the fall and harvest time so this, I’m hoping, is going to take the focus off of Halloween.
I am having convictions on all the wordly holidays that are celebrated. I am researching it and praying. But I keep asking myself, would Jesus have celebrated these holidays? Is Jesus the root and foundation of all these holidays? Or is the god (devil) of this world the one behind them all? I believe God will show you his view on them if we honestly and willing open our hearts too the matter. If we let go of the wordly views and let God teach us his ways. Thank you Hallee for your blog. It encourages me! Keep doing Gods will for you life!
Ok, Hallee. I see God is presenting you with an opportunity here. Every post I see says the same thing. “We don’t know how to explain to our children that we won’t be celebrating Halloween like the other kids do.” You are an author. Why not write a children’s book to help explain to the little ones?
Comments on your website are not formatted right today on my Mac: the comments are in a long narrow column. I don’t know if it’s my computer or not; it could be I changed some setting.
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I always thought Halloween was a great thing for kids in safe friendly neighborhoods. To me it gives the kids a different view on scary unknown things like darkness or strange people. On this one night it’s okay to go boldly out in the dark. They get to go out in the darkness, walk right up to unfamiliar houses of strangers, and they are greeted with smiles and candy! They see strangely dressed kids in frightening masks but they know that really those are just other kids like themselves. They get to put on costumes that could represent some hidden part of their personalities – maybe their dreams, or a guise that makes them feel stronger and braver or prettier. Maybe they wear a scary mask that is angry and mean or unlikeable and people still welcome them.
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If it’s against your beliefs it makes sense not to do it, and these days some things are more violent and gruesome than I’m comfortable with. But in general I think it’s a great thing for kids. I just wish more of the older adults in my neighborhood would participate now that their own kids are grown. The stretches between the houses with their lights on are getting longer every year and it’s too far for the little kids to walk. There are fewer kids in the neighborhood and maybe they go to parties instead.
I would guess that as more and more churches and other community organizations have events, less and less people will be home for trick or treating. We had an alert last night that if kids trick or treated in a specific neighborhood in our little town not to eat the candy because they were finding needles. It’s a sick, fallen world.
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Wordpress just had a major update. My theme hasn’t caught up with it yet. I’m expecting a patch any day to fix the comments. Sorry they look so bad. My author site blog barely working – Gregg keeps having to hack it from the back to even pull up the admin stuff for me. WordPress’ update must have changed a lot of things.
We celebrate Halloween to the point of kids dressing up and going to Trunk or Treat at church. Noah is too small to get it, but Alyssa loves Halloween and costumes. She loves going to see what her friends are dressed up as and getting candy that (I’m almost afraid to say it on here!) she gets to eat!! I love it if it isn’t taken too far. We don’t go to haunted houses or anything-my limit is the costumes and candy. I guess it depends on where your personal convictions are at. I see nothing wrong with taking part in the fun.
I have perused your blog on and off for quite some time and just found this post. I’ve known about your diet since I started reading, but didn’t know you didn’t observe what most consider “normal” Christian holidays. We observe what many believe to be the Jewish holidays (Passover, days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths) all found in Leviticus 23. We believe that we are to follow the example Christ left for us, which is why we observe these days (there are many examples of Christ going to Jerusalem to keep the Feast and observe Passover in the gospels, and of course Pentecost in the book of Acts). So interesting to find others who are Christians but not observing holidays :).
p.s. Our church has a booklet about the Holy Days (found in Leviticus 23). I could send you a link if you’d like, though it seems you know quite a bit about the history of holidays as it is :).
I should add that the booklet is free or can be viewed for free online – totally not trying to get anyone to buy anything! Here’s a link if you’re interested: http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/booklets/the-holy-days-gods-master-plan
YOU GO MOM! I did the same thing when my children were growing up. We had a hallelujia! party at our church with lots of candy and games so that made it easier for me than for you… but in our home i taught my children that halloween was satans holiday and we did not celebrate. It truly is by fact the biggest night of the year for satanistic rituals. I taught them that fear is from the devil and God does not give us a spirit of fear. (both Biblical!!) It was hard. I know that people looked at me like i was crazy. And i really did care what people thought of me and that my children would feel different. But what was more important was what I was instilling in them. Ironically, today as young adults living on their own (0ne married) they both like halloween and horror. Strange, i know. But somehow as God still works on them i know that what i instilled in them is still there. Dont ever let go or feel bad for your convictions. they grow up too fast and then its too late to give them the truth. Also in the end the person that you please in all of this is Almighty God!