I heard an interesting fact the other day that people now spend more money on decorations for Halloween than they do for Christmas. Yup, those orange lights, ghostly figures, and spider web netting are purchased more than the colorful christmas tree bulbs, twinkling white lights, or manger scenes. Sad, but true.
Peoples' expectations seem to be that everyone celebrates Halloween. I can remember when I was little and people would ask me what I was dressing up as for Halloween. My response, since I've never celebrated the holiday in my life, was that I wasn't. You get lots of funny looks after that. I mean, come on, why wouldn't you celebrate? After all, it's such a fun day; you get to dress up, eat candy, and have a wonderful time! Or do you? I think the question should really be, 'why would you celebrate Halloween?'
On the surface, Halloween may not look too bad. You dress up your little munchkins as lady bugs or Buzz Lightyear, and they look absolutely adorable. They get to go out and have fun in the neighborhood, collecting candy from all those generous people.What's the harm in that? I realize that I'm stepping on some toes here, but Halloween is not as harmless as adorable kids dressed up in costumes may seem. It's a celebration of evil. In a recent article Vision Forum article on Halloween, Doug Phillips said the following,
"Instead of hating evil, Americans toy with it. We toy with holidays like Halloween that were conceived in evil and that promote the “cute-ification” of evil, whether that evil takes the form of witchcraft, sorcery, ghoulishness, or some other form of malevolent imagery paraded before our children. We laugh at the very things that the Lord describes as “abominations,” and we find ourselves obsessively fascinated by, and attracted to, all things dark."
You know, not celebrating Halloween gives Christians a very good place to witness to others when they're asked "What are you gonna be for Halloween this year?" You can then explain the reasons for not celebrating they day. Christians are called to be in the world but not of it, and this is one area where that call seems to be clear. Halloween celebrates the dark things- kids go trick-or-treating in the cover of darkness, utter threats to get candy (yes, you laugh, but think about the phrase...it really is a threat, no matter how cute the kid who is saying it is) and dress up as evil things. We are called to walk in the light, not in the darkness with those of the world. Ephesians 5 affirms this idea:
So, what do you do now? If you're not celebrating Halloween, what DO you do on October 31st when everyone else is out trick-or-treating? Well, October 31st, although unknown to many, is Reformation Day, now 491 years to the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the door of Wittenburg church. Celebrate this day- a remembrance of good and holy things pertaining to the fight to bring right doctrines to the church. Go ahead and have a party; a costume party even! But dress up as Martin Luther, Katerina von Bora, the pope, Johann Tetzel, or other well known Reformation era persons (I've done it, and believe me, it's a blast!!!!). Another idea is to have a pizza party and watch the movie "Luther."
Below are a few pictures from a Reformation party that our friends, the Hopkins, have every year :)
 |
| Some of the girls in costume :D |
 |
 |
| Mr. Hopkins telling a little about Reformation Day |
 |
| Ruby, Chloe, Ben, and Rachel |
 |
| Two of my besties...ain't they adorable? <3 |
 |
| DANCING!!! |
Another idea is to pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Wait a second, I just said that Halloween wasn't a good thing to celebrate, so why should we encourage it? When I was younger, we would go to the store, buy up lots of Bible verse cards, book marks with verses on them, and other such things. Then we, and others from our church, would go to our friends' neighborhood, and sit as a group in the driveway passing out candy and Bible verses. We'd put candy in kids' buckets and say "God bless you". We'd sing hymns in the driveway. Anything that we could do to reach out and share the Gospel with others.
My challenge to you this Halloween: Do something different than what the world is expecting from you!
 |
| <3 Tirzah and Andrea <3 |
Excellent thoughts here. Like your family, Halloween has never been a day which we have observed - something I am grateful for. Your point that Christians have the chance to share with others why we avoid it was something I haven't considered before. That's a good point.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Hopkins' annual fête always looks like a blast. :-) I'm glad that they bless so many people through it.
Refreshing to read coinciding sentiments from a compeer about Halloween. :-)