4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
– 1 Corinthians 8:4-6
(I posted this originally in 2015. I decided to clean it up, add to it, and repost it because it’s a good one!)
As a Christian, I was never allowed to celebrate Halloween as a child because of various legends about it celebrating demons. My parents would have us go to bed early, turn out the lights, and ignore the knocks at the door. We were supposed to pretend we were not at home even though two cars sat in the driveway. Instead, we went to our church’s “harvest festival” on a random day that month dressed in full costume to play games for candy prizes. I was thoroughly indoctrinated about the history of the holiday, its demonic roots and how no good Christian should ever participate in such an unholy event.
I thought I would write about why I let my son celebrate it now.
Throughout history, people have celebrated holidays. You can trace every holiday to an older holiday with slightly different meanings. Even the God-given Jewish holidays of the Old Testament had a pagan variation celebrated in that area of the world before being redesigned by God. People use pagan roots as a way to dismiss every holiday including Christmas and Easter, but holidays don’t carry meaning by themselves. They carry the meaning that is taught through the holiday. This is the same as things as basic language. The word “awesome” did not always mean a positive thing. Look it up! Words throughout history change usage and meaning. Holidays are the same way.
It’s like this: Once, when I was a child, I went on a field trip to the big central library in Orlando. There, I discovered a book called The Island of the Blue Dolphin. With my very first library card, I checked out the book and read it from cover to cover. I loved it! It was so beautiful and amazing. My dog, though, thought it smelled a whole lot like the sticks she loved to chew. So, as was her nature, chewed up my library book. I had to take the mess back to the library and pay the fee for my dog’s snack.
So what does this have to do with Halloween?
Well, let us pretend my dog is Satan. Let us also pretend my book is our current holidays celebrated in 2019. The book/holiday once had a history as something that belonged to my dog/Satan. The book was once wood which sticks are made of. Almost all holidays, including Jewish ones, have pagan ancestors. But that isn’t what these things are now. The wood was turned into something that benefits the community, something beautiful and good. Most holidays in the USA (other than national holidays) were absorbed into the church calendar. All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) is the night before All Saint’s day in which martyrs are remembered, you know, like dead people. Should I then give my book to my dog to eat as a snack because it was once wood? No! Should we give holidays back to Satan and the world because they were once pagan? Again, No!
If you read farther in 1 Corinthians 8, it says to let those with a week conscious not eat food from idols. If you just can’t bear to celebrate Halloween because you feel like you are celebrating demons, then abstain. This is fine, but you are giving up a chance to meet your neighbor and should Christian generosity to children.
In our modern secular culture, Halloween is a holiday that teaches us to face our fears and laugh at them. We go out in scary costumes to laugh at them, and we meet our scary neighbors we never talk to other times in the year. Then we get rewarded for facing our fears with a bucket of candy. I think God would approve of that lesson. After all, He said, “I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind.”
Should we celebrate Halloween the way the world does by focusing on glorifying the dark and evil? No, but let us not just hand the holiday over. Instead let us, like Christ, redeem the world and make it beautiful. Let us conquer fear and death, celebrate community, and encourage our children to walk in freedom and victory!
Check out my young adult fantasy fiction novels HERE for something optimistic and fun.
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What do you think?