How Christians approach conversations about Halloween

[GoingToInfinity]

Both my husband and I are Christian and don't believe the concept of celebrating Halloween is a good thing and doesn't fit in with our lives. However I remember being frustrated as a child that my parents refused to let me take part in Halloween celebrations like parties and trick or treating feeling like it was completely unfair and that I was missing out on things with my peers. At times it would be fair to say I resented them a little but as an adult I now know, understand and appreciate the reasons why.

I know as my son grows up he will be curious about Halloween and I would like to know how you approach explaining to a child the reasoning for not celebrating? Do you do any things around this time of you as an alternative, eg our local church do a 'Light party'?

I have never understood the idea of a "light party".

It is still celebrating the festival.

You have a right not to celebrate Halloween, but old pagan customs are part of our culture, and have become secularised too, like christmas and Easter.

Many christians do celebrate halloween, some don't.

I can understand why your child may be prevented from joining in the fun though- he doesn't have a lot of choice.

We sometimes go to liģht parties.
Though I'm Catholic, so they tend to be all saints parties.
So yes that is celebrating the feast of All Saints/All Hallows, on it's vigil. But without all the stuff I feel very very spiritually uncomfortable with and wish to avoid.

I have no problems with playing silly games and eating sweets.

I do have a problem with going to someone's house, demanding sweets and threatening to or playing tricks on them if they don't give it to me.
(I think that's a little different to wassailing, soul-caking or even the Scottish tradition of getting a treat for having performed a 'trick' of a song or poem)

My kids won't be attending scouts/cubs/brownies this week.

I'm a bit ambivalent about Halloween but that's mainly because there was a period in my life when I seemed to be the go to person for those involved in alternative spiritualities to confide in when it went wrong. However trick or treating is a long way from this stuff. This video was made a few years ago but outs Halloween in context - mocking the dark as the light is stronger. m.youtube.com/watch?v=LyfXTBdegQM&feature=youtu.be

I am from North America and have very fond memories of Halloween as a child, and now I live in the UK and quite frankly, there are a lot more things that confuse me about my faith as a Christian than the interaction between a pagan celebration and Christianity. In so many countries, Christianity has merged into already existing (and ancient) faith systems and I don't see this as a problem. I think it makes the faith richer and diverse.

And I love sweets.

We dress up with really original costumes, not devils and zombies. Last year DS2 was dressed as Donald Trump... that's proper scary...

I like the video mostly and agree with it. That is the all Hallows tradition.
Unfortunately our society is more likely to play ouija boards than celebrate the triumph of Jesus the light of the world. So I will be careful with my children till they are old enough to understand these things properly.

I'm quite keen on a practice called Memento Mori, which is well hashtagged on Twitter as #mementomori

For me, that's the essence of the Christian observance around this time. There are Light Parties and such like knocking about but I don't really go with that - the Christian festival of Light in darkness is Christmas, and it's also relevant at Easter.

Halloween, All Saints and All Souls form an observance that is meant to make us contemplate those who have gone before us in thankfulness, and spend time thinking about the finite nature of our lives.

It sounds terribly morbid and sombre, and obviously it is, but it's meant to spur us on to make every moment count, not waste our lives etc.

Obviously, joining in aspects of things which are problematic to Christian beliefs - dark magic, seances, calling up demons and all that malarkey - is something most Christians will avoid. I've never let my kids trick or treat, but that's not religious, I just don't hold to demanding sweeties with menaces from strangers, and I know how annoying and scary it is to keep getting doorknocked when you are elderly or have young ones to get to sleep.

As a Christian whose branch of the religion doesn't have a problem with traditional family friendly Halloween (apple bobbing and the like, with origins in disguising yourself against darker things rather than celebrating them) I would encourage you to tell your DC that Your Branch of Christianity or Your Family does not participate in Halloween.

I think you approach it gladly.

Explain that hallowe’en is shirt for ‘All Hallows Eve’ ie it is the night before all Saints Day and that is why superstitious people look to all the powers of evil that can have freer reign in the little gap before all the saints come to the fore again.

If old/robust enough, explain this all as the seasons turning, and how some Hallowe’en imagery (pumpkins) is actually a kind of harvest festival. Everything has its season, but God is always there,

Not particularly religious myself. Have been to a memorable Hallowe’en party at an Oxford Movement high Anglo-Catholic church. It’s really not incompatible except the to Puritans (right but repulsive). I’ll always be a Cavalier (wrong but wromantic)

I was brought up Catholic and celebrating Halloween wasn’t an issue, it was the day before all saints day I seem to remember. I never really understand why some Christians object to it?

Halloween is the Eve of All Hallows. I can never remember whether that's All Souls' Day or All Saints' Day. It feeds very well into what I think of as Remembrancetide, remembering those who have passed on before us.

All Saints Day - November 1st. All Souls Day - November 2nd.

I find The whole concept of a light party bizarre, either celebrate Halloween or not at all.

As a child I wasn’t allowed to trick or treat and I didn’t dress up for Halloween until I was 10 or 11. It didn’t do me any harm. As I got older my parents were a lot more relaxed about it (evangelicals) to the extent that I went to my final school Halloween disco as the “holey” ghost without either of them so much as raising an eyebrow.

Now, I look at it and think, dressing up and going to a school disco is so far removed from the roots of it I don’t see it as a big deal. I’ve never ever gone guising though and don’t like it as a “thing” from a safety point of view.

I just see halloween as a time to laugh and make a mockery of the concept of ghosts and ghouls. We as Christians can do this because we know we have nothing to fear in this respect because Jesus died for us and saved us. We are laughing in the face of death because it is irrelevant to us.. we have eternal life.

That’s a good way to look at it peanutty

As a Christian I don't generally have an issue with Halloween parties/discos. Not my thing and I always have a go to of a skeleton for ds. But I think it is easy to celebrate evil and that is an issue for me.
On an entirely separate note I think trick or treating is akin to demanding money with menaces! Hate it.

It is very disrepectful to demonise paganism.

Calling it wicked and evil. Would you do that to other religions?

MissyB1 - me neither.

In the Catholic tradition, Hallowe'en is All Hallows Eve, and also the feast of All Souls. The next day is the feast of All Saints (Hallows). All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation in most dioceses, meaning attendance at Mass is required.
Neither day has anything to do with evil.

I like iVampire's suggestion of reminding children that God is always with us (and that is the point of All Saints and All Souls too - the promise of resurrection means that even death can never overcome us; God is with us in life and in death, and with us to understand and console us in our loss).

You could add that some other Christian holy days may have been superimposed on already existing feast days because it made sense when replacing existing belief systems with new ones and because the old feasts had grown organically from the turning of seasons, providing handy analogies to aspects of the new Christianity. Obviously Easter corresponds with Passover, but Christmas, All Saints and All Souls are probably superimposed.

The Eastern Churches observe All Saints/All Souls after Pentecost.

I agree with FloralBunting's post, esp wrt the dark arts. Participation in seances, etc was never part of older folk traditions surrounding Hallowe'en. The old feast of Samhain that corresponds with Hallowe'en (All Souls Day and All Saints Day) was the start of the year, a borderline between past and present, old and new, a liminal time when the dead and fairies/spirits could revisit the earth, with people offering foods and attempting to protect themselves by wearing costumes, etc. Under the influence of Christianity, prayers were also offered, and RCs are obliged to attend Mass on All Saints Day.

No one is demonising paganism. No one has mentioned paganism.

I find this attitude baffling, and have only encountered it in England. I grew up in a very devout Catholic family in a very devout society, and Hallowe’en was unproblematically celebrated by everyone, and never regarded as a significant threat to general belief structures. Admittedly Catholic doctrine on purgatory offers a (deeply untheological) justification for ghosts, but that was never a offered as a get-out clause.

I find the anti-Hallowe’en position a bit prissy and fun-sucking, I’m I’m honest. It’s rather like forbidding Father Christmas because Christmas should be all about the birth of Jesus.

Should read: Hallowe'en is All Hallows Eve, and also the feast of All Souls. The next day is the feast of All Saints (Hallows), and the day after is All Souls Day.

Many people offer prayers for the redemption of souls in Purgatory, visit graves with flowers on these two days. Many churches open a book of remembrance where church-goers may inscribe the names of loved ones who have died, asking for prayers.

YYY to your post, CubanHeels.

I have run into some very eyebrow raising beliefs about Hallowe'en where I live now, including the idea that it is the devil's birthday.

Christian here. I don't have very strong views on Halloween. I wouldn't let DD do trick or treating because I hate knocking on strangers doors.... And I hate people knocking on my door too!

But I wouldn't have a problem with a fancy dress disco, pumpkin carving, watching a scary movie.

DD's too young now but when she is older I will have a conversation with her about the side of halloween that I'd want her to stay away from : ouije boards, seeking ghosts... I don't believe good can come out of those activities.

Oh I see, there was a mention of seances (spiritualism) and calling up demons. I'm not sure that is common practice for pagans but maybe I've just met the sensible ones.

The devil’s birthday? Dear me.

You’re Irish too, but living in the US, aren’t you, math? Yes to all your points. All Souls is a holiday of obligation for Catholics, and November is the ‘month of the Holy Souls’ where there are special novenas for the dead etc. (My mother has a missal literally stuffed with Mass cards and prays for every single relative going back generations, but it Ramos up in November.).

Come to think of it, lots of the trad ghost stories she told us growing up (very rural Munster) involved priests trying to get to a deathbed cross-country for the last rites, and the devil trying to stop them, or travellers at night being asked to come into a church to serve mass, and realising that the congregation consisted of all the dead of the parish etc.

Ramps up in November. Don’t know who Ramos is.