Halloween, or Not

Dear Reader,

We have chosen in our house not to celebrate Halloween. I have Christian friends who do, at least in some way. As long as they have put some thought into it, I can respect their positions. This is not a clear-cut issue for me. But for our family, we have decided not to do Halloween. Practically speaking, this means our kids do not get costumes (though we love to stock up on cheap dress up clothes on November 1st) and we don’t trick or treat or give out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Generally, we have had other things to do that night so we haven’t been home and not giving out candy hasn’t been much of an issue. If my kids are in a class like dance where the teacher says they can dress up for Halloween, I will let them wear dress-ups we have that day, but we try not to make a big deal of it.

For me, the main reason I don’t want to celebrate Halloween boils down to: I believe there are evil spirits in the world. They are not more powerful than our God but they are out there and for a time He has given them some power in this world. But they are evil, and they are nothing to play around with. Now I realize that little kids dressing up and getting candy seems pretty harmless, but to me Halloween is really about the evil, scary stuff and I don’t even want to begin to go there. I think the part of the country we are in may affect this. We live in New England which, unfortunately, is not known these days for its Christianity (miss those Puritans). In Salem, MA, which we used to live nearer to than we do now, Halloween is big. And it is a celebration of witches and other such things. And I do mean real witches. I have met self-identified Wiccans in this area. So to me these things are a real presence. I also grew up on horror movies. We watched tons of them. And I became pretty hardened to their violence and gore and the evil spirits they portrayed at an early age. I think these things can seem harmless but they can slowly slip into you. And they can at the very least desensitize you to the real evils that are out there. We don’t joke about God, and we don’t joke about or play aroudn with evil spirits.

I guess my last argument is that Halloween is a time of mischief and trouble. If we were to ask, what is the spirit behind Christmas (apart from the actual narrative it is associated with), one would say love or giving. Or if you hear fireworks in July or the end of June, you say, “Oh, it is near the fourth.” Last night we had someone ring our doorbell and when we got there there was no person but there was garbage on our front step. And I immediately thought, “Oh, it is getting near the end of October; this is Halloween mischief.” Yes, it seems harmless. But if you think about what people do for Halloween, it is mostly bad, troublesome stuff. We expect teenagers for instance to toilet paper houses or throw eggs this time of year. Doesn’t that say something about the nature of the holiday?

So, mainly because I think it flirts with evil, and secondarily because it is associated with mischief-making, we choose not to celebrate Halloween. Now if you can give me a good answer to all the cashiers this time of year who ask what my kids are dressing up as, I would be very grateful.

Nebby

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