Today is Halloween. It’s a day that many enjoy being frightened by pretending to be dead whilst others live in fear of what genuinely threatens their lives, be that chaos, cancer or conflict.
The word Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, the day which precedes All Hallows’ or All Saints’ Day, an annual Christian celebration dating back to the first millennium when loved ones who have died in the faith are remembered, and comfort is drawn by those who remain from recognising that, because of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, death holds no fear for those who believe the Christian gospel and put their trust in Jesus Christ.
Over time, this solemn remembrance of the dearly departed extended to include the night before, and children would dress up in spooky attire in order to take part in a kind of ‘Danse Macabre’ in celebration of the victory Christ won over the forces of darkness.
Far from celebrating evil, therefore, the original point of Halloween was, for some at least, to poke a little fun at death, in much the same way, perhaps, that the apostle Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:55. For it is there that the writer of more than half the New Testament taunts that last great enemy with the words ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’.
And this is why I am not as entirely negative about Halloween as some of my Christian friends, even though, whether it is by wandering the streets dressed as a zombie, or by attending parties in the guise of vampires, most people who mark Halloween these days do so without any thought being given to Jesus’ wonderful victory over death.
But just because it has been so commercialised that it is now the third highest grossing festival of the year, that doesn’t mean that Christians should have nothing to do with Halloween. Far from it! For if that were the case, then surely Christians should also refrain from celebrating those other great Christian festivals which have been similarly secularised and today are enjoyed by many who do not find time to reflect on the glorious fact that ‘the word became flesh’ at Christmas and, having been crucified on Good Friday, rose to life again on Easter Day.
But of course, just as Christmas can become all about acquiring everything on your Amazon wish list, and Easter nothing more than an opportunity to eat too many chocolate eggs, not everything about Halloween is to be commended.
Evil should not be celebrated and the intimidation of vulnerable people by those who go trick or treating in such a way that some are forced to switch off all the lights in their house and pretend they’re not at home is, of course, totally unacceptable. Even so, it is nonetheless true that, done in the right spirit and remembering what Halloween is really all about, trick or treating can actually help bring communities together. As was the case when a neighbour’s children came to our door one year and, without looking the least bit scary, began offering us treats rather than demanding them!
Furthermore, just as fairy tales serve the very useful function of allowing children to face up to the darker aspects of their lives and, through those stories, see that the things they are frightened of can be overcome, so too some appropriate recognition of the existence of evil can help children see that, with Jesus a reality in their lives, they have nothing to fear.
Pretending that evil does not exist does not help our children. Perhaps then, rather than being concerned about how Halloween may adversely affect our children, we should be more concerned about stories that deny the reality of evil at all – stories that insist that everyone is awesome and, while minimising the very real existence of pain and disappointment, dishonestly suggest we can be whatever we want to be.
So, whilst I understand why some Christians are uneasy about Halloween, concerned as they are that it may encourage an unhealthy interest in occult practices such as endeavouring to communicate with the dead, something which, incidentally, the Bible expressly forbids, for me at least, Halloween does have a redeeming feature.
And that redeeming feature is the opportunity it affords me to talk about Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross – a death that paid the penalty for all our sin, and assures us that when we do die, rather than it being the end, it will be but a gateway to eternal life with God, a never-ending existence in a new heaven and a new earth where our loving Heavenly Father will wipe away our every tear and ensure that death and evil will no longer have any place in our lives.
And so, until that day finally arrives, I will, on occasions, enjoy poking a little fun at death whilst never forgetting that my confidence for so doing comes only from the one who is standing alongside me as I do.
Because the one I am referring to is Almighty God, my loving Heavenly Father who, by his Holy Spirit, is within me too. And ‘He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world’ [1 John 4:4].
So then, by being wise enough to fear God, appropriately holding him in high esteem and gladly bowing my knee before him, I find I have no need to fear anyone or anything else.
And on this Halloween, that includes death itself.
Which is why I am not afraid to die, confident as I am that at the cross Satan was so completely defeated that we can all be absolutely sure that ‘Death really has been swallowed up in victory’ [1 Corinthians 15:54].
And with all that in mind I hope you all have a very happy Halloween – one that, in the darkness, anticipates the light that is surely coming and will never be overcome.
Some musings 