For some people, this holiday is a time for dress-up and candy; it is an opportunity for fun. Others express concern for their children’s safety or for the emphasis that is often made on violence or horror at this time of year. Those who are interested in the right or wrong of the celebration look at the holiday’s origin in the occult and believe it should not be celebrated at all; they understand that some celebrate Halloween as a tribute to Satan.
Other’s view this holiday as a time for dress-up and candy an opportunity for fun. Others express concern for their children’s safety because of the emphasis on violence or horror.
Ephesians 5:7–15
Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.
This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” So be careful how you live.
Today costumes take the place of disguises and candy has replaced fruits and other fancy foods as children go door-to-door trick-or-treating. Originally trick-or-treating began as “souling,” when children would go door-to-door on Halloween, with soul cakes, singing and saying prayers for the dead. Over the course of history Halloween’s visible practices have morphed and merged with the culture of the day, but the purpose of honoring the dead, veiled in fun and festivities, has remained the same.
As Christians we should consider for a moment what is being celebrated and what Halloween is all about. Is the holiday uplifting? Is Halloween pure? Is it lovely, praiseworthy, or of good report?
Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things.”
Is Halloween based on godly themes such as the idea of peace, freedom and salvation or does the holiday bring to mind feelings of fear, oppression and bondage? As you think about Halloween this season, its origins and what it stands for would it be best to spend time dwelling upon its themes or to shed light upon what lies below the surface of this holiday’s celebration?
God is calling humanity to follow Him and to “come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
