Halloween is viewed by many as a night of family fun, fantasy dress up, and sweet rewards. Millions participate in Halloween festivities for these reasons. If this was all there was to Halloween there would be nothing to be concerned about. But not everything is at it appears to be. There is a dark-side to Halloween.
The last few weeks cable channels have flooded TV screens with horror movies specializing in blood, fear, and gore. Modern imaging technology makes these films shockingly realistic. Satanists claim Halloween as their holy day. The occult revels in this dark celebration.
The contrast is stunning. One side of the Halloween coin is bright, fun and exciting. The other side represents the darkest of features of fallen man. Both sides are celebrated on the same night. Is it possible to ignore the dark side of Halloween and enjoy only the fun part?
I believe one of the real dangers of Halloween is to classify the darkness associated with the day as fantasy that can be ignored. But make no mistake, the forces of darkness are real and predatory. Numerous passages of the Bible warn of spiritual warfare. The enemy is real and vicious. The Bible warns us not to be taken in and to avoid evil.
Does this mean that you should not help your children dress up as pirates or princesses and visit your neighbors looking for goodies? Not necessarily. But have you counted the cost? Remember, the theme of your spiritual enemy is deception. His goal is the destruction of you and your family. Some claim that Halloween is his night.
For example, consider the phrase, “trick or treat”. Sounds harmless enough. It is just an expression to gain some candy. But what is Biblical but the phrase? What it really means is that if I don’t get a treat, you can expect a trick against you. Now I know most of you reading this are not teaching your children to mess up the neighbor’s lawn or house if they are not sufficiently rewarded. But then, why even utter the phrase? Is this honoring God? It is easy to say it is just an expression, but is it an expression that brings honor to God?
Think carefully about Halloween. Remember it is a two-sided coin The dark side is not pretty. You can hope that by just looking at the fun side that the darkness can be ignored. Is this really what you want to teach your children; just ignore the bad things and focus on the good? After all, Halloween is so much fun. How many other things are there that present a positive upside but when you turn the coin over you are greeted by the smiling face of the enemy? I am not attempting to insist on a particular course of action. I am just praying that you will remember that since the fall things are often not what they appear to be.
28 thoughts on “Halloween – the ultimate trick or treat”
Good and interesting point.
I struggle with this myself.
Growing up we did not participate in Halloween at all. My Mom even picked me up at school, so I couldn’t participate in the school Halloween parties.
I always felt holidays/parties/celebrations are what you make them, and yes, my 3 children dress up. We don’t go to Haunted Houses, we don’t watch horror movies, and I especially do not allow any type of evil/satanic/ or horrific type costume.
It’s fun to dress up – I’d like to dress up myself sometime because I never was able to. To pretend and be silly..
I wish God would just say ‘hey, I don’t like this”, or “it’s OK, just have boundaries’ – I would listen.
I know that satanist do use Halloween as their ‘holy day’ – and I have heard they mock Christians who celebrate it. But they also celebrate Christmas in some form (well some do) and the history of Christmas isn’t just about Christ birth (as far as history goes) it has a lot of pagan rituals and such.
Sigh.
I’d love to know.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/when-jesus-haunts-your-halloween
I think Christians are well aware of the spirit world. Evil things happen year round because of the fallen nature of man. The Halloween today, is not the ancient day so many love to post about. If you’re chanting and stirring a big black cauldron—repent! If you’re having a séance to call on the dead…repent! If you’re setting out jack o lanterns to ward off evil spirits…it’s useless..repent! But, thankfully, the dark side has turned into a fun night most families and children look forward to. Everyone, including adults love to dress up and pretend. My adult children dressed up and trick or treated, I dressed up and trick or treated, and we serve the God of the Bible! Thank you Jesus…This is the day the Lord has made..rejoice! The spirit roams year round and what evil really wants to do is entice you to porn, adultery, drunkenness, anger, gossip! Wasn’t it a few days before Christmas that the children at the school were gunned down? Satan loves to get Christians off on a tangent! I’m sure he’s thrilled that spiritual energies are focused on ridding the church of children dressing up and saying trick or treat for candy! Oh boy! This is NOT what leads people astray. Let’s wise up!
When I was a kid, I always thought that trick or treat meant that they were going to do a magic trick for us, or give candy. I always wondered why nobody ever did a magic trick. lol
I choose to see the ‘fun’ side of Halloween just for the kids. I don’t see much good of it for Adults. So we pretty much just stick to the afternoon trick or treating, and retreat indoors when night time falls, because we know, that’s when the ghouls come out with wrong intentions. And I hope to raise my daughter to not revel in the gross side of Halloween, but to keep it playful instead. However, it is my least favorite Holiday.
Thank you and I agree wholeheartedly. Costumes? Awesome! Candy? Fantastic! Pumpkins? Bring them on! However, we just don’t observe Halloween itself because of what the day means and is. (And I have heard the argument that it’s a holiday instituted by the medieval church…yes…to coincide with the pagan holiday that was already in place.) We also don’t do renamed Halloween parties (“Trunk or Treat,” “Harvest Party,” etc.). The only Harvest Festival/Party/etc. we’ll do is when it is clearly not supposed to be a Halloween alternative (way different date, no costumes, etc.).
We do pass out candy to trick-or-treaters, but it is done right alongside tracts. When we run out of tracts we stop passing out the candy too. The tracts are our main goal – the candy is just the method of delivery. 😉 We decided long ago to overcome evil with good, so we use this day against Satan. 🙂 This is the one day of the year that the world comes to our door willingly, so we take advantage of that to further the kingdom of God.
Sorry to add to my last post below is more form that article :
“On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in
honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs
Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741)
later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all
martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th
century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands,
where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites.
In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to
honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was
attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related,
but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to
Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as
saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also
called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse
meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night
of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve
and, eventually, Halloween”
So the ritual of Halloween was established it seems before All Saints day and that the tradition of All saints day was moved from May 13th to November 1st.
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween
I don’t beleive that as Christians we should participate in Halloween.
my husband and I just discussed this earlier today. Its hard at Christian parents to explain Halloween to kids. Easter and Christmas also have pagan rituals that we as Christians embrace and don’t even bat an eye. I guess everyone just needs to educate themselves and let the Holy Spirit guide as to what is appropriate for you and your family.
I totally agree!
The word Halloween or Hallowe’en dates to about 1745 and is of CHRISTIAN
origin. The word “Halloween” means “hallowed evening” or “holy evening”. All Hallows’ Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals held on the night before All
Hallows’ Day (or All Saints Day). It initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.
If it has anything at all to do with “the dark side”, they have illegally hi-jacked a Christian observance and therefore should be ignored.
Halloween was originally the Celtic Samhain holiday that was celebrated as the end of summer and beginning of the “darker half” of the year. It was also considered to be a time of the year when spirits and demons were best able to visit the material realm. Spirits of deceased ancestors were invited back into relatives’ homes, but masks and costumes were worn to protect people from the demons that were thought to impersonate others. Some activities involved acting out plays or reciting poems in exchange for food, but other activities included ritualistic divination to commune with spirits.
It wasn’t until the 9th century when the Roman Catholic Church moved All Saints’ Day to November 1st (and later All Souls’ Day to November 2nd) that any Christian involvement was made. So, no, this wasn’t originally a Christian holiday.
Hello Kimberly,
I found your responds interesting because I have never really heard of Halloween being of Christian origin. I decided to do some research myself because of this and though cool and wanted to know more. I am a firm believer that Christ died so that we could have a personal relationship with God and in order to do that we must pray for wisdom and decernment as we study and grow closer to Christ. So basically don’t just go by what someone tells you but do the research and pray that Christ guides you and challenge what you learn by the Word of God aka the Holy Bible.
I went to History.com and started reading and something they said that didn’t go with Halloween being of Christian origin. I copied and pasted it below.
“To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the
people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic
deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically
consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s
fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth
fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred
bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.”
The Celtic deities and The One and Only God isn’t the same being so who were they worshiping to?
If you have anything that can help me understand how Halloween is a Christian holiday I would love to read more and gain knowledge. I do believe that it is important to study and understand both argument and then for what we don’t understand lean on God’s words but we must be on high alert. I have children and we go to church on Halloween and I am teaching my kids to say happy fall festival instead of trick or treats. My husband and I are working on creating new traditions and teaching our kids about Christ and the Devil and not just the G verses. We try to teach them at age appropriate levels but never the less we don’t try to sugar coat as much that they get this everything is rainbows ideas either. I follow Christ because I do believe that He is the truth and the light and He has ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR ME and I just want to always be surrounded by Love like that. Perfect
Thanks for opening my eyes to curiosity.
Blessings
Great article.
I have never liked or celebrated the holiday. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Christian writer Stephanie A. Mayberry addressed this same issue in her A Life of Holiness blog post today. She cites scripture and gives a very compelling argument. You may want to check it out.
http://alifeofholiness.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/a-christians-response-to-the-celebration-of-halloween-why-i-wont-be-partaking/
The argument that people use to discount the evils of Halloween are correct, Easter and Christmas traditions are also of pagan origin, yet Easter and Christmas for Christians is a celebration for the birth and sacrifice Christ made for us. It just goes to show that as Christians we join in the pagan traditions to be included in the fun instead of standing for what we believe in. The Bible clearly warns us about getting involved in certain things yet we excuse it as harmless fun. If it truly were harmless fun, than we wouldn’t need scriptures about it. And this article isn’t about Easter or Christmas, it is about HALLOWEEN.
We have 2 boys that dress up in costumes everyday at our house. Spiderman may join us for breakfast and ironman at dinner. I dont make a big deal about it on halloween. We go over my moms for dinner and she gives them candy and treats but that is nothing out of the normal dailey life. My kids think you can wear costumes everyday and has even worn them to burger king in fall, winter, spring or summer. God knows my heart as a mom raising my children to love, honor, and serve God.
I am a messianic believer. As a child, I was raised with the knowledge that Halloween was an evil holiday where people worship Satan. Since growing up, I have come to the knowledge that yes Halloween is evil. Yes, Believers should not celebrate it. However, we are also called upon not to turn children away from the truth of the gospel. It is in this light, that I personally choose to dress up in biblical costumes, and hand out bags of treats to the kids that show up on my door that often contain Christian themed toys, lots of candy, and of course tracts to teach them about the savior. I go a step further, and also include bookmarks with the ten commandments, and verses of scripture that have been made into magnets. I do not yet have my own children, but when I do, I will teach them that Halloween is a great opportunity to witness the truth to people who do not know the truth – and rather than take them out to trick or treat, I will let them answer the door just as I do now… dressed in biblical costumes and handing out treats that contain the words of the bible, and tracts for the kids that come to our door. Afterwards, they will get their own little “treat basket” filled with candy made by myself and their dad as a reward for witnessing the gospel to the other kids who do trick or treat. 🙂
Thank you for the article. In recent years my family has seen the ways in which halloween has changed and people’s treatment of the day/night. It has gotten much darker than before and we cannot see anything God-honoring in it.
God has called us to a life of holiness. In our view there is absolutely nothing holy about halloween. There are no thoughts of honoring God in any activity built around October 31st. We don’t even call it a holiday. “Holiday” is a contraction of “holy day.” You see my point.
I have 4 children. I never encouraged them trick or treating. Just watching halloween come and go more than 40 decades of my life tells me that a good part of it is “praising” evil. (Praising is defined as expressing warm approval and admiration of.) There’s a house in the neighborhood that decorates their front yard extensively and ghoulishly every year. Their backyard is set up with horror events, many families go to get terrified and excited. Halloween is genuinely a tradition. I can’t shut my children’s eyes and pretend that it is not going on, especially that more than 80% of their friends ask them what costumes are they wearing this Halloween and where they are going to trick or treat. I made them aware of the origins of the tradition at a young age and explained why I m not patronizing it as people commonly do. However, I encouraged them to give candies and say “Be safe and God bless you.” at our door. When my youngest, my only girl was 4 (She’s 7 now.), she asked if we could trick and treat in the neighborhood. “Let’s us wear costumes and just have fun receiving candies in the neighborhood, Mom. We need to meet the neighbors we still don’t know anyway.” That was a good point coming from a 4 year old! She was right at some point. I heard her. We found out that our pastor lives in my neighborhood! Except for our dear pastor passing candies, the rest of the neighbors are not recognizable, not even friendly in the dark and therefore unforgettable. On the other hand, they saw how chaotic the streets were, how other kids were so intrusive and loud and scary-looking, too. At the end of the night, my children decided not to do it again. They thought that it was an activity lacking of common sense. I reiterated their conclusion by saying that it surely did not have a God sense. I don’t know about you, but my husband and I find parenting a great challenge. We teach our children about Salvation, a concept they accepted but they may not have fully understood as of yet due to lack of validation in their yet sheltered and young and inexperienced life. Halloween, in our opinion, is a disservice to the spiritual growth of our children. And of course, the Enemy’s “sweet” deception. For me, it is part of the “keeping up with the Joneses” principle. It is an activity that is purely “worldly” if not pointless. There are many community activities out there that are celebrated in the brighter side which families can enjoy. They are intentionally community building recreations and therefore, God honoring. Children can still wear the wholesome costumes they choose at their birthdays and have intentional fun celebrating that milestone. Christian Life is not designed to be boring. The truth is, our j o y erupts from our inner passion to honor and serve the Lord first and foremost. Is “your” Halloween God-honoring? My family decided, our neighborhood’s is not. I was so joyful to meet my bible study family gathered to study the life of Moses, the 4th session of the book “The Story” on Halloween this year. Praise the Lord! But you know what? As long as there is a Halloween tradition, as long as we have best friends who are believers of halloween, our children’s immature faith, and ours, as well, are still subjected to the candy-coated deception.
trick or treat… when I was a kid meant show a trick as in magic or something or tell a joke then they got candy. A bit reaching there arent you. And who cares what the devil claims it to be it is what people make of it.. if one celebrates it to worship the dead then that is what it is to them.. if one chooses it to play dress up and get candy and have fun then that is what it is to them.
Let us use this day as an opportunity to be fishers of men. Like neighborhood outreach day. What other day of the year do you have your whole neighborhood and random strangers knocking on YOUR door? What does one learn when we stand back in judgment and avoid them completely? Hide under your blankets and shut all the lights off or open your doors and show them the love of Christ? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you have a seance in the driveway. Instead, why not ask God to reveal something you can do to be remembered as the house eveyone is welcomed at and people want to keep coming back to? Smores in the driveway, neighborhood chilli cook off, hot cocoa block party, etc… Just something that God placed on my heart.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/sent-into-the-harvest-halloween-on-mission
As a children’s Pastor, halloween (along with all of the other pagan holidays actually) has been a difficult thing. I am also the mom of 4 kids so I have had to walk the line and find out what God would have us do. So we started a trunk or treat in our town. We do it at an abandoned buildings parking lot in the middle of town. We have family friendly decorations, food, a patio heater (for the poor freezing parents) and we visit with the people of the town. I hand out books of hope to the kids. I talk to them at eye to eye. I love on them and I have a blast with them. I have people in my church who don’t think we should have anything to do with this night. They think we should stay home and not participate in anything because of it’s origins. Although I can see where they are coming from and sometimes it’s tempting to do that, God reminded me that we are His light and we need to let it shine. So we are taking this night that the enemy intended for evil and turning it around for good!
Sharing the love of Christ with the neighborhood. That’s beautiful! Amen.
That’s exactly what my sister does with her kids. Neighborhood outreach day and giving instead of receiving! That has Jesus and following Him to be a fisher of men all over it!
We are gonna throw a block party festival in our driveway next year. Want to be thought of as a home filled with love where ALL are welcome. Amazing oportunity to fish men.
Let us use this day as an opportunity to be fishers of men. Like neighborhood outreach day. What other day of the year do you have your whole neighborhood and random strangers knocking on YOUR door? What does one learn when we stand back in judgment and avoid them completely? Hide under your blankets and shut all the lights off or open your doors and show them the love of Christ? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you have a seance in the driveway. Instead, why not ask God to reveal something you can do to be remembered as the house eveyone is welcomed at and people want to keep coming back to? Smores in the driveway, neighborhood chilli cook off, hot cocoa block party, etc… Just something that God placed on my heart.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/sent-into-the-harvest-halloween-on-mission
That is exactly what all the children in our neighborhood say. Happy Halloween. We are very Christian parents and always have been. I don’t believe that celebrating different holidays is corrupting a child. You just have to teach them correctly. Some candy is kept and some donated to the church to go with Thanksgiving dinners donated to the poor families. Christmas morning before Santa’s letter or presents we kiss Baby Jesus, wish Him a Happy Birthday and read from the Bible. My son knew from an early age that Jesus was born to save us and comes first always. The same with Easter. It is the day The Lord arose from the dead to give us a rebirth in our Faith. The Easter bunny or baskets are second. Tradition is very special as long as God comes first and they know about charity and love.