What is a Christian to do on Halloween?
AUTHOR: PASTOR GARY
Every year someone asks me, “what is a Christian to do on Halloween?” My answer is this:
The name “Halloween” comes from “All Hallows’ Eve” (All Saints’ Eve). The Christian origins of Halloween began in the mid-second century. The church decided to have a special day to honor martyrs of the past and called it the “the Feast of All Martyrs.” And over time, this celebration started to embrace not just martyrs but all departed saints who had gone before them.
There was also an ancient pagan festival called Samhain, a Gaelic harvest festival that was being celebrated at the same time. This ancient pagan festival was, for those who believed, a season when the veil between our world and the next was very thin, allowing the spirits to easily move back and forth. Because not every spirit was deemed friendly, various rituals were used to ward off or appease them. In time, Samhain and All Saints’ eventually co-mingled, leading to the variety of Halloween traditions we have today.
So, once again, we see the devil hijacking something that was originally good and doing his devilish work to pervert it. So, what is a Christian to do? There are three options.
Fully Receive – Fully embrace and participate in all the traditions of this night, good and evil, without any discrimination. That, of course, is not what any Christian should do on this night or any other.
Fully Reject – Because you see the evil in this holiday that is practiced by some, choose to totally abstain from any involvement. That, of course, is what some Christians may decide to do. And for some, it may be an issue of conscience. That decision should be respected.
Carefully Redeem – This is my choice. I don’t believe that we should let the devil have any night. We are supposed to be wise and redeem the time in evil days (Ephesians 5:16).
To “redeem” something in our culture means to admit it has been used for evil but to reclaim it for God’s purposes. And one of the ways that we can do that is by sitting out in our front yards and not just giving out candy, but also taking the time to meet the parents of the children.
The reality is that many families in our neighborhoods are going to be taking their children out to “trick or treat.” Why not provide a safe and friendly place for them to come and have a great time with their children, while giving you a chance to get to know them, love them, and maybe even share the gospel with them? This could be a great night to not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
We must be salt and light in this dying world. We should look and act different and not hide from the opportunity to show the love of Christ. Choose to be His hands and feet and shine the light of Christ this October 31st!
Pastor Gary