Halloween
Rejecting the fake moral panic of some forms of Christianity
Growing up as a Pentecostal, I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween because it was the “Devil’s celebration.” I remember having to stay in the library while the other children participated in the Halloween parade and parties. While as a nerd I loved the library, that was the one day of the year I would have rather been with my classmates. Of course, the church I attended did a variation of Halloween just for our congregation called “Fall Festival” where we dressed up as Biblical characters and had some candy, but in reality, it wasn’t the same since it was mainly in insular celebration.
Some Christians view Halloween as evidence of “spiritual warfare” because it “honors” witches, demons, and other “evils” yet such an understanding of Halloween rests on a very limited understanding of evil. This understanding of Halloween reduces evil to ghoulish boogeymen (and women), demons, and supernatural events while ignoring the reality that we don’t need to blame Satan for any traces of evil, but rather we just need to look within.
To be sure, there are problematic aspects to Halloween. I am not a fan of those who decide that their customer is going to reflect the actual pain and suffering of people, or who decide to be flat out racist, but again those costumes are not a reflection of some supernatural evil entity but the ways in which human beings mock and exploit the pain of others for their own entertainment.
Halloween, like most things in life, is what you make of it. It can symbolize the joys of childhood and candy, and costumes, or it can be a celebration of pain, suffering, or evil, or it can be just another average day. But the meaning isn’t some unchanging truth ascribed by some fantastical evil entity. And to view the mostly fun and innocent celebrations of children and adults dressing up and getting candy as some vile celebration of Satan, makes me think that some Christians lack a true understanding of what “evil” is.
Which isn’t surprising. Too many Christians define “evil” and “sin” in terms of things they don’t agree with: other religions, gender identities, sexual orientations, are all viewed as inherently sinful because they present an alternative way of viewing the world: views that might contradict and present a threat to their own narrow perspectives. In fact, the “sins” that society in general would consider to be incredibly abhorrent such as murder, abuse, etc often get swept under the rung in Christian circles and are viewed as less serious than “sins of disobedience” ie any action or viewpoint that contradicts a specific and narrow way of being and living in the world.
The threat of Halloween has less to do with some notion of demons and witchcraft, but rather with an alternative understanding of the world, where stories of demons and monsters aren’t taken to be literal supernatural truths. Where a diversity of viewpoints are embraced and people’s creativity knows no limits, for better or worse. Halloween challenges and mocks simplistic notions of good and evil. It takes stories of supernatural evil and either tames them or ridicules them.
That’s not to say there might not be a mysterious element to evil-how many acts of cruelty can barely be explained by modern understandings of psychology and sociology? Sometimes no matter how much we try to figure out “why” we act cruelly to one another, there is no singular answer. But the fact there is not a singular answer for why evil occurs does not mean that responsibility should shift to a supernatural entity outside of ourselves. It just means that we as humans are vastly more complicated than many of us often acknowledge.
If I could go back in time, I would have participated in all of the Halloween activities. Not only as a rejection of a weak theology of evil, but also because the parties and parades were another way to foster community. The faith of my youth was one built on separation: we didn’t refrain from celebrating Halloween because it wasn’t a part of our culture and we, therefore, had some other event to share, or because we didn’t like all the crowds or because of the cost of costumes, all of which are valid reasons for not participating in Halloween: but rather we refused to celebrate Halloween because we believed that the world was condemned to hell and we weren’t.
Halloween was one of the many litmus tests we had to demonstrate our purity and obedience to God and everyone else’s condemnation. Eschewing Halloween was a way for us to foster separation and division. (To be sure, I also think the schools could have come up with a better alternative for those who chose not to celebrate Halloween than just sitting quietly in the library...)
Celebrate Halloween...don’t celebrate Halloween. Do what is best for you and your family. But be wary of adding some moral dimension to the holiday that doesn’t exist.
Christians shouldn’t view Halloween as a satanic celebration, but rather as a poignant reminder that the monsters, ghosts, and demons that cause us to lay awake at night fearful, have less to do with the supernatural and more to do with the cruelty that we as humans inflict on one another.
Image: background cloudy, night sky with spider webs on the four corners of the image. Text: Christians shouldn’t view Halloween as a satanic celebration, but rather as a poignant reminder that the monsters, ghosts, and demons that cause us to lay awake at night fearful, have less to do with the supernatural and more to do with the cruelty that we as humans inflict on one another.