Halloween

I recently saw a question on a friend’s Facebook page about the origins of Halloween, and I thought I would offer a few thoughts to provoke your thinking.

The first is that, like Christmas, the church’s celebration of All Saints Day (which usually follows Halloween by a day or two) has its roots in the ancient practices of worshiping nature. You would know, for example, that Christmas has its roots in the winter solstice and that early Europeans believed evergreen trees and holly trees held mystical powers because they stayed green despite the harshest of wintry conditions. For this reason, they brought the trees into their homes in an attempt to find good favor with the spirits of nature.

Halloween is not much different, in the sense that it falls at the end of the harvest season, and many people believed harvested crops could be devastated by innumerable problems during the winter. They believed that departed spirits had some power to protect them, so rituals were developed to appease the spirits in exchange for protection of their harvest bounty.

How interesting that we today hand out candies in exchange for protection from children in ghost and goblin costumes. What is unfortunate is that much like Christmas Halloween has been over-commercialized and become the subject of much fanciful marketing.

Before those of you who may be reading this and believe you are enlightened and that these ancient practices are nothing more than superstition, I believe it is important that we stop and consider a critical piece of evidence. Our ancestors held strong beliefs in the supernatural. They not only believed in the existence of the supernatural, they went further and acknowledged and embraced the supernatural. It is unfortunate that they misunderstood that God was at work behind the evidence they saw in the world and it is further unfortunate that no one told them about Christ.

Examining their cultures in detail, it is a short step to connect the dots from their beliefs to demonstrating how Christ is at work in the natural order of the world and then to bring the story of redemption into their lives through the objects of their fascination.

There can be no question that we have protection, providence and sustenance available to us from the supernatural, namely, God Himself, incarnate through Jesus Christ, and working in our personal lives through the Holy Spirit. How short a step it would be from appeasing departed spirits through gifts of harvested crops to putting those first fruits to work for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Bring this into context into today’s American culture and consider that the light over the door of homes where children will knock represents an invitation. The occupants of those homes are inviting the spirit world into their lives and hearts. Will we as Christians tell them of the true protection they are seeking? Will we tell them of the satisfaction they so deeply long for?

Next, I did a little research into costumes and masks. From the articles I read, it was difficult to associate these practices with Satanic worship. However, the Science Channel on television the other day did flash a few one-line historical facts about Halloween, one of which was that people wore masks when offering human sacrifices. This made sense to me because I have seen images of men operating guillotines and nooses while wearing masks.

What are we afraid of that we need to wear a mask? Are we appeasing Satan or are we headed in another direction? When I think of masks, I think of Hollywood.