NOT Halloween – FTF

My husband’s family didn’t celebrate Halloween when he was growing up, and my own family only celebrated in the sense that we liked to dress up, always in fun stuff, never as anything spooky.  My favorite costume was Dolly Parton (I was in grade 2 I think!).  But when we started our own family we seriously considered what to do with this ‘holiday’.

I’ll start by saying that all children love to dress up, so we find other ways to do that (as with my son’s October birthday party).  But we do all we can to avoid the dark part of this celebration.  Nothin’ spooky or icky…  When my daughter developed a serious peanut/nut allergy, it was an easy choice for us – we do not ‘trick-or-treat’ with our kiddos.  It makes it easier not to have to participate – it’s just too risky for her as she can’t even touch or smell peanuts and you never know what you’re going to get when you go out to get candy from strangers.

But it’s deeper than all of this for us.  There is something dark about this holiday.  Say what you like, but just go to your local department store and see what kinds of costumes and decorations make up the bulk of the fare these days.  Skeletons, gruesome masks, axes, tombstones, ghosts and ghouls, the undead or mostly dead, all kinds of icky things.  It’s just gross and certainly doesn’t celebrate life and light, two of the main things we focus on in our family day in and day out.

One of the main sources of helpful information for me has been Martha Zimmerman’s book “Celebrating the Christian Year“.  (Unfortunately, at last check, this book is out of print, and I snatched up the last several copies I could find!)  She has a chapter on each of the major holidays and goes through the roots of the holiday as well as what might be alternatives to celebrating in a more focused Christian way.  I love her writing and we have found this book in particular to be very helpful with all of the holidays.

From the chapter “Halloween and All Saints’ Day”: “Halloween is one of the oldest holidays, dating back before the Christian era.  Druid priests originated this festival, which took place on the last day of October to honor the sun god and to mark the Celtic new year.  The Druids believed that evil spirits were sent out to roam the earth and attack people on this night.  The people’s only hope for escape from the spirits was some type of disguise, which they wore to confuse the spirits and thereby protect themselves, even with the hope of preventing the spirits from coming near. Similar traditions are found in the aboriginal people’s of Austraila, as well as in latin cultures who celebrate “Dia de los Meurtos” (Day of the Dead).  Hindus celebrate a festival of the dead as did ancient Egyptians and Persians.  “The Romans had a similar fall festival in honor of Pomona, their goddess of the orchard.  Ripe grain, corn, fruit, and flowers were used for food as well as decorations.  Sound familiar?  Quite obviously our use of pumpkins, apples, and cornstalks is a continuation of these customs,” Martha writes.

“So, what, if any, is the Christian significance of this celebration?”  A look back into church history shows that early Christians chose to try to celebrate the season in a different way.

According to Martha, “Hallow comes from the word holy.  It means ‘to make holy; to honor as sacred.’  Halloween is the eve of ‘All Hallows Day’ or ‘All Saints’ Day’.  … As early as the 4th century, Christian festivals were held in honor of ‘all the saints’.  In A.D. 615, Pope Boniface IV reclaimed the pagan temple of the Pantheon in Rome as a church and dedicated it to all the martyrs.” The original dedication was in May, but as the celebration, by then widely established as a Christian celebration, became larger, food supply became an issue.  “Pope Gregory IV, in A.D. 844, moved the feast from May to November 1 because the fall harvest provided an abundant food supply.  The Christian celebration was called ‘All Hallows Day.’  Quite naturally, the evening before the celebration, October 31, was called ‘All Hallows Eve.'”

As with most Christian festivals which tried to ‘take over’ pagan rituals, “by medieval times the celebration of All Hallows Eve had blended Christian and ancient pagan practices.”

“Children wearing masks went from door to door ‘souling’, which meant the children begged for ‘soul cakes’ – flat, oval shortbread cookies containing currants and various spices.  Can you guess what happened if no treats were forthcoming? Tricks or pranks were played on the guilty parties, of course!”

What about jack-o-lanterns?  “Squash, turnips, and rutabagas were ‘hollowed out.’ Faces were carved in the vegetables.  A lighted candle was placed inside to shine through the grotesquely fashioned face.  The carved vegetables were called jack-o’-lanterns because of an old Irish legend about a man named Jack, who was not permitted to enter heaven because of his stingy ways.  However, he was not permitted in hell either because of the tricks and jokes he had always played on Satan.  Since neither place would take him he was left to wander the earth carrying a lantern.”

“Children began to carry these jack-o’-lantern lights to frighten away evil spirits while welcoming all friendly spirits.  When pumpkins were discovered in American, they became very popular as potential jack-o’-lanterns.  Children continued dressing up in costumes and disguises on Halloween, unconsciously carrying on age-old pagan traditions…. Today, Halloween is a mixture of Druid superstitious practices and classic paganism.”

Martha says that once we’ve looked at the history, we might decide to avoid this holiday all together – there is certainly enough evidence that suggests the pagan roots are still firmly attached to this holiday.  That alone might be enough to just set the whole Halloween thing aside – and is for lots of families.

Martha goes on to say, “It is very important to remember that God looks at the intentions of your heart.  What is your goal?  Why give even an inch to the pagan celebration of darkness?  Instead, celebrate Christ, the Light of the World, who has already won the victory over that darkness.  Why allow the Roman goddess of the orchard or the Druid sun god stand in our way?  In honor of the living God in our midst, enjoy apples, pumpkins, and corn, remembering with appreciation all of HIs good gifts.

“We have been manipulated into a very awkward position.  We are dealing with very powerful stuff!  So what are we to do?

“Let me encourage you to think about taking an aggressive next step to reclaim this holiday.  As Christians we believe in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Christians down through the ages have risked their lives for this truth.  All Hallows Day was designed to remember the lives of well-known believers and ‘to follow them in all virtuous and godly living.’ How might we remember and celebrate Christ this season?”

She suggests things like:

• hosting an All Hallows Eve Party, with various games and perhaps even costumes all centering around Christian heroes and heroines
• reading “Halloween, Are You For Real?” by Harold Myra to your young children
• carving your pumpkins with Christian symbols of light and life – cross, fish, crown, etc…
• instead of decorating your home and yard with ghosts, spiders, witches, tombstones, etc., flood your whole space with light and beautiful fall decorations

I know that my kiddos are getting the picture on these things.  For his party this year, my son said, “Mom, I want to have a dress-up party, but can I tell them no spooky or scary stuff?  I want it to be a light party, not a dark one.”  BINGO!  And when we went into our local Wal-Mart and were talking about the decorations displayed around (which you can’t seem to avoid this time of year), my daughter said, “Mom, it’s all so dark. Is that why we don’t like Halloween?”  I said, “It is… I spend my whole life focusing on the Light and the Life of Jesus – why would I change that and look at darkness and death, even for one day of the year?”  “But after this, Mom, it’s the Christmas season,” she said, “and that’s ALL about Jesus.  I just love Christmas!”

So, we chose do chose to focus on the Light of the world, Jesus, in all that we do.  We don’t dwell on death, don’t spend time entertaining ghosts and haunting things, and don’t focus on the darkness in this world. That means that whatever we do for Halloween looks different… it mostly means we don’t participate in the ‘normal’ Halloween stuff at all.  That is our choice, and our kids aren’t missing out on any of the fun either – we still get to dress up, we still enjoy some candy and sweet treats of the season together, and we avoid all of the scary, spooky, dark stuff.  It works for us!

Check out more Family Time Fridays here at my blog, and over at Tidbits of Tammy, too!