Why I Don't Celebrate Halloween

Fall is my very favorite season.  I love the colors, cooler temperatures, the mountains, and the feeling of the air. I love pulling out favorite sweaters, and wearing cute boots. I adore being able to cook hearty soups, and bake bread, and I just love the harvest foods, and abundance of it all.  I love decorating my house with pretty squashes, colored leaves, and fall flowers. I think there is little prettier than a field of pumpkins with all the leaves gone, and brown, and just the beautiful squash ready to store for winter.

But every year I hesitate before buying pumpkins to fill with potted mums because it means decorating with a pumpkin, and people think it means I am making jack-o-lanterns. I am not. Not because I don't like pumpkins, as I clearly do, but because it is so important to me to live my faith, and to never, ever leave room for confusion in anyone's mind what I believe and that I believe it to my core.

Phil 4: 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I find it completely impossible to read this passage, and the many others like it, and reconcile celebrating a holiday that has nothing to do with nobility, purity, loveliness or praiseworthiness. Halloween is filled to the brim with darkness, violence, fear, and death. I know the history of it, and have read all the fear mongering books which contain truths as well. I also know that Samhain is a big holiday among witches and Wiccans. It is a pagan holy day, similar to how I feel about Resurrection Sunday which I also don't call Easter for the same reasons.

It is not a Christian holiday and I have heard all of the arguments: We can reclaim it for Christ. What? How do you claim death, violence, darkness, and a pagan holy day for Christ if there is nothing there to claim it for? Easter is a good example of what I mean here. I do not celebrate the pagan holiday for Oestre. I celebrate the resurrection of my Savior. Christmas is another. I do not celebrate Yule. I celebrate the birth of my Savior. Who cares if the days are near each other? Since no one knows when Christ was born it doesn't matter to me if we celebrate it mid winter or mid spring. We do know when He was resurrected.

Halloween just does not have anything to redeem or anything to celebrate. As a Christian I should be celebrating life, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, goodness, purity, love, truth, nobility, and light. I don't find any of that in Halloween.

We have a big drawer full of costumes, and in fact we have costume parties as often as we can get away with it!  I have no problem with kids eating candy now and then, and I certainly don't have a problem with fall fun, corn mazes, bobbing for apples, ginger snaps and apple cider, or with dressing up for fun.

I have a big problem with dressing up on October 31st.  I want to make it crystal clear who we are, and what we believe and if I can just choose to compromise it for the sake of my kids being given a bagful of candy, then it must not mean much to me to begin with.  How would anyone ever know the difference between Jesus and the rest of the world if there isn't a difference?

I never want to think I made that compromise for the sake of doing what everyone else is doing, because parts of it are frankly fun.  I know most don't agree with me here.  I wrote this because I decided I don't care who disagrees and I don't care who writes nasty things to me to defend celebrating Halloween.  Do whatever you want to as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15