As this time of year approaches, I start seeing more and more memes and social media post passed around the internet. Certain people from various backgrounds come out in droves on social media proclaiming that Halloween is evil. Some atheist do it to mock and put down the religion they despise. Some Christians do it to warn or put down other Christians in order to bring them to the light that they believe is a sin. I put an emphasis on “some” because it is definitely not all. 

It is important that we ask the big question. What is Halloween? Well, it depends on who you ask. For some it about trick or treating and candy. For some it is about scary costumes and parties. For some it is about Christian traditions. For some it about practicing evil traditions. Halloween means different things to different people depending on where they’re from, what cultural background they come from, what religions they come from, etc. The United States of America has often been called a melting pot, which it is. The United States of America is filled with people that come from all over the world who bring their traditions with them. Even those who have been in U.S for generations and no longer associate with the traditions of where they come from, often observe the corporate capitalism celebrations of Halloween. What I mean by that is, corporations are always looking at what sells and then thinks of ways to expand that demand in order to create more demand. Hence the commercials, candy production etc.

It is true that a lot of the traditions originate from religious observations. One of the objections I hear from these people are that all Halloween traditions is evil because they all originate from Pagan celebrations or sacrifices. This is where I need to make an important logical distinction. If one is a Christian, and are celebrating a Pagan tradition, then that could be considered evil because of the various commandments broken. However, if one is a Christian, and are celebrating a Christian tradition, then that is not evil.

At this point I would like to talk about these 2 distinctive traditions. The first tradition is Samhain. It was a festival celebrated by the ancient Celts that lasted approximately 3 days starting on October 31^st. Numerous things can be found about this on the internet at sites like worldhistory.org. The other tradition I want to talk about is the Christian tradition which is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed or in other words, All soul’s day or Day of the Dead. It’s a 3-day tradition beginning with All Hallows Eve or in other words, All Souls Eve. More information about this can be found on the internet at sites like Catholic.com. These are just 2, there are many others. Some traditions can come from other traditions as time progresses however the essence of them can change. Once the essence changes, they are no longer the same. It is always important to remember that correlation doesn’t always equal causation. 

As a Christian and as a parent living in a mixed secular and religious society, it can be overwhelming with so many different traditions performed and celebrated on Halloween. There is sort of a test that we can do to find out if what we are doing is correct. We need to ask questions. When we do something, what does it mean to us as Christians? What is its purpose? Does it violate any of the commandments? What is the intent? These are just some questions that we can ask ourselves. It is also important to never assume someone else has the same answers that you have for yourself and your family.