Thoughtful About . . . Seasons, Holidays, and Halloween

by Roseanna White | Oct 14, 2010 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized

(First, a sidenote–I’m featured today at Stepping Stones Magazine for Readers, so go check out the letter I wrote you!)

Now that I have a school-age kiddo, I’ve found that an awful lot of focus in our house in on the season and holidays coming up. Kind of amazing how they go from clueless to completely into celebrating over the course of a few years, isn’t it?

I’ve put a lot of thought into the way we celebrate things, and it inevitably comes up for me this time of year. All the kids’ shows (and I mean ALL) are focused on Halloween. I can see why they like to be–to the politically-correct way of thought, this is a safe holiday. There’s no religious attachment to worry about ignoring or getting in trouble for not ignoring. It’s just costumes and candy, right? And boy do my kids get excited about it!

Then I inevitably come across something that expounds on the evils of Halloween and how it’s the most un-Christian holiday you ever could see. I have friends who avoid anything Halloween at all costs. I’m still trying to figure out my own stance, and maybe y’all can help me.

See, here’s the thing. The history of it dates back to the days when Christians and pagans were still butting heads in the British isles. Halloween is the night before All Hollow’s Day (aka All Saints Day), the day on the Catholic calender that is devoted to honoring all the saints not already honored on their own days. A holy day. Halloween is kind of . . . almost like a Mardi Gras before lent for the pagans. A day of black magic, sorcery, and spells. So yeah, I get the evil thing. But our traditions? Those come from people attempting to stay apart from it. Jack o’ lanterns, for example, were first carved into scary faces to frighten away the evil spirits–and those who would bring them to a house. I’ve heard that trick or treating is a terrible thing, but it actually has similar roots. It can be viewed negatively, but . . .

Well, but so can the Christmas tree. So can the Easter egg. And if we’re on that subject, um, hello–“Easter” is named after the Roman goddess for spring, not for the resurrection. If we’re taking issue with holidays . . . But seriously. How many of our Christmas traditions, so beloved, are rooted in paganism? A lot.

And you know what? I’m okay with all that–because the whole point is that Christians integrated what was not sacred into their traditions and made it sacred by stripping it of old meaning and giving it new. I don’t believe that things, all by themselves, carry particular meaning (generally speaking, of course–there are exceptions)–it’s a matter of the meaning we give it.

So I keep coming back to the fact that I can’t have a problem with Halloween if I’m not going to have one with Christmas trees, Easter eggs, and who-knows-what-else. Why not have fun with costumes and candy, so long as my kids are taught the difference between good and evil, the dangers people once faced on that day, and the importance of recognizing the saints, like All Hollow’s Day is meant to do?

On that theory, I looked up some Catholic Halloween sites, thinking to get a good grounding for ways to make the holiday line up with a moral code. Interestingly, I found their suggestions way scarier than any Halloween party I wanted to go to! (It involved taking your kids through a graveyard to talk about those who have gone before, and having someone jump out from behind a tombstone to frighten them–fright is apparently a crucial part of the sacred holiday, too!)

So anyway. I know people get really upset by Halloween, and I’m happy to hear their points of view. I would, in fact, welcome any corrections, since I know many of these folks have done their homework on the subject better than I have. Or if you do celebrate it, I’d love to hear why. All I know if that if I wanted to keep my kids away from it, I’d have to cut off all TV, Story Time, and keep them out of public for the entire month of October.

All in all, I think my favorite way of someone making this day sacred was my friend Karlene’s family, who took her kids out trick-or-treating, yes–and together the family stopped and prayed at each house they visited, covering each and every place they went with the Lord’s blessing. Cool, huh? A trick-or-treating prayer walk!