Halloween, Hell Houses, and Hope!

Dear Crosswalkers,

This Sunday is “All Hallows Eve”, aka Halloween.  Halloween’s origins date back to the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France.  The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1, because to them it marked the end of sun and summer and the beginning of the cold, dark winter.  It was a time they associated with death.  Celts believed that on October 31, the night before their “new year,” the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On that night they celebrated the festival of Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.  Then Christianity began to have a greater influence in Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 “All Saints Day,” a time to honor the men and women of God who had been martyred or who had died.  The celebration was called All-hallows, and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Over the years, attitudes towards Halloween have been quite diverse among followers of Jesus.  Today, many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to harmless costumes and handing out candy.  These followers of Jesus are not in any way superstitious and to them Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children.  In fact, many use it as an opportunity to serve their community and potentially reach out to their community by providing a “safe and sane” way to celebrate.  They wish to model the hope we have in Christ by engaging the culture rather than doing battle with it.  Others take a more aggressive evangelistic approach and host “Hell Houses” that are meant to literally “scare the hell” out of people.  Evangelistic tracts are given to those leaving the “Hell Houses,” and opportunities given to make a commitment to follow Jesus.  Other believers have an understandable concern about Halloween, and may even choose to reject the holiday altogether because they feel it celebrates the occult.  Jesus is the author of life, and some feel it is not wise to participate in something that has its beginning as a pagan “festival of the dead.”

The attitude believers should have about Halloween is certainly something that is not taught in the Bible.  That makes it a “disputable matter” (Romans 14:1) in which we should “think and let think,” and understand that the faith we have, we have as our own conviction before God.  Therefore we exercise great love and forbearance toward differences in this regard.  At Crosswalk, we have chosen the first option presented above.  While we certainly agree that there are negative spiritual forces in the world that we battle every day, and that more aggressive evangelistic efforts are sometimes effective, we have basically chosen to allow our kids to have fun on this holiday and provide a Community Trick or Treat event for people to safely enjoy this cultural reality.  While candy isn’t healthy food, kids love candy and once a year to let kids dress up and get candy isn’t the worst thing in the world.  At our Community event we shun superstition and provide Bible themed carnival games and a good time.  It is also a chance for us to talk with others and share the hope we have in Christ.  Many thanks to all Crosswalkers who are helping with this event by bringing candy and volunteering to serve!

This Sunday morning is FAMILY DAY, which means our elementary kids will be in worship with us!  We will provide activity packs for the kids, and the message on the faith of David in overcoming the Giant Goliath (something of a ‘monster’ that fits in with Halloween!) will be kid friendly.  This will be a fun day at church, and I hope you will be there!

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie