What is Halloween and how do Christians respond to it?

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Halloween falls on October 31 each year. Over the centuries, Christians have had a variety of attitudes to it. This is the story ...

All Hallows' Day

All Hallow's Day was the traditional time in the Church calendar. All Hallow's Day goes back to the eighth century. In AD 835, Pope Gregory IV made All Hallows' Day an authorised holiday. Today it is more often called All Saints' Day, for remembering departed "saints" - used in the way the word is used in the New Testament to mean any Christian, living or dead (Ephesians 4:12).

All Saints Day is still marked in many strongly Catholic and Lutheran countries. In some countries All Saints' Day is a public holiday, when many people visit family graves to clean and decorate them with flowers or candles. Additionally, November 2 is marked as All Souls' Day mainly to honour the lives of the recently departed.
The modern evangelical equivalent is to mark the first Sunday in November as 'International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church'.

All Hallow's Eve

Like the evening before New Year's Day is New Year's Eve, and the evening before Christmas Day is Christmas Eve, so the evening before All Hallows' Day is All Hallows' Eve. In Scotland this phrase was contracted to Hallow E'en, written without the space as Hallowe'en. Historically, and still in some churches today, there was a special service held that evening called the Vigil of All Hallows. The idea of a vigil comes from the Jewish reckoning of beginning days at sunset, not at midnight, so the evening before was actually the start of the All Hallows' Day.

Hallowe'en Traditions

Different superstitions and folk traditions grew up around the All Hallows' Eve. Hallowed means made holy, but there was nothing holy about many of these traditions. All Hallow's Eve developed differently in Britain and Ireland compared to mainland Europe. Some of the historic traditions are attributed to the pagan celebration of Samhain, which means "summer's end" in Gaelic. In some places people wore scary masks and played pranks. Another tradition was to carve scary faces into turnips to create lanterns lit by candles, called jack o'lanterns. Bobbing for apples was one of the most popular games. Apples were floated in a bowl of water, or hung from strings, and guests were invited to catch and eat an apple with their hands behind their back. The evening would end with a big bonfire.

Reformation Day

Meanwhile in 1517, All Hallows' Eve was the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of his church in Wittenberg, in Germany. Ever since its bicentenary in 1717, this has been popularly marked in many churches of Calvinist and Lutheran heritage. For them October 31 is Reformation Day, or The Festival of the Reformation. For some churches the Sunday nearest Reformation Day is Reformation Sunday.

Halloween in England

Meanwhile in Puritan times, Hallowe'en traditions died out in most of England and Wales, but survived and even thrived in Ireland and Scotland. From 1605, in England and Wales, some of the former Hallowe'en traditions such as bonfires and apple-bobbing were transferred to Guy Fawkes's Night, held each November 5.

Scottish Hallowe'en

In Scotland, and in Scottish communities around the world, Hallowe'en was marked by parties. In 1785, Robert Burns wrote a 252-line poem about Scottish Hallowe'en. These evenings typically included "tattie-bogles" (scarecrows), a fancy dress competition and lanterns carved from "neeps" (turnips). A lady dressed as a witch would tell children spooky stories, and the children (and often adults too) partook in apple-bobbing or eating treacle-laden pancakes hanging from string. Later there would be a dinner with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) followed by singing, and reels of Highland dancing led by a bagpiper.

Queen Victoria

Scottish Hallowe'en started to be known in England when it was reported that Queen Victoria marked Hallowe'en at Balmoral. In 1866, while in Scotland, the Queen saw locals building fires, carrying torches, and having music and dancing. She asked about it and they told her it was their Hallowe'en tradition. From then until 1883, Queen Victoria and the royal family had an annual Hallowe'en party at Balmoral Castle.

In its heyday, up to a hundred staff would carry lit torches to a large bonfire in front of the castle. They paraded an effigy of a "shandry dann" (witch), which they then tossed onto the fire. This was then followed by dancing to music from the Queen's pipers. As this was reported in newspapers south of the border, Hallowe'en started to be known about in England. At the time the Queen faced criticism from some Christians, that as Head of the Church of England, it was not appropriate for her to entertain such irreligious superstitions.

Halloween in America

Meanwhile over the centuries, Hallowe'en was taken to North America by millions of Irish and Scottish emigrants, where it started to become part of American culture. Instead of turnips, they used the more plentiful American pumpkin, which was larger, and easier to carve.

There are many varieties of pumpkins in different colours and sizes. They take up to five months to grow and are harvested in the autumn, or fall as it's called in the US. By the end of the nineteenth century, the pumpkin became associated in America with harvest, Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving. In the US, Hallowe'en lost its apostrophe and became Halloween. In the US, Halloween is now the second largest commercially celebrated holiday after Christmas.

Halloween in the UK after the war

Communities in England of Scottish and Irish heritage often marked Hallowe'en, and it was reported in English newspapers as a Scottish or an Irish tradition. American Halloween was first introduced to the UK by Americans stationed in Britain during the Second World War. From the 1950s, Halloween started to be used in general English society, as an excuse for dinner dances, sausage suppers and children's parties. These were more innocent affairs with apple-bobbing and fancy dress. By the 1960s Hallowee'n had become more mainstream, so that in 1969, Agatha Christie wrote a Poirot detective story called "Hallowe'en Party", set in a children's Hallowe'en party, where a girl is drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket.

Halloween in the media

From about 1978, Halloween started to go in a more scary, macabre and sinister direction. This can be dated to the film "Halloween", which came out in 1978, and started a new genre of Halloween being associated with horror and the occult, and American television shows often had a Halloween special.

The Growth of Halloween

Through television and films, non-Americans became more aware of Halloween as practised in North America. From the 1980s, the American tradition of trick-or-treating started to be copied by young people in Britain. In the UK, pumpkin carving has also become increasingly popular. More farms have started to grow pumpkins, and sales peak at Halloween, some for making pumpkin pie, but mainly for decoration and carving.

Christian Attitudes

Halloween is not mentioned in the Bible. The attitude of Christians to Halloween is varied, depending on their cultural background, their Christian tradition, or the style in which Halloween manifests where they live. Attitudes can also change when people have young children or grandchildren to consider.

There was a great difference in attitudes to Halloween in England and Wales, compared to Scotland and Ireland. In the past, many Irish and Scottish churches across the denominations, and Scottish and Irish communities around the world, were used to holding fun Hallowe'en parties for children.

Trans-Atlantic cultural attitudes

There are also different attitudes to Halloween across different sides of the Atlantic. Halloween is much more part of mainstream culture in North America than it is in Britain. Many American Christians, including evangelicals, are surprised at how opposed English Christians are to Halloween. Likewise, many British Christians are shocked at how relaxed many American evangelical Christians are to it.

Attitude of Churches

For most people in society Halloween is a non-religious secular festival. For Christians there is a spectrum of responses from embracing it, accepting it, redeeming it, replacing it, opposing it, or just ignoring it:

Embrace

Some churches, especially from Catholic, Lutheran or High Church Anglican traditions embrace Halloween. They see All Hallows' Eve and All Hallows Day part of Church tradition and hold special vigil services for it.

Accept

Some Christians just accept Halloween. For them Halloween is a fun, harmless opportunity for kids to dress up, and have fun, carve pumpkins and have parties.

Redeem

Other Christians may not embrace it, but try to redeem it instead. They see Halloween as an opportunity to discuss spiritual warfare and maybe engage with the local community. They may give tracts to trick-or-treaters, and take it as an opportunity to meet the neighbours and explain spiritual matters.

Replace

Others Christians try to replace Halloween. For them Halloween is dark, compared to the light of the gospel. They use the opportunity of Halloween, without taking part, by putting on alternative events such as Light Parties. In the UK, Scripture Union provide resources for churches to hold a Light Party for youth groups. Others may throw an Autumn Party (or Fall Festival) instead, to provide a family-friendly, safe and fun alternative.

Oppose

There are also Christians who emphasise the pagan origins of Halloween and its associations with the Occult. They want nothing to do with it. Some Christians see Halloween as intrinsically evil and shield themselves and their children from it. They effectively boycott it, or may choose to hold a prayer evening instead, or actively oppose it in other ways.

Ignore

Many Christians and churches just choose to ignore Halloween, and some churches, especially those of the Lutheran or Calvinist tradition, prefer to mark Reformation Day instead.

Our Attitude

Whatever attitude you take to Halloween, Christians must exercise discernment, which may lead to different decisions by different churches in different places. St Paul says some Christians choose to mark special days and others do not (Romans 5:14-15), but we should make our decisions in good conscience (Romans 5:22-23), and not judge others who come to a different opinion (Romans 5:13).