Here's my magazine article from October 2013.
“It's
just harmless fun” is a phrase that we'll be hearing a lot over the
next few weeks as people defend the activities around Halloween, but
is it true?
The origins of
Halloween are in the Druid and Celtic feast of Samhain which
celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the dark period of
winter. The boundary between this world and the world of the dead was
thought to dissolve and the dead returned to earth and created havoc
by playing tricks on people and damaging crops. When Christianity
arrived in Britain, it attempted to 'Christianise' these and other
similar celebrations around the world by talking instead of the
'hallowed' saints who have died. 1st November became All
Hallows (Saints) Day, and the day before, 31st October
became All Hallows Eve or Hallowe'en. However, despite this the
pagan and occult origins of the celebrations never went away.
Today the celebrations
of Halloween have little to do with Samhain, for many it's just a
laugh, an opportunity to dress up and perhaps to get some free
sweets. We might possibly object to Halloween because of its
celebration of fear, and of causing fear; the anti-social problems
and potential risks for children through 'trick-or-treats'; or the
overcommercialisation of it. But there is something a lot more
dangerous about Halloween than these.
Christianity teaches
that the supernatural exists and that there are evil and malevolent
spiritual forces in the world. Halloween celebrations both
underestimate and overestimate the power of those forces. By
trivialising their power and making it the stuff of funny costumes it
may encourage people, especially children, to 'play' with ouija
boards, tarot cards, horoscopes and other occult practices. This
connects people with sinister forces beyond their control, forces
whose only aim is destruction.
On the other hand,
Halloween is the celebration of evil over good, of darkness over
light. Christianity teaches that through his death on the cross
Jesus defeated all evil powers, although they won't be finally
destroyed until Jesus comes again. In the meantime, they are active
in the world and although they are more powerful than we are, they
are nowhere near as powerful as God is. In Jesus, good has triumphed
over evil and light has defeated darkness. As we say in the baptism
service as we give the person their baptism candle: “God has
delivered us from the dominion of darkness and has given us a place
with the saints in light. You have received the light of Christ; walk
in this light all the days of your life.”
The 'treat' of
Halloween is really a 'trick' to make us both forget the power of
evil and also to think it more powerful than it is. Fun it may be,
but harmless it most definitely is not.
