I participated in Halloween festivities all my life. My Church had a Halloween party every year, we went to school dressed up and then paraded around the neighborhood collecting more junk than one child could possibly consume. Mom put the bags (with our names on them) high in the cupboard and would let us pick one or two items for our lunches and for a snack after school while we did our homework.
I was always the chicken of the group though; I'd try everything to get out of going to haunted houses, witch walks and hayrides. I would run with my eyes closed (not always a good idea) past the houses that looked like graveyards with the eerie music blasting. I would have nightmares of the witches and monsters and skeletons that would lurk around every corner.
Then when I was about 19 I heard an Orthodox priest speak about how demonic this celebration really was. He explained that the "harmless" jack-o-lanterns that sat on our front steps originated from the Celts. He told us that they would carve faces in remembrance of their dead and then go to a place where they would offer someone as a sacrifice. Then they would take that light from the fire and take it home (in their jack-o-lanterns) to light their hearth. They also believed that the dead would roam the earth that night so they left treats outside their doors.
I was in shock but somehow it settled something in my soul that I never even realized was stirring. I looked into it quite a bit more and found an abundance of information that supported his statements.
Ever since then I take no part in the celebration of Halloween. I teach my children that it is a demonic holiday that most people don't understand. But we understand that anything that isn't of Christ is of Satan and there is nothing "of Christ" in celebrating this day. We go about as we would any other day-we also celebrate the feast of St. John of Krondstadt (his feastday on the old calendar). We do decorate with non-carved pumpkins, gourds and fall leaves for Fall or Harvest in September.
I realize even within our Church the opinions on this are split down the middle. Argument 1 claiming that it is a completely demonic holiday in origins and we should not take any part in it and Argument 2 claiming that nowadays the intentions are not what they used to be and is just harmless fun (even though there are many satanic cults that offer sacrifices of animals and humans, as well as many other occultist practices). They also will say that yes, Halloween has pagan origins but if children are dressed up in "good" costumes it's ok. I think that's a pretty hypocritical statement. If you're dressed "good" you could participate in something that's satanic?
Forgive me if I offend anyone by saying this but I really believe that children who are raised with this mindset will learn to make excuses for everything in life that they know deep down is wrong but want to take part in.
Some will even go as far as arguing the fact that Christmas trees originated from Druid practices. While this is true, a Christmas tree is, in fact, a symbol of Christmas and Christianity. (I think this is like comparing apples to oranges) I don't think anyone can say there is any connection between Halloween and Christianity.
When it comes to Christ we can't ride the line, as tempting as it is.
How do you feel about this?
Here are several articles that I recommend:
The Joyous Feast of Pumpkin
Is Halloween Just Harmless Fun?
Russian Church Speaks Concerning Halloween
The movie Trick or Treat?
Even if you disagree with this doesn't it upset you to see Halloween starting to shadow Christmas? People are decorating more for Halloween than the Birth of Christ! A long time ago I remember hearing (I don't remember where) how slowly corporations are going to try to combine Halloween with Christmas. At that time I thought, Hmmm....that doesn't really make sense. How would they do that? Now when I see the Christmas decorations coming out at the same time as the Halloween decorations and there being equal amounts of both, if not less Christmas, I totally see how. I'm tired of pretending like religion has nothing to do with what goes on in the world. I now understand that religion is exactly what determines what happens...
23 comments:
I celebrated Halloween as a child but it always creeped me out. As an adult Evangelical/Charismatic Protestant I never celebrated it with my husband or my children. I totally agree with your thoughts here and I can add that since our family is on an all-natural, no corn syrup diet I wouldn't be able to allow my children to eat most of what they gathered anyway. My little ones were walking through the grocery store the other day singing loudly "Halloween is bad, bad, bad. No more worshiping the devil! Halloween is bad for us!" Inspired lyrics, eh?! lol
I do think children need to know to call evil what it is - evil.
We also don't have a Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny or Santa Claus (we do enjoy celebrating St. Nicholas' feast day). Christmas is about the Nativity of Our Lord. Why lie to our children? It's not about STUFF. It's about truth and there is only one Truth.
The flip side of that is that we do have our children hunt for Easter baskets (the women hunted for Jesus at the tomb and found a great surprise!) and receive a few gifts on Christmas morning (usually a larger gift for the whole family to share which reflects Christ's great blessing to us). I don't think Jesus would have us be total kill-joys as parents (I have swung both ways on this one and landed somewhere close to the middle I guess). Gifts and surprises are a great way (in moderation) to teach our children about the treasures of the church and God's kingdom.
Our Halloween goes as follows:
- Our elementary age kids gorge themselves at the class party (fortunately, only one kid now)
- Same kid wants to visit neighborhood nursing home for (only slightly) haunted house. I encourage this, in the spirit of kindness
- Each kid is allowed to either go on an all-expenses-paid date w/Mom during trick-or-treat time, or trick-or-treat with friends/parents.
- If the kid goes trick-or-treating, the following rules apply: a) No scary/evil costumes, period; b) All candy subject to "torn-wrapper" inspection; c) After inspection, said kid has 15 minutes to eat whatever they want. After 15 minutes, the remainder is traded for a toy/gift card ($10 range). Then the candy gets tossed.
Why do we do this? Believe me, we'd rather not (hence the "mom date" option). But one of my kids had serious social issues, and there was no way we were going to pull him from activities that the rest of the kids saw as "fun". It would have isolated him even more. Instead, we gave our kids boundaries. And we encouraged them to say hi and visit for a moment with neighbors. I suppose it would be different if we didn't have much contact with others in our neighborhood, or if we homeschooled alongside families who didn't celebrate Halloween. But there's what we do :-)
Liz (looking forward to November 3 or so, when all of the gick has washed out of the boys' systems!)
I guess coming from a different tradition I would offer the hypothesis that All Hallows Eve in upon October 31st was not a Eastern celebration. I would further offer that just like there is an overtly secular celebration of Christmas and Easter that those do not really accurately depict the true sacredness of the evening vigil leading up to Christmas, Easter, or All Saints Day.
I think the assumption of demonic influence can be deemed false considering its actual Christian origins. We have been invited to keep out lanterns lit and not hidden in preparation for His coming. If the lantern is sometimes a pumpkin, so be it!
That said, I do inspire my children to look beyond secular celebrations of common events and have a working knowledge and practice of the sacred before we go trick or treating.
When I was a kid I was really into the trick or treating scene. I LOVED dressing up, and I loved going door to door with my sisters (being the oldest, I was the nominal leader). I loved the TV specials and was drooling at the mouth when The Nightmare Before Christmas came out in theaters. As blasphemous as it might sound to those who read this blog, back then I loved Halloween as much as I loved Christmas (in my defense, my reasons for loving Christmas were always spiritual and not material).
In my current days as a young adult, I'm well aware of the pagan background of the holiday. However, my Halloween activity has now boiled down to dressing up and going to parties, restaurants or bars with friends, so it's become nothing more than a secular ritual to me. In fact I've tried making it special to those around me: for the past two years I've come to the TV station where I work dressed in costume and hand out candy to all the producers and production assistants. It's always made them smile during a hectic work day, and I've always been well received. I fully intend to do it a third time this year.
However, I do fully respect and honor the opinions of those who don't celebrate Halloween. Different strokes for different strokes, as they say, and in this country no one should be FORCED to celebrate a holiday. Any way, excellent topic to discuss - thanks for bringing it up, Sylvia!
Oh sorry to double post, but I found something interesting. On the flip side some Wiccans think Halloween is OFFENSIVE because it supports the idea of the "wicked" witch!
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4136266.html
Mairs,
Totally, totally agree with everything you said. We also don't do the typical Christmas, Easter secular spectacular as I so dorkily refer to it. And I think I'll borrow that song from your kids... :)
Liz,
I also totally see where you're coming from too. I do think in certain situations, it should be left to the parent's discretion. You know what's best for your family. I love the options you give them too! I think that's a great way to kindly encourage them and also not allow them to run wild just because they're allowed to participate to an extent.
Mrs. Darcy,
I have to disagree (I'm sorry!) Halloween does in fact have pagan origins. They are repeatedly stated in the articles I linked. I also do not celebrate holidays secularly (Pascha/Easter, Christmas, etc).
I don't think you can compare a jack-o-lantern that (originally) carries a flame from a human sacrifice to a vigil lamp. If anything it is a mockery of our vigil lamps. I don't think anyone has lit a pumpkin in preparation of His coming. :)
All I can say is that I completely and emphatically agree with you. It also helps that my Bishop Kyrill does as well.
Thank you! I've been wanting to post something on my blog about Halloween, because I don't even like to take my children grocery shopping this time of year. As a child, I was taught that this is a demonic holiday, but did participate in a few costume parties, because I just wanted to be with my friends, I always felt awkward. Now, I'm teaching my children that ultimately this is something we won't have anything to do with...unless you want to please Satan.
Oh, yes and do I want my kids to have all that junk, candy...no!
I grew up trick-or-treating all the time.
As a mother I can say I do not like the holiday, never have. But, have very much given into peer pressure and am not proud of it. When my children were young they actually didn't like to go out, it was scary. Some of them still don't. Just my oldest talks about it and can't wait to go... and she goes with our priests family.
My observation has been that as halloween has gotten more and more popular and celebrated more and more with decorations in yards, etc. it has also gotten scarier and scarier. The disgusting stuff people put in their yards is unreal! My youngest son was scared out of his wits the first year he went when a "statue" turned out to be a real person! Actually, my youngest 3 begged to go home after that and haven't been out since. It just gets worse and worse every year and I really wish my oldest daughter wasn't so hip on it. I really just think it's the candy that she wants.
If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have introduced them to it at all.
I do have warn you though, that much of the "peer pressure" came from the 2 years my children were in public school. Once your kids are there it is going to be increasingly difficult. You can't sing Silent Night in the school choir but you can take a whole day to dress in costume, parade around and have parties....and it counts as a school day. (at least where we went to school)
Susan has a big point regarding the icky stuff in some yards. Smiling pumpkins (or even frowny ones with fangs) are not a huge deal. Neither are orange lights, or non-scarily-costumed grownups at the door. But for heaven's sake, we don't need ghouls popping up from behind tombs. Or howling noises. Or...
When walking my youngest through I usually skip those houses, with the comment that "those people have gone overboard, and we don't need that stuff to have fun." I've even skipped an entire culdesac because of one scene. And if I see those kinds of houses on our daily rounds, I'll try to take an alternate route, or distract the younger kid.
Oh, and Sylvia and Mrs. Darcy, you're both right. Very abbreviated history: The ancient Celtic new year was celebrated on November 1st. Samhain (pronounced sow-in), was the Celtic festival where the spirits of the dead were supposed to descend back to the earth, causing trouble. In the Middle Ages (600's, I believe), the Pope designated November 1st as All Saints Day (with All Hallows Day on October 31, and All Souls Day on November 2). The common belief is that this was meant to supplant Samhain, and in fact the Celtic festival became known as All-Hallows Eve, or then just plain Hallowe'en.
Of course today, the Western Christian substitute is largely forgotton, and the culture focuses on the modern version of the pagan origins.
Okay, enough history. Back to your regularly scheduled (and delightful) blog! :-)
I'm split. We do Halloween every year, and we have fun. We stay away from the really scary houses, and we dress up really tame. This year, AP is a fireman and NG is a dinosaur. My husband is going to be a dalmation and I'm going to be a cavewoman (to match the kids).
I don't ever think of halloween as being Satanic. My parents always taught me that it was just fun and games and there was no power to any of it. Those who try and give it evil power will receive it, but those of us who just want to run around, dress up and have fun aren't doing anyone any harm.
But you definitely bring up some valid points that I will most definitely have to research and think about.
I will point out one thing though - wasn't the decision on when to celebrate Christmas largely decided upon the fact that Pagans that converted celebrated the Winter Solstice at that time?
And many Christians feel that we Orthodox participate in Pagan rituals all the time, with the lighting of candles and such. What are your thoughts on that?
I will say this, though. My dad was always uncomfortable if I dressed up as a wicked witch for halloween. He didn't like it, and he tried to forbid it but my mom wasn't in agreement with him, so I dressed up like that a few times.
But he would dress up scary to scare all the kids who came up to get candy. I never understood that.
I will admit that we have been that really scary house that you all would've avoided. However, I stood outside in an angel costume to hand treats to the little ones, and kept them from approaching the front door where my husband was waiting to jump out all scary.
Again, I'm still torn. You've definitely given me some food for thought.
Thank you so much for this post! My 4 year old daughter has been asking me like crazy why there are so many scary things around the stores these days. After explaining it to her an elderly lady in the check out like asked what she was going to be for Halloween. Ella answered, "Oh, we don't do Halloween!" :)
What are your thoughts on churches having costume or harvest parties?
I used to be a HUGE fan of Halloween. I had one of those very scary houses (not gross, just scary) and I gave costume parties complete with ghosts and magic tricks. And I loved it all!
After I became Orthodox, all that just melted away. I didn't make any conscious decision to discontinue these things; I simply didn't seem to have the motivation any more.
Good things about Halloween (from my point of view): candy and costumes. I adore dressing up in costume! Bad things about Halloween: everything else.
As young Protestant midwestern children, both my husband and I participated in the yearly Halloween trick-or-treating event.
Didn't seem to have a huge negative effect on either of us, because we both grew up to be God-fearing Orthodox Christian adults.
I think it has to do with what parents decide to do with the day - or not to do. If you make Halloween about fun and candy then I think it's pretty harmless and innocent. If you make it about Satan and evil and fear, that's a different story.
Though our kids are getting a little too old to go trick-or-treating anymore, I don't think they've been adversely affected by their years of candy-gathering on Oct. 31. Us either.
I could have personally written what you wrote, Sylvia. I totally agree with you.
My take on it is: If Halloween is rendered harmless from its pagan origins because it's been "commercialized" or "secularized", why should this matter? I, as a Christian, do not celebrate the secularized feasts of my faith in that manner, but rather in the Church and in a religious and non-commercial way. I object to their secularization and commercialization, so why would I "take advantage" of the secularization of the holiday of another religion?
Case in point: Would you (general you, not specific) participate in a commercialized/secularized version of Eid, an Islamic holiday? Probably not, because it stems from another religion. In my mind, Halloween is no different.
Thank you for this wonderful article,it is very useful to me because this holyday became more popular in our country. I translate it in Romanian and I hope I have your permission for post it on my blog,if not please tell me and I will remove it. Thanks!
http://dulcecasa.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-o-marturie-ortodoxa.html
We come from a western tradition. We celebrate All Saints, so we don't participate in the Halloween stuff. I'm not sure I'm completely on board that all of it is evil, but we thought there was no reason to celebrate something either secular or pagan when we had no reason to and also had an alternative.
I asked the children if it was Halloween that they liked, or if it was the candy and costumes. It was the latter two. We have them dress as their favorite saints for All Saints, have party games and pumpkin carving, bob for apples, have doughnut eating contests, get candy, etc. We also make sure they have dress up opportunities around the year. Our church had an All Saints' party each year, we would dress up for that, have a feast, games, dance, people would share a little research on particular saints. Anyone who dressed up had to be able to explain a little about their chosen saint.
I'm not sure that carving pumpkins and lighting them is demonic, however. I would compare it to the lighting of the Christmas tree. We do not do so in any way to honor pagan deities or tradition, we don't make scary faces on them, we don't do witches or ghosts or devils or vampires or any other evil creature. We light our Christmas tree because it is pretty and Jesus is the light of the world. We put candles in the pumpkins because you can see our carvings better that way.
Aside from the demonic themes generally speaking, there is the whole trend to hooker costumes. All female costumes seem to be what a woman would look like doing that job if she were a whore. No thank you. When you consider that this is coupled with demonic and violent themes, it is even more disturbing.
I have found these comments really interesting and helpful, although I knew about the jack-o-laterns, etc. I have never been in love with halloween but do like the idea of All Saints/Soul's day and Day of the Dead to commemorate the lives of those who made you (ancestors) etc. But I guess I have an issue with the idea of secular/pagan traditions vs. religious ones, when 99% of Christianity is founded on Pagan rituals, rites etc. going back to Mithraism (ascension, rite of commununion as the body - bread and wine, etc.) Saturnalia and the Celtic myths of the Holly King and the Horned King, Egyptian cults, Eoster, the Greek and Vedic scriptures, etc. I understand that they have been Christianized but they have all been around much longer than just Jesus. Just curious how that might influence discussion.
Hey Mrs. Sylvia,
Thank you for giving me things to think about. Being raised Southern Baptist my parents always took me out trick or treating and I enjoyed it. Now that I'm on my own I get candy for the community kids but don't do anything else for the most part. After reading your blog I'm going to have to do some more research and thinking. However, as a 22 year old when I get married and have kids the decision will be between me and my future husband but thank you for the information.
I'm a Christian and I love Halloween more than Christmas. I've always been a sucker for the macabre so this holiday, whatever peoples' various interpretations about its origins and meanings, is right up my alley.
And by the way, I've spent a great deal of time researching the real origins of Halloween as we celebrate it in America today and what I've learned is that it's a perfectly harmless combination of elements from many different cultures, including a lot of early Christian and Catholic customs, and it has absolutely nothing to do with satan or hell.
My husband and I agree with you all the way! Thanks for sharing. We're converts to the Orthodox Faith too, and raising three small children.
thanks for your thoughts! I've been struggling with this for years - I would like to stop celebrating Halloween, but it almost seems so hard to do when it's so normal for everyone else (even Christians). I'm hoping my family can discuss this and be better prepared for next year.
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