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🙂💯👍🎃👻 should christians celebrate halloween 🐖☁️☁️ 👹 ❓❓
Posted : 29 Oct, 2021 12:45 PM
understanding that early Christians contextualized early pagan holidays into Christian holidays helps us to see that we do not have to compromise our beliefs with pagan ones. Anthony McRoy, a Fellow of the British Society for Middle East Studies at Wales Evangelical School of Theology reminds us:
Of course, even if Christians did engage in contextualization—expressing their message and worship in the language or forms of the local people—that in no way implies doctrinal compromise for Halloween. Christians around the world have sought to redeem the local culture for Christ while purging it of practices antithetical to biblical norms. After all, Christians speak of “Good Friday,” but they are in no way honoring the worship of the Norse/Germanic queen of the gods Freya by doing so.
“Evil” themes in our current secular Halloween observances were not always present. Thus, we can recapture the spiritual with the innocent. Halloween does not have to be a holiday filled with Draculas, bloody masks, or witches. There was a time when children dressed up, but their costumes were not sinister. Sue Ellen Thompson’s book Holiday Symbols records that during the Great Depression, “children often disguised themselves as hobos, burglars, pirates… in other words, as economic and social outcasts, symbolic of the troubles from which their parents were struggling to escape.” (link) Those children were trying to make light of their situation. In many cultures, taunting or comically characterizing personal cultural strife was a way of triumphing over that which could not be over come in their collective psyche.
Elesha Coffman wrote , “Festival of Fears”, in Christianity Today that Halloween in the 19th century were devoid of scary masks and monsters:
Mainstream Halloween celebrations in the Victorian era were generally tame and devoid of occult overtones. Instead of pulling pranks or haunting neighborhoods, young people chatted and flirted in festooned parlors. By the beginning of the twentieth century, some towns had gone so far as to make Halloween primarily a civic affair, complete with parades and block parties.
If you still think Halloween is an evil day, then maybe you should see All Hallows Eve as a time when Christians can laugh and even mock evil. Anderson M. Rearick, assistant professor of English at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Ohio, challenges us to rethink Halloween:
Should the forces of evil be mocked? Should Satan be laughed at? He most certainly should be. At the beginning of The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis includes two telling quotations, the first from Martin Luther: “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.”
The second comes from Thomas More: “The devil … the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.”
The one thing Satan cannot bear is to be a source of laughter. His pride is undermined by his own knowledge that his infernal rebellion against God is in reality an absurd farce. Hating laughter, he demands to be taken seriously. Indeed, I would say that those Christians who spend the night of October 31 filled with concern over what evils might be (and sometimes are) taking place are doing the very thing Lucifer wants them to do. By giving him this respect, such believers are giving his authority credence.
Christians should instead celebrate Halloween with gusto. If we follow the traditional formula of having a good time at his expense, Satan flees.
By , mocking, and even “cartooning” evil by goofy costumes we can take a posture of triumph with Christ.
Christians can celebrate and teach All Saint’s Day, November 1st in churches.
The term “saint” is used over 60 times in the New Testament. We protestants use the word saints to describe the Christians living and dead. We can also honor our loved ones who have given us Christ, such as our parents, grandparents, etc… We thank God for them and pray that the living “saints” may live in community. Churches can use All Saints Day to light candles as an act of prayer for thanking God for the special people (“saints”) in our lives.
We can also learn from the saints of the church for the last 2,000 years. We protestants have often been fearful of honoring and learning from the Church saints for fear that we are venerating them as Catholics do.
Christ holds the “keys to death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). We can celebrate that Christ defeated death. Even the mere name of “Jesus Christ” can make evil shutter and even follow the commands of God. When Jesus confronted evil demons in the New Testament they were fearful and obeyed the commands of Jesus to leave the people they possessed. Much of the outcry concerning Halloween comes from the fear of evil or welcoming evil into their homes or lives. No one should go out and look for spiritual warfare, but we should take comfort in knowing that Christ has given us the tools to fend away evil: faith in God, scripture, the power of Christ, the Holy Spirit, fasting, and prayer.
Why should Christians allow others to claim Halloween as their own? We should not. We should take it back All Hallows Eve by embracing All Saints Day and remembering our “saints”. By separating All Hallows Eve from the pre-Christian practices, Christians can take comfort in understanding the historical Christian remembrance that is associated with All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. Children can collect donations for UNICEF or for a local cause. We Christians can also view Halloween as a fun event for children by having events in churches or in our communities where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and share some treats in a safe place
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