www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Should we celebrate Hallowe'en?

Dear Friends in Christ,

Is celebrating Hallowe'en in keeping with Christianity?

Is it a question of "how" we celebrate it?

Should we just ignore it?

Normally, people don't say "boo" about it . . .

Alex

Alex,

Probably not.

But I'll probably be out with my kids tonight....

(down the hatch )

Trick or treat!

Sharon

Hallowe�en actually began as a festival when people dressed up for All Saints� Day on the Sunday after Pentecost. People would dress as their favorite Christian martyr. It has only become corrupted in the last few centuries.

My suggestion would be to take it back as a Christian celebration and dress our kids up as saints and turn our backs on the secular and downright evil stuff that is now associated with this holiday.

Halloween has its origins in pre-christian, pagan Ireland. There is nothing good about the observance of or the history of Halloween. If I am not mistaken, I believe it's the pagan new year.

My family does not celebrate it.

Columcille

P.S...nor do I celebrate Reformation Day on the 31st

Slava Isusu Christu!

Most Churches, Catholic or otherwise, have some kind of positive experience/happening on Halloween for their kids and young adults. If not I would try to get something started ( its not too late ) At any rate I don't agree with the sort of fundamentalist notion that Halloween is some kind of Satanic holy day et al. Anything can be used for a negative purpose, so I see no reason to let one's kids go trick-or-treating. It's really a matter of common sense; we do live in a age were there are sick people out there. If one as a parent feels it would not be safe go with your kids or have a party at home with Christian friends.

Hi gang!

The origins of Halloween do in fact trace back to the ancient Celetic celebration of their New Year. It was a celebration of SAMHAIN.

With the coming of Christianity, it began to take on more Christian significance and thus the celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 (Roman Calendar). The holiday was quite popular in Victorian times with costume parties and balls celebrating the festive end of harvest and saying good bye to good weather and travel.

The celebration of All Hallow's Eve came to North America with the British colonists. The Irish immigrants are given credit for bringing the Jack-O-Lantern. Orginally a turnip was used. This was thought to freight away evil spirits and keep them from entering the house on All Hallows Eve. The pumpkin being so much bigger was even better at scaring the spirits.

The idea of "Trick or Treating" was REALLY pushed by the Boys Scouts of America in the 1920's. It was an efffort on their part to stop much of the mischief and vandalism that occured on All Hallow's Eve.

It's only been in the last 25-30 years that there has been such an emphasis placed on the "dark" aspect of All Hallow's Eve with the Devil and blood and gore and all that accompanies it.

Many of the Catholic schools here where I live have All Hallow's Eve parties for the kids but they must come as their favorite Biblical Hero or Heroine.

My own church had a Halloween Party for the kids this past Sunday after ECF class. They kids came as their favorite Bible character or as a Disney character. We didn't allow anything "scary". The kids had lunch and of course there were "treats" too.

Needless to say a good time was had by all who attended.

Hope this helps...

mark

ps
I did the research for an article on Halloween that I did for my office newsletter, that's how I learned so much.

Dear Columcille,

Yes, but Christmas also has pagan origins. The feast of St John Baptist "baptized" the pagan festival of the summer soltice. So what? As Christians we are called to "take every thought captive." Why not redeem the pagan holidays and sanctify them for noble use?

Halloween is Hallow's Eve. Feasts begin at sun down the night before. Thus at sun down on Oct 31st, All Saints has begun. At our parish we are having all sorts of holy fun: pin the crown on the saint; musical thrones; pumpkin painting, St Peter's fishing; the Joshua Wall; etc.

yours in Christ,
Marshall

Halloween is a complex holiday with a complex European Christian and pagan background. It is not just Celtic there are many converging traditions.

Columcille,

Your comments are similar to points that you made on the Buddhist thread. Overall I am in agreement with you but I have noticed that you are sometimes too dismissive of things that seem foreign or non-Christian.

Scraping something because of its pagan origin is not a practice of Orthodoxy (neither Byzantine nor Oriental). Orthodoxy has always sought to integrate a local culture into the Royal Priesthood of Christ. Orthodoxy is a way of life and not a Sunday service so it incorporates and expresses cultural concepts. Pagan stuff is ok so long as it is in the service of Christ.

The reason that I choose not to celebrate this holiday is not because I believe it was originally intended to serve demons etc. Much of its origin is clearly in the Christian tradition. The reason I don't celebrate is because nowadays it is associated with demons, goblins, evil and death. Just as when I take troubled youth (many with recovering addictions) out to dinner, I do not drink wine (even though I love wine); I won't even drink water or juice out of a wine glass. That it is not wine is of no relevance because it looks like wine and thus is not a good example to a teenager trying to overcome a drinking problem.

I have heard the arguments favoring "re-capturing' the true Halloween but they start to sound like the similar arguments by tribal groups about re-capturing the swastika from "Nazi distortion.' I am sorry when it is gone it is gone so just let it go.

Here are some views on Halloween from the St. Herman Youth Conference Website.
< http://www.roca.org/stherman/youthiss.htm >

Scroll down to the Halloween section.

Daniil

"Halloween has its origins in pre-christian, pagan Ireland. There is nothing good about the observance of or the history of Halloween. If I am not mistaken, I believe it's the pagan new year. My family does not celebrate it."

-Columcille

reply:

Dear Friends,

Great question, Orthodox Catholic! I rather disagree with Columcille's statement that "There is nothing good about the observance of or the history of Halloween." As others have pointed out Halloween was originally the Christianization of a pagan feast day (as are very many of our feast days). This, in itself, is a "good thing."

But, like many of our Christian celebrations, it has become re-secularized by the neo-pagan and secular world. So do we Christians of the historic Churches tuck our tails and bury our heads in the ground? Or, do re-take our feasts and symbols?

The examples abound: Christmas, St. Nicholas' Day, St. Valentine's Day, Halloween, even Thanksgiving (although not a liturgical feast) has lost much of its original Christian meaning. The Christian symbols we have lost include the Rainbow, and Triangal to name a few.

I'm for reclaiming these. Therefore, this is how my family approaches this question.

But another delima arises for me regarding this question. Being I am not a Roman Catholic, our feast of All Saints or All Hallow's Evening, does not fall on November 1st and October 31st respectively. Being Armenians use a "Dominical Calendar" it falls around the last week of Holy Cross-tide, right before Advent.

So the question I've been wrestling with is, "am I latinizing my family's religious practice by celebrating All Saints when the Roman Catholic's celebrate it?" The answer is "Yes, I think I am." But I think I have found a happy medium.

When my five kids dress up as Saints, invariably most of them dress up as Armenian Saints. Therefore when we go to the Church Halloween Party (not to be confused with the modern celebration of what I call "un-halloween") they stand out kind of distinctly from all the "St. Joan of Arcs, St. Marys, St. Josephs, St. Patricks, St. Micheals, etc. I'm very proud when my children are asked "what saint are you" and they get to tell their little stories about the Eastern Saints they represent. It's just another way of following H.H. JPII's call for the East to share our patrimony with our Latin Church brother and sisters.

So this is how we approach the Roman Catholic feast of Halloween. I hope this is helpful to someone.

IN Christ's Light,

Wm. Der-Ghazarian

>>>Your comments are similar to points that you made on the Buddhist thread. Overall I am in agreement with you but I have noticed that you are sometimes too dismissive of things that seem foreign or non-Christian.<<<

Greetings Aklie,

It's not that I am dismissive of non-Christian practice/holidays; I'm just uncomfortable celebrating a holiday like Halloween given its origin and meaning. Certainly many of our devotions and prayer aids have been used by pagans since before Christian times. From my perspective, I don't see anything in the Christian experience that corresponds to the original celebration of Halloween. Christmas was celebrated by pagans because that is the day one of their "gods" was born as a man. We Christians have a reason for Christianizing Dec.25 given the fact that our LORD did become incarnate. Halloween, as practiced by the ancient Celts, and by todays pagans has nothing directly to do with anything in the Christian experience.

I simply see no reason for celebrating Halloween. I'm not going to refer to Christians who do as "heathen." Certainly, if you can use the holiday to spread the Gospel, by all means...

Gd bless,

Columcille

For some strange reason the area in Northwest Arkansas where I live has quite a large witch population. There have been many incidents of Satanic worship in this vicinity. There are reports of 13 covens in this locale. This is from reputable sources, not weirdos. So, the local Roman Catholic parish has instituted Eucharistic Adoration from this evening (Oct. 30th through till Friday morning liturgy on the Solemnity of All Saints. The church is well protected from vandalism and quite a few parishoners attend the all-night vigils. Many parishoners who cannot attend the all-night vigil before the exposed Sacrament pray privately at home. Many pray the rosary. I will probably spend much of this time in our house chapel. Let us also pray for the safety of the children who are out trick and treating. It is so very dangerous for anybody, especially the children, to be out at night un-protected.
Just my thoughts.
Silouan, old monk (BOO!)

Dear Columcille,

I am a little surprised you missed this about Halloween but I think you are on the right track. It is EXACTLY as it is in Christmas, good example! Allow me to try to explain:

The Pagan Celts had a celebration which, among other things, recalled their dead during the time when earth itself was drying up and "dying." They even believed their dead would come to their homes. They thus would leave "treats" out-side to appease especially those souls with evil intentions. When the Celts were Illuminated by the Light of Christ they were faced with the same delima as the Christians in the early Roman Empire. They had a major feast day (not unlike the birth of the Sun God) they didn't know quite what to do with. Therefore the Roman Church decided rather than remembering the evil spirits they would rather, on this day, rember the Hallowed or Holy Ones (i.e. the Saints). This is the origins, more or less, of Halloween.

I want you to know that can appreciate your repulsion at the neo-pagan "un-halloween" celebration. I share this repulsion. But I assure you, brother, we who celebrate HALLOWEEN in its true sense have good reasons, which I hope you can someday equally appreciate.

IN Christ's Light,

Wm. Der-Ghazarian

God knows what is in your heart. If, when trick-or-treating, you are not doing anything sinful, God knows that. He's not gonna punish you for going through the motions of something that could be distorted into something unholy. That's my opinion anyway.

ChristTeen287

We have an alternate get-together with an ever-growing group and all of the kids dress up as saints. There is a pumkin-carving contest with Christian themes (churches, crosses, other Christian symbols such as a lamb, etc.) The kids have a great time and learn about some saints.

The kids read a bit of the saints life they have chosen and give clues. The people have to guess who they are. Some get quite elaborate. My youngest son has been a Ukrainian New Marty for two years in a row (last year Blessed Leonid Federov, this year Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky). My oldest son is going for St. Moses the Ethiopian this year. The kids really look forward not only to the party, but doing the research on their chosen saints.