Comments on: Remix – #54. Halloween Hating

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:32:46 +0000

My son ate a glowstick last New Year's Eve. That was a tense few minutes trying to guess just which type of glowstick he had.

By: Christian HouseMusic

Christian HouseMusic — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:10:30 +0000

My mother stopped Halloween for me when I was 9 years old. Never did it since and never well. Was upset a couple years but I didn't miss anything. The Lord has blessed me 10 times over. I'd rather have his blessing then Halloween, etc…

By: christionette

christionette — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:10:00 +0000

I threw a costume party at my house for adults and one of the couples said,”We just cant come to a party on Halloween. If it was in a different month of the year, we totally would.” I responded with,”You are in luck! Our costume party is Nov 1st.” They ended up coming.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:17:00 +0000

I don’t get why churches throw Halloween parties and call it something different, thinking that makes it more holy or something. If you’re dressing in costumes and passing out candy at the end of October, you’re celebrating Halloween. Just admit it. For the record, I’m not at all against the candy and fun aspect of Halloween.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:23:00 +0000

A church I used to attend showed a very disturbing video on what supposedly goes on Halloween night (with Satanists, etc)…I was probably in 5th grade, and I think the more disturbing thing was that they made it a “family event” so instead of having children’s activities that Wednesday night, they brought everyone in to watch the video. I guess they were trying the scare us kids out of liking Halloween, and maybe rightly so, who knows. Consequently, my parents decided that we weren’t allowed to “celebrate” Halloween, and thought that taking us out to eat would somehow make that ok. Let’s see…as a ten year old child, would you rather dress up and get pounds of candy or go sit at a restaurant with your parents?? Definitely not equal retribution. And somehow, Halloween has wound up being one of my favorite times of year. I love the decorations and costumes and fun. Maybe it’s something I need to do a little thinking about. Unfortunately, it’s become such a mainstream thing that it completely clouds the issue. When I really think about it, I can’t deny that Halloween has always seemed to (at the root) celebrate all things that are evil. Dressing up as “the devil” is glamorized and fun, and gory masks and costumes and decorations are everywhere. I’ve always tried to avoid the gory part of Halloween, and just enjoyed the fun cute stuff. But maybe that’s just sugarcoating something that shouldn’t be sugarcoated. I’m obviously still reasoning with myself on this issue.

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:57:00 +0000

We have Trunk ‘n Treat at our church and this year we also had a chili and hotdog supper with music, games, and a clown. I was the clown. When it came time to hand out candy from our trunks, my wife had to help with her class, so it fell to me to man our trunk. About halfway through I realized I was dressed as a clown, in a dark parking lot, beckoning little children over to my van with candy. The only thing missing was Chris Hansen, and the Dateline camera crew, saying “local church sends mix messages.”

By: kara

kara — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:43:00 +0000

I feel I’m a bit too old for trick-or-treating. My friends and I dressed up and went to collect food for the food bank instead. It was pretty awesome – almost everyone thinks it’s a wonderful idea and some give you candy anyway. I think it would be a fun (and worthwhile) experience for kids too!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Sorry.

"it was the most satanic, pagan instrument known to mankind."

Should read:
"it was the most satanic, pagan instrument known to mankind, well, to the church anyways."

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:16:00 +0000

Throwing down my 2 cents.

Not trying to persuade anyone either way.

I respect the people who don't do Halloween, it's a bad night. My friend works at a pet store and they aren't allowed to sell black pets the entire week before Halloween because they will be bought and used for sacrifices. 95% of the population (Christian and non-Christian alike) probably have no idea the real meaning behind Halloween. I fully respect the decision to stay away from it.

However, many of the comments talk about being in the community and using it as an evangelical opportunity. I like and respect that as well. We remove ourselves from our communities too much in favor of "not staining ourselves". it's a fact Jesus hung out with drunkards and gluttons. Not exactly someone who looked shiny and pure like a Pharisee. I probably lean more in this direction.

Maybe the answer is what Paul penned in Romans 14.

On a side note, I love that on SCL it seems normal that people can state their opinions on very grey topics and their brothers and sisters in Christ respect them for stating what they believe. I rarely see flaming and I commend that. That's too uncommon in our faith these days.

Anyways, the main point I wanted to make, or rather, question I wanted to ask is this (and it's mostly sarcastic, because I love you guys.).

To the people who don't celebrate Haloween or even Christmas because of their pagan roots:

Do you not like the organ either or disapprove of it being found in your churches? Because for the first nearly 1000 years after Christ ascended to Heaven, it was the most satanic, pagan instrument known to mankind. It started to be introduced in churches in the early 800's when the church decided enough was enough and to take it over, and for the first 3-400 years was not even allowed *inside* of most churches. By the midevil ages, there was one in every church. But it's origins and for many hundreds of years after it's induction into the church it was (and probably should still be) viewed as a being a pagan instrument of the devil.

I'll leave any conclusions you wish to make up to you.

(Learned from my Bible School music prof who is a musical genius and has several degrees in musical theory and history).

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I’m writing this after Halloween, so my hindsight is 20/20. We all dressed up and went trick-or-treating. The kids had a blast until GREED set in. Suddenly the mood shifted from a happy, light-hearted event to a nasty, tantrum-throwing demise. I feel like I caved — I don’t like Halloween but let my kids participate anyway. And we definitely paid the price in terms of fallout.