I had the opportunity recently to chat about this dilemma with Sarah Hamaker from Crosswalk.com. In her article, "A Tricky Holiday: Should Christians Ignore or Embrace Halloween?," Sarah discusses the widespread appeal of this holiday: "This year, seven in 10 Americans will celebrate Halloween, spending some $6.9 billion on the holiday, according to the National Retail Federation. That's the highest amount in a decade."
For many Christian parents, Halloween presents a monstrous challenge. If you're still wrestling with what to do on Monday night, I recommend reading Sarah's article.
And think about this before you lock up your house and turn out your front porch lights: Is it possible that our negativity toward Halloween only alienates the people we seek to reach? Can we be in the world, but not of the world?
Halloween may bring someone who needs Christ right to our door step! It will certainly bring our neighbors out into the streets. Let's consider seizing this opportunity to develop new relationships with our neighbors. We might even get to share our faith with them.
More Help for Halloween:
Ah so it’s finally upon us! Halloween or as some Christians probably would like to call it Helloween, but as that name has been taken by a heavy metal band there might be infringment issues! LOL
The fact that Christians are looking for an alternative to Halloween reminds me that Christians know very little about our own history. Today is also Reformation Day! ::does dance of joy:: This is the day when Martin Luther in 1517 nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg Germany, thus sparking the Reformation.
It was really a call for a reformation of the Roman Catholic church, but you know how these little criticism things can quickly get out of hand.
So forget the sanitized version of Halloween the church tries to hand you in the form of a harvest festival, which is closer to the true Halloween celebration than the mega-marketed holiday that falls every year on this day.
We should have Reformation Day parties. Dress up as your favorite Reformation character, play games maybe some trivia challenges. Perhaps a restaging of the Diet at Worms or of the debates between Luther and his critics. And the best part is that as Christians we’re not hijacking a pagan holiday and trying to sanitize it. We’re celebrating something that is our own and sets us apart from the secular world. It’s a no brainer to me. Who knows? Maybe if I put this on my blog for a few years, the idea will start to catch on.
Mike –
Your Reformation Day Celebration is a great idea! May I add it to my “Christian Alternatives to Halloween” article? I would like to quote your suggestions too.
Mary,
of course you can add my Reformation Day celebration ideas to your list of Christian Alternatives to Halloween. I’d be honored.
Mike