Halloween is the most popular holiday in America — second only to Christmas — with billions of dollars spent every year on costumes, candy, and more.1
As Christians, you can’t escape being confronted with it. Whether you’re shopping with your family or driving past your neighbor’s lawn, you’ll find its ghoulish images on display.
So what should parents think about Halloween, and what should they tell their children?
The name “Halloween” is a truncated version of “All Hallows’ Eve” (October 31), which comes the day before “All Saints’ Day” (November 1) — both holidays established by the Roman Catholic Church.
All Saints’ Day, intended to honor all deceased Christians in heaven, was originally celebrated by Rome on May 13 beginning in AD 607. According to church historian Philip Schaff, the date was moved to the fall two centuries later:
[Pope] Gregory IV induced [Emperor] Lewis the Pious in 835 to make it general in the Empire. The celebration was fixed on the first of November.2
Writing in the Puritan Reformed Journal, David Bissett explains why the date was changed:
For centuries, the first of November was known to be the new year’s day for the Druid religion, which actively influenced many throughout Ireland and Britain in that century. October 31 was “new year’s eve” for the Druids. So the move of the new and popular Christian Festival of All Saints to that same date was intended to compete, head-to-head, with the entrenched druid new year’s celebrations (much as TV networks today move hit programs into certain time-slots to win viewers away from competitors).3
The Celtic festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”). It was observed from sunset on October 31 to sunset on November 1, marking the beginning of winter and the transition to a new year. An article in the November/December 2016 issue of Archaeology gives this summary:
According to Irish mythology, Samhain was a time when doorways to the spirit world were opened, allowing the dead to visit the living world. Some spirits were considered friendly, while others were not, and the Celts created ways to appease them. Food or sacrificial offerings were left outside homes and, in another tradition, revelers visited homes in costumes or disguises and recited poems or verses — all origins of trick-or-treating. Likewise, Celtic druids often offered prophecies on Samhain, not dissimilar to ghost stories told today.4
And what was the point of wearing costumes during Samhain? Disguises were worn as protection from evil spirits, with revelers “looking like evil spirits themselves.”5
Eamonn Kelly, former Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, notes:
The spooky stuff we associate with Halloween, such as ghosts, the dead entering our world, and communing with spirits, can be traced to Samhain, which centuries of Christian tradition never completely managed to stamp out.6
While one can have a healthy debate about Rome’s attempt to co-opt a well-established pagan holiday with a Christian one, what is clear about Halloween is that the occultic elements it sought to displace are what predominate today.
Each year as fall approaches, stores and lawns showcase:
When it comes to Halloween, the stamp of evil is unmistakable. You don’t need a doctorate to figure this out. Every October, its dark and occultic imagery is writ large across the globe.
Moreover, Halloween is a special day for Satanists and others who practice the occult. The Church of Satan’s website states:
We see this holiday as the night when the mundane folk try to reach down inside and touch the “darkness” which for Satanists is a daily mode of existence. Particularly in the United States, Halloween is a time for celebrating monster films, wearing costumes of a macabre nature, and evoking the thrill of “fun fear.” Children (of all ages) can indulge their fantasies by donning costumes that allow for intense role-playing and the release of their “demonic cores,” the parts of their personalities often hidden from their friends, co-workers and families.7
Self-avowed witches revel in it as a night to honor the dead, summon ancestors (which the Bible condemns as necromancy), brew potions, increase divine energy, light fires, perform un-baptisms to free themselves from religious oppression, and hold black masses as a “ceremony of blasphemy.”8
With the possible exception of Walpurgisnacht, the May Eve festival of April 30, no day is more widely celebrated among occultists than Halloween.9
So is it possible to redeem Halloween — a date embraced by occultists as the “Witches’ New Year” — and make it a celebration that honors God?
While you won’t find the word “Halloween” in the Bible, Scripture is plain about how we are to respond to the demonic customs it represents.
Just before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, then occupied by the Canaanites, Moses warned them:
When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. (Deut. 18:9)
And what are those abominations? Here is a partial list from verses 10–11:
It is indisputable that Halloween is identified with every one of these abominations. And though we may not personally practice these demonic acts by participating in Halloween, we should not associate ourselves with a holiday that is marked by this evil at its very core.
Lest we forget: the tradition of trick-or-treating grew out of a false fear of evil spirits that must be appeased.10 As Al Mohler has said, “The custom of wearing costumes, especially costumes imitating evil spirits, is rooted in the Celtic pagan culture.”11 While most people today are not conscious of this history, that is its origin.
The Apostle Paul declares, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11). “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9).
… I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. (1 Cor. 10:20b–21)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom. 12:2)
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. (Eph. 5:8)
Halloween is one of the clearest and most obvious symbols of darkness in our culture today. It is therefore critical that we lead our families out of that darkness, not into it.
As families, we should shun the culture of death that is at the very heart of Halloween, and celebrate things that are beautiful before the Lord.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Phil. 4:8)
Scripture calls us to refuse fellowship with darkness, to speak the truth, and to keep walking in the ordinary means of grace. Here are three faithful responses.
If the neighborhood comes to your door, you do not have to hide, nor do you have to put on the costume of the age. Meet them as you are:
These are simple ways to speak light where the culture is celebrating darkness. The point is not to baptize Halloween. The point is that Christ is worthy to be named on every night of the year, and some of your neighbors will only stand on your step once. Use the opportunity without joining the feast.
October 31 is not first a night for the devil. It is the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517 — a date the Lord used to recover the gospel of justification by faith alone. That is a holy thing to lean into.
Invite friends to the table and make the evening about the righteousness of Christ, not about competing with the neighborhood for spectacle. You are not inventing a replacement holiday so much as remembering a mercy God already gave the church.
Sit your children down and speak plainly: this holiday is marked by death, the occult, and fear, and the Word of God forbids fellowship with those things. You do not need a lecture that lasts an hour. You need a clear word, then the same household pattern you keep on every other night. Gather for family worship. Read. Sing. Pray. Put the children to bed at the usual hour.
You do not need to take dramatic action against everything in the culture. Faithfulness is often quieter than that. Present the evil, tell your children what God has said, and then go on living the life He has given you — undisturbed, unimpressed, and unentangled. Because Halloween is so explicitly tied to darkness, it should be exposed and rejected. Renounce the darkness, then keep living the quiet, faithful, happy life God has given you.
A household that loves what is true, refuses what is evil, and simply walks in the ordinary means of grace bears witness to the light of Jesus Christ.