October 31 is
the Halloween Day. We see that Halloween has become a cultural phenomenon in
many parts of the world today, from TV ads to children’s books. I’d like to
share a few things with Christian parents in regard to the correct
understanding about this phenomenon and also suggest a rightly contextualized
counter-measure, since we have been bestowed godly responsibility to raise our children
in biblical ways.
Halloween traces
back all the way to the era of Celts who dominated the United Kingdom and
Ireland, etc. Back then, Celtic priests comforted evil spirits returning to
earth by making a bonfire and offering grains or animals on October 31, the day
before the Celtic New Year. Afterwards, when the Christianity spread to Europe,
Pope Gregory IV decreed November 1 to be observed as “All Hallows Day” in all
the Western Europe. This decree was to commemorate the saints and Christian martyrs
instead of the dead or evil spirits. In other words, Halloween is a custom produced
by a mixture of Celtic tradition, Catholic saint veneration, and unbiblical
medieval Catholic tradition that was distorted from the Bible. This custom has
maintained its presence in the regions of the Catholic-dominated Ireland and eventually
immigrated to the United States. Irish people used to make a sport of their
neighborhood by asking for food door to door in costumes of demons and evil
spirits, and over the years it was modified as a typical Halloween custom in
America today. However, a danger, even for Christians, is that many consider
Halloween as merely a cultural event. It may not be easy for some Christian
parents to precisely explain to children why it is wrong to play a demon and
evil spirit for fun. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to know that many sincere
Christians in America still endeavor to keep their children from the worldly
Halloween cultures. Some churches even invented and introduced a contextualized
outreach programs to alter the Halloween fun and replace it with a godly event.
The greatest
danger of Halloween is that it encourages children to befriend Satan, demons
and many evil concepts. While intriguing with it, children may get confused about
the concepts of good and evil. To many children today, the “fun” has become a
standard of good and evil. Culture that promotes fun over right is rampant.
Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22; “But test them
all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of
evil.” He reminds us again in Romans 12:2; “Do not conform to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect
will.”
Because of the development of mass media, our children
lie almost unguarded to the cultures of this world. In fact, Halloween deposits
more secular ideas in the minds of our children in today’s growing capitalistic
and consumeristic society. Therefore, we’re in a desperate need of teaching our
children God’s good, pleasing and perfect will. We ought to remind them that following
Christ is not only exciting and joyable but may also lead us to suffering. It
is my sincere prayer that we’ll take advantage of this festivity to teach our
children genuine faith that acts in accordance with God’s pleasing will rather
than the worldly funs.