It was a really hard decision but we decided this year that we will no longer be celebrating Halloween. Both Tommy and I grew up celebrating Halloween and we have since dressed up Shane each year since he was born. (Or most years anyway.) Last year was the first year that we brought him trick-or-treating though. We had a blast. It was such a good time, which makes this a harder decision to make. But it doesn’t make it any less important to make sure that we are doing the right thing.
Last year was the first year that I had learned that celebrating Halloween was even a little bit controversial as a Christian. An author/speaker that I follow on Instagram started speaking out about her convictions around the holiday and it made me a little nervous but honestly I didn’t take the time to sit down and watch what she had to say. I was curious but I sort of knew that if I took the time to listen that I would end up feeling convicted that I too shouldn’t celebrate. So I looked away, and prayed, and decided it was fine. Everyone else I knew celebrated anyway.
This year though, she started speaking out again and I knew I couldn’t ignore the call to listen again. I didn’t even listen to the whole Instagram Live and I knew that what she said just made too much sense to ignore. (If you’re interested in listening as well, you can watch here and here.)
Basically the reason behind why we no longer feel it is okay as Christians to celebrate Halloween is that the holiday originated from a place of worship of other gods. Mo goes into detail about how most Christians arguments for being okay with celebrating is that because of Jesus, we are permitted to do as we please essentially. That Jesus redeemed the holiday for us and we are free in him to celebrate as we want. However, this is not true because we are called to rebuke things that are not of God.
Halloween and it’s origins were never from God so there is no way to redeem it. We must rebuke the holiday completely. We can redeem the day but to be associated with any practices that are tied to the holiday would be wrong. If you’re interested in learning more about the origins and what type of evil practices that are still done on this day, this article really opened my eyes.
It can be easy to just go with the flow and not question things but I want to live a life that is honoring to God. God calls us to be set apart and this is just one of those ways that I feel we must be as Christians. I also had to remind myself that God doesn’t call us away from things because he wants us to miss out on fun things. He loves us too much to let us settle for less. God’s ways are higher than our ways and he calls us to better things.
We decided to bring the boys to the store and let them each pick out a big bag of candy and we had a little family game night that turned out to be really fun. They were thrilled to get to enjoy their candy and spend time together as a family. In the end it really didn’t feel like we were missing out and had a good time.
What are your thoughts on Halloween? Have you looked into the origin? Do you feel it’s something that Christians should be celebrating? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
