Every year, I see Christians saying we must not celebrate Halloween (and possibly other holidays like Christmas). Usually, one or two reasons are given. The first is that they say the day is a pagan holiday, and Christians should have nothing to do with paganism. They recount a highly constructed (and false) narrative of pagan traditions, showing the supposed connections between the celebration of Halloween (and Christmas) today with paganism of old. Even if the reconstructed history were true, the fact that pagans did things does not mean Christians should not do so as well. What’s next, Christians should not follow the calendar, because many of the days of the week are connected to pagan gods (like Thor for Thursday)? Not everything non-Christian is evil, indeed, much which we find coming from non-Christians (be it “pagans” or Jews or Muslims, or even atheists) is good, and if it is good, it is something which Christians can and should acknowledge and use for themselves (which is why Christian missionaries have long engaged the cultures they went to and showed various things in them which can be and embraced by Christians). Secondly, it is said that Halloween is a celebration of all that is evil, and so, to celebrate the day is to promote and embrace evil. Once again, this is far from the truth. In reality, the day is the celebration of the good being victorious over evil, of the light over the dark, of grace over sin, as the day itself is the day before All Saint’s Day: it is a day which is meant to point to the darkness so as to see how it is overcome by Christ and his saints (commemorated the next day).
Halloween is one of my favorite “secular” holidays. I put “secular” in quotes, as of course, there is a religious element to it, but that element is not what is normally celebrated by secular society today. What is celebrated are the fun and games associated with Halloween, especially the fun and games set up for children. To be sure, the imagery used for the day is what makes some think the day serves as a celebration of evil, because day draws to our mind the darkness, creatures of the night, to monsters and other similar dangers who threaten our lives, if not our souls. The reason why we employ such images is to control them, to bring them to the light, to let the light shine in the darkness so that the darkness, and all the monsters in it, can be overcome. We are to draw to the light all the darkness so that we do not let any kind of evil remain hidden, even as we do not let any darkness remain. When we do not do so, when we the monsters remain hidden, when we do not know them, they grow in power, becoming more and more dangerous, capable of corrupting us, turning us into their servants if not into one of them ourselves. All the witches and ogres and vampires and mummies and mass murderers and wicked politicians and the like are seen walking in the streets, no longer able to remain hidden. We can confront them, and in doing so, we weaken them (with treats of grace) until, at last, the evil masks come off, the horrors vanish, and what is left is the good which such evil tried to hide. If we do not do this, if we ignore them, we risk their tricks, that is, all the mischief which they can cause, allowing them to grow more powerful the more harm they cause. Halloween, in the way it is celebrated, tells us how to overcome evil by doing what is good, and says if we do not do so, we will let such evil fester, making us at least partially responsible for what happens when we do not deal with and properly confront the evil which lies before us.
I have to admit, one of the reasons why I like Halloween so much is because I am a fan of the horror genre, both in relation to books, but also to movies. Halloween embraces the genre and helps keep it thriving as every year, many horror novels and movies are made specifically to be released for the Halloween season. I make sure, during October, that I include horror stories among the reading I do, and horror movies for my weekend viewing. My love for the horror genre began when I was eight or nine, and I found myself enchanted by classic film monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf-Man and the Mummy). I continue to have a fondness for such classics, and rewatch at least some of them every year, even as I make sure I catch up on some of the newest horror movies made within the last few years.
There are some types of horror films I like less than others, especially those which seem to be focused on brutality and shocking the audience more than telling a good story, but in general, I try to be open to a wide variety of stories so that I can see new kinds of evil being confronted and overcome. Now, in these stories, people are obviously facing some grave evil, evil which threatens either to hurt and maim them, to kill them, or to corrupt them and destroy their good character (that is, their souls), but in most of them, by the end of the story, the threat is neutralized (as least temporarily so), showing us that the horrors around us can likewise be taken on and neutralized. We might have to do risky things to do so – courage is necessary. We must accept that not everyone will come out of a confrontation of evil unscarred, but if we push on, if we are bold, and face off against the evil, once it is brought to the light, it can be overcome, and the world can be made a better place. To be sure, not all horror stories (or movies) end with the evil being defeated, but, even then, that tends to be because the author plans to have the story continue, to have the evil confronted again, until, at last, it is beaten. And, while the ending of the story is important, especially as the ending of the story usually gives us some sense of hope, perhaps my most favorite part of a horror story is the set-up, where the horror, the evil, first becomes known by the protagonists, when the evil has a mysterious element to it – for then the story is not only a horror story, revealing something about the character of evil, but it is also a mystery, showing us that when we first discover some sort of evil, we need to investigate it, find out what we can about its causes and power if we are to confront it and have some hope of victory. Again, it is important to bring the horrors of evil to the light so that they can be seen for what they are and overcome. When we see this is what happens in many of the best horror stories, we can then see something else, that the greatest horror story can be said to be revealed to us in Christ’s descent into the realm of the dead, into hell itself, where Christ confronts all the powers of evil, all the ways evil tries to corrupt and destroy us, and brings to them his light and grace, revealing to us all that such evil is limited and will come to end. Each horror story can, in some sense, be seen as a reflection of one such confrontation between Christ and some power of darkness, showing that, as Christians, far from finding it Satanic to be interested in such stories, our interest connects us to Christ and his salvific work (something which Charles Williams recognized and showed us in his writings).
Christ’s death and resurrection is the ultimate victory over the horrors which seek to destroy us. Halloween truly is a day which points to that victory. Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, the Eve of All Saint’s day, reveals to us the darkness which not only Christ confronted, but all those who join themselves to Christ must confront as they continue his work in the worlds. We are not to hide ourselves from the evils which confront us. We are to be bold. We are to be courageous. We are to look to evil, to the structures of sin in the world, and discern not only how those structures were made, but can be dismantled. We are especially called to take treats of grace ourselves, and cast off the mask of sin, so that we can reveal our true selves. Halloween is not about the triumph of evil. It is not a pagan celebration. It is not a day of evil. It is the day on which we are told to confront evil and to have hope that, in our confrontation, evil will be rendered powerless. Let us, therefore not be afraid of Halloween, lest, in our fear, we let evil fester and grow in power.
*Personal Reflections And Speculations
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