By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
So, what do we do about Halloween? Curse it? Ignore it? Celebrate it? Redeem it? It seems that good people have varying and vastly different answers to this question.
First, let’s look at its beginning. The ancient Celts believed that on the night before their new year began (November 1), the space between the other world and this world blurred, and spirits could cross over into this world to create havoc.
So, they dressed up in costumes to confuse these evil spirits. They also carved scary faces into turnips and potatoes to scare off the spirits. This festival was known as Samhain.
When Roman soldiers and traders came to Ireland and Scotland, they incorporated their own festivals about honoring the dead and honoring the fruits of the harvest into this Celtic celebration.
While Rome never conquered Ireland, their trading led to many interactions. (In fairness, I should explain that Rome never tried to conquer Ireland since they saw nothing worth the fight to be gained from a very poor Ireland.)
700 years later, the church’s Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints Day, and the night before became All Hallows Eve (shortened over time to Halloween).
By then, the holiday had crossed the North Sea into England, and from there it migrated into Europe. In effect, Gregory “redeemed” the pagan holiday for the Church, as it did pagan celebrations we now associate with Christmas and Easter.
The customs of dressing up and carving scary faces came to America with the Irish, who soon discovered carving pumpkins was much easier than carving turnips.
Even our version of “trick or treat” came from Europe to America, where the poor there would go to the wealthy and promise to pray for their dead relatives in exchange for “soul cakes.” Remember, the Catholic religion believed that prayers could shorten the time spent in Purgatory paying for one’s sins.
So, here we are in 2025, still wondering about what to do with this holiday. Truthfully, there is no “one size fits all” answer. It depends a lot on your theology. Catholics see it as a time for reflection on life, death, and eternity, and have a 3-day liturgical season known as Allhallowtide.
Protestants are widely varied. Some focus on its pagan beginnings and avoid it. Eph 5:11-12 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.”
Add 1 Cor 10:20 “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons,” and you see why they feel Halloween is best left alone.
Other believers see things differently. They see the benefits of “redeeming” the celebration by helping people to see the difference between light and darkness.
Rom 12:21 reads “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” And Matt 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
By throwing parties open to the children in the neighborhood, they provide safe places for fun and demonstrate the love of Christ in tangible ways to the children and their parents.
They also have opportunities to hand out Gospel tracts and to have Gospel oriented games for the children to play, along with a time to interact with the parents. These kinds of social occasions can often build interest in the church that later leads to attendance and hopefully surrender.
Given our society’s trend towards criticism, I would remind all of us that we are not to criticize the choices of other believers. Rom 12:13-14 “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.
Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself…”
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.