Few issues are as sticky in Christian Churches as Halloween. This year Halloween 2008 falls on Friday night. Should we just find the best Halloween crafts and Halloween recipes and throw an outreach party? Or is the history of Halloween too involved in witchcraft?
I want to hear your ideas about Halloween. Is it really Devil’s day? Is it something we should use to reach children for Christ? What is your church planning this year?
If you have some solid Halloween ideas, or links to Halloween coloring pages, leave them in the comments below.
What about to celebrate and teach our children about the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther that take place in that day instead of Halloween?
Halloween is not the “Devil’s Day” it is a very old holiday that used to be called All Hallow’s Eve, the day before All Saint’s Day. Jack O Lanterns were originally thought to scare away evil things and people would dress up in frightening costumes to fool any evil things that walked the Earth into thinking they were one of them so that families and their children would not be harmed. Those were the origins and the original superstitions. Does it have roots in pagan holidays? Yes, but frankly, so do Easter and Christmas, the dates of both were changed by the church to overlap and replace the pagan winter and spring holidays (Jesus was most likely born in Summer) and bunnies, eggs, Christmas trees and yule logs and a myriad of other symbols all have pagan origins before they were adopted by the church. The evil and the “devil” is what you make of it. Our church usually does a “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” with children going around and asking for spare change for charity instead of candy. Besides, how can answering the door for a three-year-old Princess or a five-year old Lion and giving generously and greeting them with a smile be evil? Really now. Open mind and open hearts is far more Christ-like.