Unpacking Truths

Balancing Faith and Festivities: A Christian Perspective on Halloween

• LOC Church • Season 1 • Episode 137

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Can Christians celebrate Halloween without compromising their faith? Join us as Pastor Kendall and Pastor Mo share their childhood Halloween memories, from the excitement of costumes to the thrill of trick-or-treating. We explore Halloween's origins, delving into its ancient Celtic roots in the festival of Samhain and its transformation when All Saints Day was moved to November 1st to Christianize the pagan celebration. Discover how Irish immigrants brought these traditions to America, where they were met with resistance by Puritan settlers. Our discussion navigates the complex identity of Halloween as both a secular festivity and a religious observance, encouraging reflection on its themes of life, death, and the spiritual world.

We also tackle the fascination with fear through the lens of horror movies that captivated us as kids. Films like "It" and "The Blob" evoke powerful emotional responses, reminding us how entertainment can linger in our psyche. While recognizing the fun and community spirit of Halloween, we emphasize the need to be mindful of how our media consumption affects us and those around us. Finding the balance between enjoying the spooky season and respecting others' sentiments aligns closely with teachings on selflessness and caring for our community. Tune in for a candid discussion on embracing Halloween's lighter side while respecting its deeper implications.

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Should Christians Celebrate Halloween Debate

Speaker 1

Welcome to this episode of Unpacking Truths, where we are going to tackle the timely topic of should Christians celebrate Halloween? And since we're talking, Halloween, Pastor Mo, did you bring me any?

Speaker 2

candy today? Whoa no, but I brought you a cute little pumpkin right here, oh okay, well, we have a prop. That helps.

Speaker 1

That's a start.

Speaker 2

We are festive here.

Speaker 1

We are festive here. I'm Pastor Kendall.

Speaker 2

And I'm Pastor Mo.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Unpacking Truths, where we dive deep into God's timeless truths for our lives today.

Speaker 2

Grab your coffee. Open your hearts and your minds. Come take this journey with us, as we unpack God's truths.

Speaker 1

We talked before, but I didn't really hear from you. Is there a favorite costume you had as a child or a favorite thing? Oh, how long did you trick or treat Pastor Mo?

Speaker 2

Well, I trick or treated with my kids for a long time and I used to do the whole thing where you're like, oh, I have to check that candy, and of course I only checked the really good chocolate ones, Smart smart mom. But they caught on to me pretty easily. Yeah, they did and then. So I had to start bringing my own bag and pretending I was collecting for the sick kid at home.

Speaker 1

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2

Every year there was a sick kid at home.

Speaker 1

I just tried to you know leverage with my kids to say, hey, my protective presence should earn some sort of reward. Like the Heath Bars or the Three Musketeers is what.

Speaker 2

I wanted. They're like we're 16, Dad, we're fine.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2

You don't have to come with us.

Speaker 1

So today, talking about Halloween, mo, we thought it would probably be best to start with just a little history of where it came from. Do you want to just start into that? Absolutely, yeah, so it is an ancient Celtic celebration.

Speaker 2

It's like a New Year's Celtic or Celtic. It's Celtic, it's I mean it's like the Boston Celtics.

Speaker 1

They'll say it that way.

Speaker 2

But it's.

Speaker 1

Celtic the preferable pronunciation. Go for it.

Speaker 2

I guess in Gaelic.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

So, yes, it's about twenty five hundred years old, right Is what? And some historical stuff has come up, that archaeological evidence it could be even older, like this tradition, right? And so it's a New Year's celebration of the harvest is ending, winter's coming, so it's like from life to death, and it's a time when Halloween comes out of this and it came to America because of the Irish immigrants, and so, yeah, I know You're welcome the fun, the festivities, chocolate and costumes, all because the Irish there, you go.

Speaker 2

You're welcome, but it's a time when they thought that because it represented new birth, right that the veil was thin.

Speaker 2

And so the spirit world, between this world and the spirit world, yeah, the spirit world and this world, and so it was a time when our ancestors and those who've gone before but also different spirits and supernatural would linger in the on the earth didn't know that they weren't also spirits, because they were afraid they would be taken and or, you know, trickery would be played on them and stuff like that. And so they did a lot of cool things, like we carve pumpkins. Today they carve turnips, you know, they light candles, and candles were lit to actually guide the spirits back to their realm. So lots of cool, different, fun things.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Cool, fun. But on the other way of framing it you could say they were pagan things.

Speaker 2

I mean, yeah, they were pagan, definitely pagan.

Speaker 1

And then it was in like the seventh century when one of the popes moved All Saints Day from May, I think it was, back to November 1st to sort of try and Christianize this sort of pagan festival that had been going on to tie it to All Saints, and so Halloween was Hallows' Eve. All Hallows' Eve, the night before All Saints' Day, which was then celebrated in the church, is remembering those saints who had gone before us.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because this tradition, samhain, was celebrated the 31st to the 1st of November often, and there is some actually church fathers that wrote about celebrating the saints in the 4th century as well.

Speaker 1

Okay.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

But yeah, I was just saying the 7th century is when it got moved. But yes, so yeah, that was a Christian festival that was tried to be superimposed and, as you said, sort of usurping the pagan aspects to try and make it a little more palatable, because they didn't feel they could get rid of it because it was too firmly entrenched in the culture.

Speaker 2

So they said, well, let's celebrating the reality that those who have died are still somehow in connection with us in communion, right? So there's like that element to it, Still a lot of pagan elements too. But so as Christians we're like, hey, wait, this resonates with what we believe as well.

Speaker 1

The communion of saints.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we're in the communion of saints that there is life after death and we are in a weird way in communion with them in Christ and they intercede on our behalf and all that kind of good stuff. So they're like, hey, we'll take a little bit of this and we'll leave a little bit of that.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so it really has this sort of dual aspect. It's sort of the ongoing, just sort of secular festival of Hallow's Eve or Halloween and then this All Saints Day that follows, and so it's sort of in tension with those in some ways, or tension or just complimentary, depending on how you want to frame it.

Speaker 2

Absolutely. And it wasn't until the Irish immigrants kind of came to America that wave that they started celebrating Halloween. They did because before that it was definitely considered like a no-no.

Speaker 1

Yeah and considered a no-no because of the connection to. Puritanism and the connection to spirits and the occult and the devil, and some of those aspects that it was frowned upon by the initial pilgrims coming here.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because it was a time of divination too, like they would, you know, they'd read tarot cards and they'd, you know, read poems and all that type of stuff as well.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so for me, when I think about Halloween today, there are a number of things that I think are just fine about it and fun about it. I mean, some of the costumes that people come up with are so creative and silly and playful, sometimes social commentary, sometimes just fun. I think that's cool. I think you know this is a time when homes are getting a little more drab and so a little decoration can be fun, nothing like some dead bodies in your front yard.

Speaker 1

Well, I wasn't going to that part of the decoration, but for me, to me, one of the things that I've always liked and appreciated about Halloween was the simple fact that it was one time where people in a neighborhood got out of their homes and actually visited their neighbors.

Speaker 1

I mean we so often live in communities out here where people just they drive in their car, they have the garage door go up, they pull in, they may talk to a neighbor on one side or the other, but we don't have a lot of neighborly connection. And this is the one event in the year where people are out going and knocking on each other's doors.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I love that. It's not like awkward, it's like everyone's doing it. Yeah, exactly, and so you actually get to meet neighbors and connect with neighbors and know which ones give the bad candy and which ones give the awesome candy.

Speaker 1

Well, of course every kid rates that, but for me I mean and even from a Christian perspective that whole thing where Jesus says love your neighbors yourself. How do we love our neighbor if we don't even know who our neighbors are?

Speaker 2

And so for me.

Speaker 1

I love that part of Halloween and so I love going out with my kids and trick-or-treating not only because then I get a little of the candy, but it was a chance to just meet neighbors and connect. So I love that community aspect of Halloween and would hate to lose that.

Speaker 2

No absolutely, and you and I were talking earlier kind of about how Paul spoke into eating the meat that was, or the animals that were sacrificed right on the altars, and you know some people thought you shouldn't, some thought you should. Or if it was, on what was it? The meat that was sacrificed?

Speaker 1

Yeah, sacrificed to idols. And yeah, Paul's point was Should you eat it, should you not?

Speaker 1

He said we know idols are nothing Right, so we can eat it because everything is the Lord's. I mean, he says in 1 Corinthians 8 and in chapter 10, he talks about this. And so he says it isn't a problem because they're not real. He said but there are other people whose consciences may be troubled by the fact that hold it, if you're doing that in that temple or you're doing it and they knew that you could cause them to stumble. And so, even if you have the freedom to do it, you can't just say, well, I'm free to do it, so whatever we need to out of love, also think hold it, are my actions, my freedom going to cause other people to stumble? And so to me the tie-in with Halloween becomes if I'm free to do some of this stuff, but if I'm causing someone else to think, oh, all that occult stuff is okay and there's no big problem with any aspects of evil and that.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Well then, we may need to rethink some of it.

Speaker 2

Right, because I think it comes back to like you know, I love that scripture because it comes back to how are you personally viewing it right? Like? Are you viewing it like, oh, it doesn't matter, this is nothing to me, this meat is nothing, you know? Like it doesn't matter, this is nothing. They're dressing as witches, or they're dressing as fairies, or they're dressing as princesses. Whatever it is, it has no meaning in your heart. And there were a lot of people, a lot of African-Americans, predominantly from a Southern Baptist type background, and they did not celebrate Halloween. It was absolutely not okay and I actually brought some of the scripture and readings as to why.

Speaker 1

So why do some people say yeah?

Speaker 2

because we had to sit down. And had to sit down and actually like hash through this, because maybe my perspective or some other people's perspective in the church was who cares? Like we're just having fun, like this is a—you know? Like we have trees at Christmas that came from, you know, a holiday that was considered pagan, so it's—yeah. So some of them were, for instance, like rejecting the occult or things that are witchcraft, right, and so that comes out of Deuteronomy 18, 10, that says Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their sons and daughters in the fire, who practice divination or sorcery, interpret omens, engage in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a median or spiritist or who consults with the dead. And so this day does come out of sowin, right. So it comes out of a tradition where there was this idea of connecting with the dead, talking with the dead, and so the and with the whole idea of witches and stuff like that, they're just like. I want nothing attached to something that even derived from that.

Speaker 1

Yeah, what was one of the other reasons they had?

Speaker 2

Yeah, so some of the other reasons were avoiding works of darkness. That was from Ephesians 5.11. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. And Halloween was seen as a time that kind of like glorified darkness, like looking at the scary and the gloom and the you know and death, and not in a way of like the saints, but in a more gory way, I guess.

Speaker 1

You bet and Mo on that there's someone close in my life who really came to awakening in their faith in Christ at an event that happened to be on Halloween, oh really. And so for them that was that sense of turning from darkness to light, and so for them, that sense of Halloween being something that I don't want to have anything to do with, it became that very visible representation of I'm turning to the light of Christ and I'm not getting caught in the works of the world, and so for them there's very much that sense that Halloween represents, all that sort of darkness.

Speaker 2

Were you out evangelizing on Halloween.

Speaker 1

No, that was not me that helped this person to.

Speaker 2

Were you a preacher going door to door? I was not.

Speaker 1

Trick or treat. You've been tricked.

Speaker 2

Here's the gospel.

Speaker 1

But Mo, there is we talked about it earlier One of my silly costumes as an adult. I went to a party and I found this really purple satiny suit at Goodwill that I got and I brought a briefcase and I went as a used Bible salesman to this yeah, I was already a pastor.

Speaker 2

That's where all our Bibles went.

Speaker 1

Exactly. No, this was 30 years ago. So yeah, I mean there can be the playful side, but some people are very focused on the reality of darkness that is sometimes connected with this and that is why I'm sure, at that church plant for my friend, that sense of I don't want to be associated with those things.

Speaker 2

Right, and I mean as Christians. You know there's a lot of different scripture that talks about focusing, keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. Seek first the kingdom of God, like Philippians 4, 8, even. You know, brothers and sisters, whatever's true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, if anything is excellent and praiseworthy, think of such things. Right, like we are a people that are supposed to hyper-focus ourselves on things that are good and of the light, because we do know that what we see, what we take in it, affects us right.

Speaker 1

Our psyche Garbage in, garbage out.

Speaker 2

And we were just talking earlier about. Tell us some of what you kind of researched about how people are attracted to horror and where that kind of comes out of.

Speaker 1

I was looking this up in context of this podcast and there was some stuff from the Harvard Business Review and John Hopkins University. There has been significant growth in the last 30, 40 years around horror movies.

Speaker 2

There's always been some of it. I do love horror movies, see, and I do not like horror movies.

Speaker 1

But one of the things that they said is the people who like horror movies have this sense of sort of a protective shell that they sort of recognize this is just entertainment. It isn't real that it feels distance from them that they have these sort of means to protect. But yeah, the thing the stat that I shared is that some of their research was that the wealthier the countries, the higher the GDP in that country, the more there was intrigue with horror movies, the more people actually went to horror movies. And in lower-income countries they did not go and in many ways I'm sure it was because they're often dealing with horrors in real life.

Exploring the Fascination With Fear

Speaker 2

Yeah, they're like no thanks. I want to keep myself focused on what's good, Exactly and in some ways part of what horror movies do is, again, according to the research.

Speaker 1

Why are people drawn to it is because it stimulates strong emotional reaction.

Speaker 2

Oh, it absolutely does.

Speaker 1

And it scares the heebie-jeebies out of you.

Speaker 2

I wouldn't go to the bathroom by myself after seeing the movie it. For like three months I made my poor sister go with me every day, cause that clown came through the drain and it was over. I was like you have to come with me. I was like I need a witness, but then again she was blind so she wouldn't have seen anything, but she could have pulled you back. You know, I was maybe thinking I'd shove her towards the clown.

Speaker 2

I don't know the uh not very Christlike, but I have since repented and found the light.

Speaker 1

So I do think that sort of. In some ways, I think the draw to it is that our world is a little more sanitized and comfortable and so at some level the attraction to that is, you know, we're not living out where there are bears around us. Well, my friends in Florida are dealing with the gators right now that have been displaced from the hurricane and such. But that sense of when there aren't a lot of sort of physical fears in the world, that sometimes we're drawn to, that emotional reaction.

Speaker 1

So that was helpful for me to understand.

Speaker 2

That's really interesting because, yeah, if you are in a country or a place or a space that's more dangerous, it's I mean, real life's scary right Like real life is fearful, and you know you have enough cortisol running through your body all day long. The last thing you want to do is watch something to kind of spike that up.

Speaker 1

is watch something to kind of spike that up. Yeah, I mean, when my daughter, maddie, was down in Swaziland, there were numerous poisonous snakes, including, I think, black mambas that were down there, I know, and you'd just be walking through the weeds and you're like, uh-oh, there's one. And so, yeah, there are scary things that some people are dealing with day to day and they don't need to go to a theater to get scared.

Speaker 2

What's the scariest movie you've seen?

Speaker 1

Oh, the scariest movie I've seen. Oh, that's a great question.

Speaker 2

Did you see one? Oh well.

Speaker 1

I mean I'm going really because part of it was when I was a kid I went to these it scared me. One was, I remember it's like I mean this is going to really date me though.

Speaker 2

But the Towering Inferno I remember seeing that one from 40 years ago or whatever Is it in black and white.

Speaker 1

No, that one wasn't, but I think I saw the Blob.

Speaker 2

That was also oh wait, I do remember the Blob my brothers blob that was also. Wait. I do remember the blob. My brothers watched that thing. It was a big. It looked like a big booger. I made my kids watch it. I was so excited. They're like this is horrible. Yeah, I was like it was so cool.

Speaker 1

I mean it was. I mean, I was probably in grade school when I saw something like um. So I'm trying to think of something that I've seen recently, I don't know um the long legs with Nicolas Cage, because a lot of the police officers were freaked out at that one.

Speaker 2

Oh no yeah.

Speaker 1

You know, there's some. What are some of the I don't know. See, I like thrillers, I like things that sort of keep me on the edge of my seat, but I don't like when it goes into the gore. You know, sort of that sort of horror. Oh, Get Out.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, but that'll traumatize you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that'll ruin your state for a while and make you think yeah, and make you think sure well so, um, yeah, so, so yeah, I mean I think there is this.

Speaker 1

This tension with halloween is that it's some parts of it can just be fun and playful and silly and community building, even really good stuff. And I know one of our friends happened to be sitting in the room here has a series of is it skeletons or the Grim Reaper on his front porch and it's saying don't fear the Reaper that they break into song with. It's connected to his Bluetooth and it's saying don't fear the reaper that they break into song with.

Speaker 2

Connected to his Bluetooth and it plays all these different songs. Yeah, all these songs Super cool.

Speaker 1

I mean fun, you know fun playful stuff like that.

Speaker 2

I'd say we'd give you Jack's address, but he'd probably kill us.

Speaker 1

So, you know, I think there can be those fun, playful things that are part of it, but there can be this sort of darker underside too that I think we need to at least be aware of.

Speaker 2

Well, yeah, and I think it's like where's your heart at right? Like, what are your thoughts about it? When you're embarking on this stuff, when you're participating, you know, and is what you're doing affecting those around you that you love and care about? Right? So, like, even with that church plant I had, we went back and forth and, at the end of the day, it was all of us who did celebrate Halloween and didn't see a big deal about it, giving up our power, right, like, just as Jesus took off, you know, his robe and put the towel around his waist and washed his disciples' feet, what does it look like for us to be relinquishing our power and our right for the good of our brothers and sisters, because we love them and that's what they need, and so that's what it really just became a space where we did that and I love that and to me that's also honoring that part where Paul was talking about.

Speaker 1

You may be free to do that and eating this food sacrificed to others, but if it's going to cause your brother or sister to stumble, don't do it.

Speaker 2

Right.

Speaker 1

And so it isn't just what we're free to do, it's what is the best thing to do.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and you know, and they've come up with a lot of really the loving thing to do. Absolutely, and they've come up with a lot of like fun, creative things now, like they have Trunk trunk or tree right where you can go to different you know car trunks and what other things are they doing?

Speaker 1

The well. I mean, we have our Fall Fest here where we do a trunk or treat with that. You know, I think, just some of the again the community building stuff you know, and those things can be real positives around this time.

Speaker 2

I would like to advocate for all staff going to a haunted house, like if you really cared about us. We should all go to a haunted house. No, Simo, I think what we should all do is, we should all go trick-or-treating together and get candy. That's where I'm at oh, that won't be creepy. A bunch of adults come into your house trick-or-treat. Maybe we can hand out Bibles.

Speaker 1

Maybe that isn't a good idea. So I think this is again one of those where, depending on your perspective, we've got to wrestle with it in different ways, not only what works for me, but what works for the people around me Absolutely, and I'd love to hear from you guys as well.

Speaker 2

Let us know. Leave a comment. Do you celebrate Halloween? How have you viewed this? Has it been a struggle in your own family?

Speaker 1

This is what it's about. It's about unpacking these truths together and yeah, so. So like subscribe, share it with others If you know people are wrestling with these questions, and send in your other ideas so we can keep unpacking God's truth together.

Speaker 2

Yep, happy Halloween. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Unpacking Truths. If anything that we discussed sparked any ideas or you have any questions, we would love for you to go to unpackingtruthscom, or you can also email us at unpackingtruths at locchurchcom.

Speaker 1

And don't forget to like, share or subscribe to the podcast, because you doing that allows other people to connect to this content and grow with God as well.

Speaker 2

Until next time, we hope you know that you are loved.

Head Shot

Pastor Kendall Koenig

Host
Head Shot

Pastor Maureen O'Connor

Host