Evolving Feelings Concerning the Celebration of Halloween

Ghosts, skeletons, ghouls and fairies: how many people will dress up or decorate their houses to celebrate the things that frighten us on Halloween this year? Is this custom demonic? Satan worship? What is a sensitive Christian to do?

There are hundreds of articles on Associated Content about the history of the celebration of Halloween; to be exact, 928 articles used those two words when I searched AC today. When people write about the topic it seems to stir deep emotions in readers. Many of the articles have attracted comments from the outliers in both camps- those who do use it for pagan worship, and conversely those who believe its pagan origins present serious problems for Christians who take their faith seriously. Most folks are in the middle of the road and think of it just as a holiday on which to have fun

My own personal Halloween history began with school costume parties where there were very few purchased costumes. No one could afford them! My kindergarten Halloween party pictures feature me dressed as a wizard, P.G. was a mummy in scraps of an old sheet, Clara was a witch. She was one of the lucky ones, with a molded plastic mask from the dime store. Clara and I, the witch and the wizard, were also in the same Sunday School. At the age of five you aren't really thinking too deeply about conflicts of interest. There's a fairly elaborate clown, a pirate- you can tell from the mask, but the rest of the outfit was an ordinary puff-sleeve dress. A sash, simple half-mask, or one of dad's cast-off shirts were the costumes most kids could afford.

In junior high school I went on my share of small town "tricking" raids... but there were bounds to our mischief. Soap was ok, wax was considered out of line... too hard to remove. Ditto the eggs. I still have a scar on my forehead from some tin can thrown with malice, or not, in the dark by an invisible goblin. Probably one of the boys.