Tag: Halloween

Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween

Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween

Let me start by warning you that I will be using arguments that I have heard and arguing against them in this post. If you stand by any of these arguments, I would like you to know that I do not mean to attack you personally, and I sincerely hope that I do not offend you in writing this. I do not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, I merely wish to get my point across.

Now, without further ado, my blog post.

I sometimes get odd looks or questions when I tell people that I don’t celebrate Halloween. The most notable of these questions is this: Why not?

Well the basic answer to that is easy. I think that it is wrong. Halloween celebrates death and darkness, and as a Christian I see that as going against everything that the Bible teaches. God is light and life, so when we celebrate Halloween we are celebrating everything that He is not.

The first argument I hear in favor of Halloween from Christians is this:

But I don’t dress up as anything scary, so it’s okay.

Maybe you don’t dress up as a skeleton or a ghost or a vampire, but you’re still participating. You’re still celebrating with everyone else and you’re still glorifying the death and darkness that Halloween is all about. God tells us that we should “not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12) and that we should “take heed that the light within us is not darkness.” (Luke 11:35). He tells us “do not love the world or the things in the world.” (1 John 2:15a).

All this to say: It’s still Halloween. It’s still a celebration of everything God is not. It’s still bad.

 

The second argument I hear isn’t even really an argument.

It’s just a holiday. It’s harmless.

It’s just a holiday, yes, but it’s a holiday in favor of godlessness. It’s not harmless. You’re embedding an idea in your mind that darkness, death, etc. are all good things. In celebrating them you put them in a good light (pardon the irony.) The third dictionary definition for “celebrate” is to “honor or praise publicly.” This is what you’re doing when you celebrate Halloween. You are publicly honoring and praising death, darkness, and decay. Is that really what you want to be doing?

 

Again, I do not mean to attack anyone, I merely wish to point out what Halloween really is and why I think that it is wrong. You may agree or disagree, I don’t care, but please don’t make any nasty comments or anything (not that I expect you to.)