As a sort of follow-up to my previous post, I wanted to explore the origins of Halloween. As I mentioned in the last entry, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Being an avowed fan of the horror genre, the spooky season always brings a sense of excitement. Yet, as I discussed earlier, the Halloweens I celebrated in the first many years of my life lacked the ghosts, goblins, monsters, and slashers. For multitudes of people raised in Christian households, this may certainly ring true. In such environments, Halloween is a Christian holiday; in reality, as I have found, it is the one holiday Christianity could never claim.
Many friends I grew up with were not allowed to celebrate Halloween at all. For such unfortunate individuals, they were told something along the lines of Halloween being the devil’s birthday. I was led to believe that it was initially a Christian holiday that became secularized. In recent years, I have found that there is truth in the opposite. Despite this, I still always enjoyed Halloween, even with a distorted perspective. Trick-or-treating. Hayrides. Carving pumpkins. Dressing up as something new each year. It always brought a sense of excitement as soon as the leaves began to change colors.
Christianity and Halloween: A Love-Hate Relationship
Christianity and Halloween have a bit of a complicated relationship, especially in the current age. Churches never celebrate Halloween, and yet they inadvertently do. Each church we attended when I was growing up held fall festivals, which is the term for Christian Halloween celebrations. I still get a kick out of the last church our family attended, the church where I initially became furious at what Christianity has become. Their fall festival (which always fell on, or the week as, Halloween) was called the “Hallelujah Ho Down.” I mean, what? If you didn’t know before, I am from the American south. The title of this event alone ought to tell you.
Anyways, the love-hate relationship Christianity and Halloween hold has always intrigued me. My understanding, from growing up in a Christian home, was that October 31 was initally the celebration of All Hallow’s Eve. This is where we get the name Halloween; but bear with me, it appears Christianity could only claim the name of this popular holiday. Nothing else. All Hallow’s Eve precedes All Saints’ Day, which falls on November 1 and precedes All Souls Day on November 2. These three days make up the three-day Roman Catholic holiday of Hallowtide.1 This holiday originated in the seventh century CE as a way to honor martyred saints. But this is not where our contemporary Halloween has its roots.
Reformation Day and Protestantism
Before moving to the historical origins of Halloween, I would like to note even further the view instilled in me as a child. Catholicism and Protestantism are at complete odds and have been for hundreds of years. As you may know, I grew up in an evangelical Protestant home. As such, my family would never celebrate a Catholic holiday. And here is where Protestantism attempts to also claim the day as its own. I was brought up to accept Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, as Reformation Day. This day, of course, celebrates in observance of Martin Luther’s nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Catholic church and the birth of Protestantism on October 31, 1517.
Even now as I write this, Reformation Day honestly excites me. Not because it was an attempt to claim an already Christianized holiday, but because of Martin Luther. Indeed, the first time I studied Martin Luther was when our family attended the “Hallelujah Ho Down-Hillbilly Throwdown” church. By that point, as a freshman in high school, I was beginning to see why I am at odds with the church. And Martin Luther absolutely fascinated me for having the gall to condemn the church of his day. I only wish he could do the same with the contemporary Protestant church. As I progressed in my study of theology, I came to find Luther was, well, a sick individual in many ways (e.g., many of his writings promote antisemitism). But to this day, I respect his work in calling out the Catholic church’s innumerable crimes.
So, on October 31, what do Christians celebrate? Whether it is All Hallow’s Eve or Reformation Day, one thing is for certain: Christianity is still trying to claim a holiday that is not theirs. Just as Easter and Christmas were initially pagan holidays, so was Halloween. And the church used one of its best weapons to lay claim to these days: syncretism. Syncretism is not necessarily a bad thing. In its simplest form, it is the act of “blending contradictory beliefs, theology and/or mythology together to come up with something unique and unified.”2 But of course, a knife is not necessarily a bad thing either; it depends on how it is used. And the church uses it as a weapon.
Samhain: A Pagan Holiday
Halloween, as we know it, has roots in Paganism. As do Christmas and Easter, the two major Christian holidays. So, where and when did it all begin? Numerous sources, both Christian and secular, trace Halloween’s origins to the Celts.3 And by the way, the sources I am using for this post are not hidden away in a university’s library; they are easily accessible via a simple Google search. The holiday we now celebrate as Halloween can be traced back at least 2,000 years ago as a holiday celebrated by Celtic pagans.4
For the Celts, the new year began on November 1. This day marked the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of winter. Furthermore, it was believed that on the evening preceding November 1, “the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.”5 On October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain (which translates to “summer’s end”). The holiday was celebrated by carving jack-o-lanterns (with turnips, as opposed to pumpkins), wearing scary costumes (to fend off evil spirits), and prominently displaying orange and black (black representing the “death” of summer and orange the arrival of autumn).6 As we can see, in and of itself, Samhain was not a day of celebrating the devil, as many evangelicals claim.
But eventually, seeing the joy pagans had in celebrating this peaceful holiday, the church decided it wanted to claim the holiday. Around 43 CE, the Roman Empire conquered much of the land possessed by the Celts.7 And within a few centuries, the Roman Catholic church had a chokehold on the Roman Empire. The church wanted to appease pagan-to-Christian converts, thus taking pagan holidays, such as Halloween, and Christianizing them. This also is not necessarily a bad thing. But in America, centuries later, Puritans decried the celebration of Halloween, falsely proclaiming that it is a day in which the pagans worship Satan. Since then, Christians have accused those who celebrate this day of the same, baseless action.
Many evangelicals, to this day, stand firm in their belief that Halloween is inherently evil. They condemn churchgoers who participate for being “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14, KJV). To them, syncretism is an abhorrent sin. To me, and to millions of others, it is a beautiful thing. It is a way for people of different beliefs to come together. One source I have referenced aptly explains that syncretism is a “harmonious blending of beliefs and less conflict about beliefs.”8 And yet, once again, evangelicals weaponize syncretism to a sort of “us vs. them” or “holier-than-thou” tactic.
So What do Christian Want with Halloween?
Generally speaking, there are two primary approaches Christians take to Halloween: reject it as a detestable heathen celebration or sterilize it to fit the evangelical method. Granted, as with most issues I discuss on this blog, these are not the only approaches. There are Christians who accept the holiday for what it truly is, but these are a minority, at least in the Bible Belt. I have lightly discussed the former approach, but the real heart of this entry and why I wanted to compose it concerns the attempts to steal Halloween. Going back to what I mentioned at the beginning, Christianity celebrates Halloween without accepting Halloween for what it is.
At least, this is true for the Christianity I knew for most of my life. I mentioned the minimal presence of horror in Christian literature in my last post, and I would like to use a similar argument to further the discussion. One of my favorite Halloween activities is visiting “haunted” attractions. Atlanta is home to Netherworld, one of the best and most popular haunted attractions in North America. Usually, I will visit Netherworld or similar attractions around this time each year. And here is a case where Christians have attempted to cash in on secular Halloween traditions.
My “Hallelujah Ho Down” church was one of many churches today that want to claim Halloween. Each year, the youth group would attend a Christian haunted attraction in Georgia. Yes, a Christian haunted attraction, you read that right. They are real. Judgment Journey, the name of this tour, was a guided tour through the popular yet unbiblical interpretation of the book of Revelation as the end times. Actors walk around with fake blood, claiming their loved ones suddenly vanished (the rapture, nowhere mentioned in the Bible yet vital to Christianity), and, of course, wishing they had accepted Jesus all those years ago. For me, it was a bit of a comedy tour. My favorite part will always be the four horsemen who spoke with astute Southern drawls. For instance, “My name is death! I am the rider of the black horse—I will kill yewwwww.”
As humorous as the tours were, the ending always provided the greatest scare. When the tour comes to an end, the group gathers to hear a preacher or church leader give a turn-or-burn message. “These events are happening, soon! Surely you do not want to experience what you have just seen. If you do not accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, this will happen to you!” And of course, the speaker offers a chance to put people on the spot. With “every head bowed and every eye closed,” they insist on raising your hand if you are willing to accept their doomsday message. This is, like most church events, an attempt to get the numbers: how many people can we convert? The toxic and depressing message is almost always followed by DC Talk’s song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” For the church, horror is bad—that is, unless you are using it to force someone to accept your beliefs.
Conclusion
It amazes me what lengths the church will go to for the goal of either claiming Halloween or capitalizing on it. It is never to promote unity. It is used to portray non-Christians as villainous heathens who are trying to thwart the progress of the church. It is used to promote division among Christians and non-Christians. “Accept our message, or you will be left behind!” Again, it is all an “us-versus-them” strategy. This is where syncretism becomes a weapon. But that is not the approach either side should be taking. Halloween is an opportunity for Christians and non-Christians to come together. To share their traditions. To understand that we all bleed the same blood and breathe the same air, regardless of beliefs.
Finally, Halloween is a time for us to embrace the problem of suffering. What I love about horror is that it presents the problem in a crystal-clear manner: there is suffering in this world. We do not address the problem by forcing others to accept our beliefs. We can use this holiday to accept that there is evil in this world, and suffering will inevitably come to each of us. Halloween reminds us that we need to make the most of this suffering. We need to have fun and enjoy life. Life is fleeting. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, so we need to take a moment to appreciate the life we have been given. We need to respect those around us, whether they are Christian, pagan, agnostic, or anything else. We need syncretism. We need to come together, put our beliefs aside, and love and cherish those in our lives. We need to celebrate the life we have received, for we never know when we may lose it.
- Sophia Balasubramanian, “Spirits, ghouls and pumpkins, oh my! The historical origins of Halloween,” The State Press, 2021, https://www.statepress.com/article/2021/10/origins-of-halloween
2. Cathy Mantis, “Halloween: Christian and Pagan Syncretism,” Psychics Directory, https://www.psychicsdirectory.com/articles/halloween-christian-pagan-syncretism/
3. C. Matthew McMahon, “A Brief History of Halloween,” A Puritan’s Mind, https://www.apuritansmind.com/the-christian-walk/a-brief-history-of-halloween-by-dr-c-mathew-mcmahon/; Balasubramanian, “Spirits, ghouls and pumpkins, oh my! The historical origins of Halloween,” https://www.statepress.com/article/2021/10/origins-of-halloween; Cathy Mantis, “Halloween: Christian and Pagan Syncretism,” https://www.psychicsdirectory.com/articles/halloween-christian-pagan-syncretism/
4. “Halloween 2023,” History.com, 2023, https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
5. Ibid.
6. Heather Thomas, “The Origins of Halloween Traditions,” Library of Congress Blogs, 2021, https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/10/the-origins-of-halloween-traditions/#:~:text=Yet%2C%20the%20Halloween%20holiday%20has,costumes%20to%20ward%20off%20ghosts.
7. “Halloween 2023,” History.com, 2023.
8. Cathy Mantis, “Halloween: Christian and Pagan Syncretism.”