Every year around Halloween I hear brothers and sisters raising concerns about Christians participating in Halloween events.  Generally they point to the pagan origins of Samhain and the “unscriptural” feast of All Saints Day as an invention of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore unwarranted.  This year like several before our congregation had a Halloween party with kids wearing costumes; we gave out candy, roasted marshmallows and had a hay ride.  I know many churches have similar festivities but rename it “Fall Festival”.  It seems to be disingenuous to me to happen to have a party around October 31 were you encourage kids to wear costumes, but act like it’s not a Halloween party because you have used a different name.  Besides, Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the Christian term for the day.
Again this year a friend shared with me an explanation of why Halloween is evil and Christians should not participate.  As I thought about it I didn’t think I could or even should try to convince another believer that Halloween is good and should be embraced.  At the same time I don’t think it is appropriate to be dismissive of concerns by fellow believers.  So in an attempt to explain why my children will dress up this evening and go trick-or-treating I offer the following points.

1. In I Corinthians 10 Paul deals with concerns among Christians about eating meat that had previously been offered as sacrifices to pagan gods.  Meat from sacrificial victims was butchered and sold in the markets.  Some Christians believed it was wrong to eat it since it had been used for worship of false gods, others believed that there was nothing wrong with it, probably since a non-existent god could have no effect on the good gift of the true God.  Paul does not forbid eating the meat unless it offends someone’s conscience.  Paul recognises the liberty of Christians to choose different actions, indeed with a relation to paganism, based on individual conscience, respect and love for fellow believers, and of course with the stipulation that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”.  Of course Paul is warning not to use our liberty to offend fellow believers, but at the same time he is not giving permission to those with “weaker” consciences to direct others actions.
2. One point that is made by many who think that it is wrong from Christians to trick-or-treat is that while they might think it is innocent fun, the pagan origins means that they are unwittingly participating in actions connected with witchcraft or idol worship.  I think that intention has to be taken much more serious than this.  Worship cannot be unintentional.  By trick-or-treating our intention is to visit friends and family, enjoy dressing up, and showing hospitality to neighbours. I can’t imagine anyone who makes this argument accepting the same for Christian worship – we simply don’t believe that a someone who is not part of the Church partaking of the Lord’s Supper has truly worshipped the Living God or received the benefits of the sacrament.
3. Some Christians seem to be concerned with the pagan associations Christian Holidays have.  Generally the argument made is that the Roman Catholic Church, without Biblical warrant, introduced Christian Holidays to compete with the pagan festival and many pagan practices became part of the Christian celebration which is therefore tainted.  First, it is incredibly anachronistic to say that the Roman Church introduced these days, they are the heritage of all Christians pre-dating both the Reformation and the schism between the East and West.  Second, while some Christians believe that no day should be observed other than those explicitly commanded in the scriptures, I find good warrant to observe Holidays that have developed by tradition.  In John 10:22-23 we read, “Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.”  The Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, which Jesus is apparently observing, was not mandated in the Torah.  It developed in the period after the Old Testament and commemorates the rededication of the temple during the Maccabean Revolt.  Finally, I think it’s good for us to remember the differences in our own times and culture with our predecessors.  For most of us Religion and Society are separated, for ancients everything was religious.  For us pagan seems to imply a minority group of evil primitives.  It is helpful to remember that in the early part of our history pagans were the dominant culture in a society that did not separate religion from politics, the marketplace or sports.  The early Christians had to struggle with how to be faithful within such a culture.  The  Church might have established Holy Days to coincide with pagan festivals.  Rather than a scheme to “Christianize” these days, it might have simply been the case that as the minority who did not get to set the calendar, observing Christian feasts at times they would already have free was simply a practical measure.  (This is admittedly simply personal speculation.)  On the other hand there is evidence that the Church chose days without reference to the dominant pagan calendar and the copying was the other way around.