Okay, Halloween

In America, it is impossible not to notice that today is Halloween. Its symbols, the pumpkins, witches, ghouls and ghosts have been everywhere over the last few weeks and the stores are filled with special offers on Halloween candy. Last night I was required to create a jack o' lantern, while Larry worked on one of his masterpieces, intricately carved into another pumpkin. There is just no avoiding it; it's Halloween.

For some reason, Halloween died out in Britain long before my time. Every year there are attempts to reintroduce it by those who would profit most from the sale of costumes and candy and it does seem to have gained a little ground over the last few years. But, generally, the British are curiously resistant to it, perhaps because parents see it as just one more attempt to take their hard-earned money.

Here in America, Halloween is a big deal, rivaling Christmas for the title of top "festival for the kids". There is some controversy over it in Christian circles, many maintaining that it is pagan in origin and should be avoided therefore, but the great majority see it as just a fun time for children, remembering its joys from their own childhoods.

Brad Huston, of Broken Messenger, has an excellent post up at the moment; he has listed his week's memorable and recommended posts from other blogs. Amongst them is the Jolly Blogger's article that discusses our attitudes to Halloween. This also contains a link to a pamphlet that sets out all we know about the festival; this is well worth a read if you want to find out the truth behind Halloween.

To me, the whole thing looks cultural, just as are all the other supposedly Christian festivals on the calendar. All tribes and nations develop special days on which they will celebrate one or another aspect of their history and culture; it's in our nature to do so. And I don't see that any cultural celebration has to be intrinsically evil or otherwise. They help to mark the passing seasons of the year, give us a chance to "let our hair down" and, perhaps, remember events from the past.

It seems to me that claiming any particular day as special to Christianity is missing the point. Every day is the Lord's and every day is special. We might even be detracting from this revelation by appointing certain dates as of particular significance. Oh, I know the arguments against this view, that such "holy days" help us to remember important events in our faith; my point is merely that I wonder why on earth we should need such reminding of the central facts of our belief. If we are in danger of forgetting that Jesus was born in a stable or that He died for our sins and rose again, I would think that something is wrong somewhere.

All of our supposedly Christian festivals contain aspects borrowed from paganism, with the possible exception of Halloween, strangely enough (read the pamphlet). Christmas is the pagan midwinter festival, hijacked by the early Christians who recognized the difficulty of weaning the populace from a feast day set in the midst of the hard times of winter; they renamed it, added some Christian symbols and everyone was happy. The Easter egg was donated by pagan spring revels (and I should imagine that the Easter bunny was an invention of commercial interests, although I can't be sure).

Does it matter? Any power that some once-pagan symbol has is entirely granted to it by ourselves. Of itself, it has as little significance as any other inanimate object. And surely our faith is stronger than any belief in the power of an object.

Ask people what Christmas means to them and you will get all sorts of different answers. Some will tell you that it's about giving, others that it's about the birth of Christ. For some it is a celebration of family and for others an opportunity to drink as much alcohol as they can stand. The truth is that it's all of those things, still a midwinter feast with some Christian additions. And everyone knows that Easter is really The Great Annual Chocolate Celebration.

In my humble opinion, it's all cultural. We have these festivals because we have a need for them. They divide our year and bind us together into community. That's all.

Yes, it's just my opinion and I would not seek to impose it on anyone else. It's always possible, perhaps even highly likely, that I am wrong. But it's the way I see things at the moment.

And so, what of Halloween? Interestingly, I have found several blogs that agree that its major importance is that everyone gets out and meets the neighbors. This might mean that I was close to the truth in my own conclusions on the subject when I wrote of my first American Halloween. And, if that is so, it actually helps hold America together.

Halloween seems to me like all the other festivals; it's a cultural event with no religious significance. Even though the hype still concentrates heavily on witches and ghouls, vampires and ghosts, in reality they are heavily outnumbered these days by Spidermen and Princesses, Buzz Lightyears and fairies. It has mutated into an opportunity for children to dress up and eat a lot of candy.

Like everything else, Halloween has become commercialized and we can bemoan that fact. But grounds for religious objection? I think not.