Op-Ed: The Underemphasis of Spiritual Depth on Halloween

Every year around the end of October, a question arises anew within Christian circles: How should Christians think about Halloween? 

Some argue that Halloween is a celebration of darkness and death, and thus should be avoided by Christians. Others hold that Halloween is not fundamentally immoral, and that Christians are therefore free to engage in the holiday’s traditions and practices.

Although there are many people on both sides of the debate who have the best of intentions, I believe that the true balance lies somewhere in the middle. Halloween does indeed have dark roots, but there are distinctly Christian elements to the celebration as well. Discernment is key.

My main issue with modern celebrations of Halloween is that the original spiritual depth of the holiday is largely neglected, even by non-Christians. If Christians want to use the celebrations on October 31 to glorify God and dwell on biblical truths, they must understand the origins of the holiday—both pagan and Christian—and recognize that the issue with Halloween lies more in motivation than tradition.

Historical context

The holiday we know as “Halloween” has roots that go back to first-century Europe, where pagan Celts celebrated “Samhain”: a festival marking the Celtic new year. At this time, they believed the divide between the physical and spiritual worlds was thin. During Samhain, Celtic peoples engaged in several activities to appease or frighten off spirits—such as dressing in costumes to hide from evil spirits, leaving food for wandering spirits and carving vegetable faces to scare off malevolent spirits.

The Roman Empire largely vanquished the Celts, and when it dissolved, the Catholic Church took charge of Christianizing the remaining pagan traditions surrounding the end of October. In 847, Pope Gregory IV declared November 1 to be the churchwide celebration of All Saints’ Day—a time during which the lives of deceased saints are honored and remembered. The day before, October 31, was labeled All Hallows’ Eve (or All Saints’ Eve), which eventually evolved into the name Halloween.

The Christianization of Samhain

After the Church declared the pagan harvest festival time of October 31 to be a sacred Christian holiday, Christians modified the implications of many traditional Samhain practices.

Rather than viewing costumes as an effective disguise from wandering spirits, Christians dressed as popular saints as a sort of visual encouragement to stand strong in faith. Even more macabre costumes were viewed as “mementos mori” (reminders of death), which tied into the Christian holiday’s consideration of mortality and the hope of life after death.

Instead of continuing the practice of putting out food for spirits, a tradition emerged in Christian circles where children would go door-to-door and offer prayers in exchange for a small gift.

Vegetable-carving to scare off evil spirits was Christianized when the significance of candlelit carved vegetables was understood to be Christ’s light shining through fear and death.

Although many of Samhain’s traditions remained outwardly unchanged, Christians attached deeper theological meaning to these ancient practices and focused the holiday on Christ’s victory over death and on the hope Christians maintain in light of death.

What is Halloween today?

In contemporary times, much of Halloween’s original significance is overlooked by mainstream culture. In non-Christian spheres, the spiritual roots of Samhain are overshadowed by celebrations of witchcraft and demonism, without the stark contrast between good and evil that the Celts recognized. 

Similarly, in Christian circles (particularly among Protestants), there is not a strong emphasis on remembering the lives of saints or seeing the holiday as an opportunity to dwell on Christ’s triumph over death and darkness.

Halloween, as practiced by most, has largely become detached from meaningful spiritual messaging and has instead devolved into either an obsession with darkness without the contrast of light or a completely sanitized holiday that makes no mention of the hope Christians have in the face of death and darkness. Rather than shrinking from Halloween because of its common association with the macabre, Christians should view the holiday as a chance to both consider spiritual realities and show the world that death and darkness are defeated through Christ.

So what about Halloween traditions?

Even if the overarching theme of Halloween from a Christian perspective is understood as hopeful and thought-provoking, a key issue still remains: Halloween traditions.

While the Halloween traditions of dressing in costumes, dealing out food from the front porch and carving pumpkins all have roots in Samhain, none of these practices spiritually compromise the person engaging in them. Dressing as a character from a recent blockbuster is not sinful, nor is handing out candy to passersby or carving designs into pumpkins. Certainly, any of these can be corrupted by the person engaging in them, but they are not inherently evil. 

Scripture says in Colossians 1:13 that “[God] rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Since Christians have been rescued from the “domain of darkness,” there should be no fear of accidental participation in darkness when engaging in Halloween activities. Discernment is still important, of course, but there is freedom for the Christian in Christ’s victory.

The reform Halloween needs

Halloween has undergone many changes over the course of its history. The most notable shifts were the Christianization of Samhain around the ninth century AD and the secularization of Halloween in contemporary times. Whatever spirituality still exists in modern celebrations of the holiday is hollowed out because it amplifies dark things without simultaneously showing the power of what is good. Halloween needs another reform—one that mostly returns it to its Catholic roots while placing an even greater emphasis on outreach to those who celebrate Halloween for the wrong reasons. After all, if Christians want to show the world the power of Christ’s victory over darkness, what better time to do so than a mainstream holiday?