Sometimes we just forget. We forget our house keys, where we parked the car or (sometime to our great peril) loved one’s birthdays. This is possibly why Christmas is often associated with Rudolph and hohoho. It is because some have forgotten the real reason behind the celebration. In the same way, many have also forgotten what Halloween is all about.
Last weekend, many in town would have noticed a fair number of people wandering the streets in the guise of goblins, gremlins, ghouls, witches, warlocks, vampires, villains and other representations of the undead. But why is this associated with Halloween and what are we celebrating? Well it really depends on who you are. If you’re a teenager, it’s just another excuse to paaartaaay. Commercially, it’s another reason for retail growth but to druids or neo pagans, it’s a festival of darkness or the dead.
According to the fount of all knowledge (aka Wikipedia) it was believed that at this time of the year, those that had passed on could cross back over into this world and that in order to ward off evil spirits, a person had to dress up like one to confuse them (as if).
In stark contrast, Christianity is all about life (Psalm 36:9, John 6:33, Colossians 2:13). The Bible teaches that death is evil (Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12, Ephesians 2:1) and that Jesus came that we might not just have life, but have it in abundance (John 10:10). As Christians we believe that light will always triumph over the darkness and that the resurrection of Christ is a celebration of life and victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:26, 2 Titus 1:10, Revelation 1:18).
Still, it is doubtful that this annual occurrence will go away anytime soon so we should consider it an opportunity to discuss the reality of the spiritual world with those who haven’t picked a side yet. The Bible teaches that (even though we can’t see it) there is a war going on in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 5:8, Revelation 12:17) and we all need to pick a side, whether we like it or not.
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