Happy Halloween

Halloween: A Distinctly Christian Holiday

James B. Jordan

It has become routine in October for some Christian schools to send out letters warning parents about the evils of Halloween, and it has become equally routine for me to be asked questions about this matter.

“Halloween” is simply a contraction for All Hallow’s Eve (Hallow-Even—Hallow-E’n—Halloween). The word “hallow” means “saint,” in that “hallow” is just an alternative form of the word “holy” (“hallowed be Thy name”). All Saints’ Day is November 1. It is the celebration of the victory of the saints in union with Christ. The observance of various celebrations of All Saints arose in the late 300s, and these were united and fixed on Novemeber 1 in the late 700s. The origin of All Saints Day and All Saints Eve in Mediterranean Christianity had nothing to do with Celtic Druidism or the Church’s fight against Druidism (assuming there ever was any such thing as Druidism, which is actually a myth concocted in the 19th century by neo-pagans).

In the First Covenant, the war between God’s people and God’s enemies was fought on the human level against Egyptians, Assyrians, etc. With the coming of the New Covenant, however, we are told that our primary battle is against principalities and powers, against fallen angels who bind the hearts and minds of men in ignorance and fear. We are assured that through faith, prayer, and obedience, the saints will be victorious in our battle against these demonic forces. The Spirit assures us: “The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).

The Festival of All Saints reminds us that though Jesus has finished His work, we have not finished ours. He has struck the decisive blow, but we have the privilege of working in the mopping up operation. Thus, century by century the Christian faith has rolled back the demonic realm of ignorance, fear, and superstition. Though things look bad in the Western world today, this work continues to make progress in Asia and Africa and Latin America.

The Biblical day begins in the preceding evening, and thus in the Church calendar, the eve of a day is the actual beginning of the festive day. Christmas Eve is most familiar to us, but there is also the Vigil of Holy Saturday that preceeds Easter Morn. Similarly, All Saints’ Eve precedes All Saints’ Day.

The concept, as dramatized in Christian custom, is quite simple: on October 31, the demonic realm tries one last time to achieve victory, but is banished by the joy of the Kingdom.

What is the means by which the demonic realm is vanquished? In a word: mockery. Satan’s great sin (and our great sin) is pride. Thus, to drive Satan from us, we ridicule him. This is why the custom arose of portraying Satan in a ridiculous red suit with horns and a tail. Nobody thinks the devil really looks like this; the Bible teaches that he is the fallen Arch-Cherub. Rather, the idea is to ridicule him because he has lost the battle with Jesus and he no longer has power over us.

(The tradition of mocking Satan and defeating him through joy and laughter plays a large role in Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is a Halloween novel.)

The gargoyles that were placed on the churches of old had the same meaning. They symbolized the Church ridiculing the enemy—they stick out their tongues and make faces at those who would assault the Church. Gargoyles are not demonic; they are believers ridiculing the defeated demonic army.

Thus, the defeat of evil and of demonic powers is associated with Halloween. For this reason, Martin Luther posted his 95 challenges to the wicked practices of the Church on the door of the Wittenberg chapel on Halloween. He picked his day with care, and ever since, Halloween has also been Reformation Day.

Similarly, on All Hallows’ Eve, the custom arose of mocking the demonic realm by dressing children in costumes. Because the power of Satan has been broken once and for all, our children can mock him by dressing up like ghosts, goblins, and witches. The fact that we can dress our children this way shows our supreme confidence in the utter defeat of Satan by Jesus Christ—we have NO FEAR!

I don’t have the resources to check the historical origins of all Halloween customs, and doubtless they have varied from time to time and from Christian land to Christian land. “Trick or treat” doubtless originated simply enough: something fun for kids to do. Like anything else, this custom can be perverted, and there have been times when “tricking” involved really mean actions by teenagers and was banned from some localities.

We can hardly object, however, to children collecting candy from friends and neighbors. This might not mean much to us today, because we are so prosperous that we have candy whenever we want, but in earlier generations people were not so well off, and obtaining some candy or other treats was special. There is no reason to pour cold water on an innocent custom like this.

Similarly, the jack-o’-lantern’s origins are unknown. Hollowing out a gourd or some other vegetable, carving a face, and putting a lamp inside it is something that no doubt has occured quite independently to tens of thousands of ordinary people in hundreds of cultures worldwide over the centuries. Since people lit their homes with candles, decorating the candles and the candle-holders was a routine part of life designed to make the home attractive or interesting. Potatoes, turnips, beets, and any number of other items were used.

Wynn Parks writes of an incident he observed: “An English friend had managed to remove the skin of a tangerine in two intact halves. After carving eyes and nose in one hemisphere and a mouth in the other, he poured cooking oil over the pith sticking up in the lower half and lit the readymade wick. With its upper half on, the tangerine skin formed a miniature jack-o’-lantern. But my friend seemed puzzled that I should call it by that name. ‘What should I call it? Why a tangerine head, I suppose.’” (Parks, “The Head of the Dead,” The World & I, November 1994, p. 270.)

In the New World, people soon learned that pumpkins were admirably suited for this purpose. The jack-o’-lantern is nothing but a decoration; and the leftover pumpkins can be scraped again, roasted, and turned into pies and muffins.

In some cultures, what we call a jack-o’-lantern represented the face of a dead person, whose soul continued to have a presence in the fruit or vegetable used. But this has no particular relevance to Halloween customs. Did your mother tell you, while she carved the pumpkin, that this represented the head of a dead person with his soul trapped inside? Of course not. Symbols and decorations, like words, mean different things in different cultures, in different languages, and in different periods of history. The only relevant question is what does it mean now—and nowadays it is only a decoration.

And even if some earlier generation did associate the jack-o’-lantern with a soul in a head, so what? They did not take it seriously. It was just part of the joking mockery of heathendom by Christian people.

This is a good place to note that many articles in books, magazines, and encyclopedias are written by secular humanists or even the pop-pagans of the so-called “New Age” movement. (An example is the article by Wynn Parks cited above.) These people actively suppress the Christian associations of historic customs, and try to magnify the pagan associations. They do this to try to make paganism acceptable and downplay Christianity. Thus, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc., are said to have pagan origins. Not true.

Oddly, some fundamentalists have been influenced by these slanted views of history. These fundamentalists do not accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of Western history, American history, and science, but sometimes they do accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of the origins of Halloween and Christmas, the Christmas tree, etc. We can hope that in time these brethren will reexamine these matters as well. We ought not to let the pagans do our thinking for us.

Nowadays, children often dress up as superheroes, and the original Christian meaning of Halloween has been absorbed into popular culture. Also, with the present fad of “designer paganism” in the so-called New Age movement, some Christians are uneasy with dressing their children as spooks. So be it. But we should not forget that originally Halloween was a Christian custom, and there is is no solid reason why Christians cannot enjoy it as such even today.

“He who sits in the heavens laughs; Yahweh ridicules them” says Psalm 2. Let us join in His holy laughter and mock the enemies of Christ on October 31.

James Jordan is the founder and director of Biblical Horizons. This essay was originally published as “Concerning Halloween” in Open Book: Views and Reviews, an occasional newsletter published by Biblical Horizons, P. O. Box 1096, Niceville, FL 32588.

Illogical Liberalism

One of the scariest things about liberalism to me is it’s convenientness. Take abortion for example. At it’s root, it’s simply about justifying irreponsibility – albiet to a murderous extreme. For a less extreme example, look at evolution. Ultimately it’s not about scientific fact – because there is none. It’s about the absense of God, and consequentially, accountability. Look at socialism: Let someone else take care of my children’s education… or welfare… or health.

But let’s take a closer look at socialism. I don’t want to be extreme and say that it’s an evil system… all it is is a system, albeit a faulty one. I’m sure many who support socialism do so based on good intentions. But it’s always been a failure everywhere it’s been implemented, and it will certainly fail here in America. Why? Well, one reason is the worldview it’s founded on is broken. In fact, it’s inconsistent.

One fundamental aspect of socialism is based on the belief that everyone is equal and should be given every opportunity to succeed as anyone else. Well, that’s how they would describe it, but that’s actually a better description of capitolism. Socialism is the belief that everyone is not equal, but should be, and it’s up to the state to ensure equality. Why do I say this? Well, let’s look at the two examples of liberalism that I gave earlier: abortion and evolution. At the outset, let me say that I realize that not every socialist is pro-choice and an evolutionist, but really, most are. In fact, if they’re not, then they haven’t put much thought into their systems of belief and are just going along with what the media tells them… hmmmmm.

First, evolution. One aspect of evolution is randomness. Mankind was not created with a purpose… it just happened. Mankind is at the top of the food chain because of natural selection. Naturally, even within mankind itself there are degrees of evolution. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be equal (even with the animals), but it’s still true, none the less, and something should be done about it. So we rely on the state to ensure equality. Keep the stronger from becoming too strong by taking from them and giving to the weak. Isn’t this being compassionate? It would seem like it. Problem is, it’s unnatural… or non-evolutionary. Now you’re just playing God, and well, a sinful being trying to play God winds up looking like the devil… or Stalin… or Mao… or Pol Pot, etc. And really, this is what has ALWAYS happened with socialism – genocide.

Now abortion. Pro-choice advocats will tell you that their beliefs are based on the privacy and protection of the mother. They’re not pro abortion, per se. They’re for protecting the mother if she decides to be pro-abortion. The truth, Watson, is evolutionary. The unborn is weaker than the born. But isn’t socialism supposed to protect the weak? Ah ha! I knew you’d say that. So, life must not begin at conception. But when does it begin? Well, let’s not talk semantics…. No. Please. Lets. How about Life begins when it’s wanted? This is the socialist’s only option, because, well, then abortion would just be mass genocide…. oops. Hmmm, maybe we are already a socialist nation after all.

The truth is, socialism is a religion and government is their god. Rousseau grew up in a Christian home… in fact, he continued to attend church his whole life – mostly out of guilt. He understood that man was created equal and is intended to be so his whole life. I believe most socialist’s have this inherent belief. The problem is, they reject the only possible answer to the equality problem: Jesus Christ. The government’s job is to ensure that every man has an opportunity to succeed. The Church’s job is to ensure that everyman has the opportunity to be equal.

Media Bias

I’m tired of listening to the conservative talk radio guy talk about how McCain is the “lesser of two evils.” Why do we have a two party system? Because the liberal media chooses their guy to promote, and the conservative media choose theirs. How come the Constitutionalist Party candidate, or the Green Party candidate, or the Libertarian candidate do not get equal time? Is it really because no one out there will vote for them? Really? I doubt it. This is the power of the media… the abuse of power. But even worse….

I’m tired of the sports talk guy saying that the Tampa Bay Rays will make for a boring World Series. Boston vs. LA? Very compelling… the whole Manny factor. These are the same guys who were talking about the MVP race a month ago and arguing that Manny should not receive it because he quit on his team in Boston so that he could go somewhere else. But now he’s the only reason to watch the World Series. Yet here is a Tampa team that everyone is praising for “doing it the right way.” Here is a team that they say is boring – yet has hit 9 home runs in the last 3 games. Here is a team with no superstars – yet there are at least 4 or 5 superstars in the making that people will one day be able to say “I saw them in their first World Series…” Anyways, the point is, the sports talk guys could be promoting the Rays on their shows, but they don’t. They’ve trained the audience to believe that the only compelling teams to watch are the ones with big payrolls and big names. One radio host today – Colin Cowherd – was talking about football and how its not his job to give merit to the Dallas Cowboys of the league based on hearsay. He gives merit to the Atlanta Falcons because of what they’ve done in the last two weeks. “Show me what you can do on the field!” Then in the next segment he was talking about the potential snoozer if the Phillies and Rays meet in the World Series. Hypocrite! Talk about doing it on the field?!!? That is the Rays (and the Phils) and that is why everyone should be excited about this series. And vote on the best candidate from all parties.

Obama Observation

Barack Obama is a socialist. I don’t say this as a term of condemnation, but just as a statement of fact. His policies, his worldview, and his past action in office prove this. State controlled education, health, and finances, redistribution of wealth, etc. That’s socialism. He calls it “being neighborly” because socialism is a bad word, but it is what it is. You can put lipstick on a pig, but… Anyways, the point of this post is that I really wanted to understand why so many liberals are socialists – from their point of view. I’m not satisfied with hearing the conservative talk radio host’s rant on the subject or the liberal media’s slanted description either. There’s always a danger in delving into the mind of a different viewpoint – I found that out during my theological journey 3 years ago – because you may just wind up sympathising with a totally different viewpoint and having your world rocked…. but that’s a risk I’m willing to take (obviously, says all my friends from seminary )

So I read Marx, Rousseau, Russell and Sartre. Hard stuff, but interesting. I read about some of the other leading personalities of socialism – some famous, some I’ve never heard of before. I looked up biogrophies on-line (I know, not always reliable) from various sources, both sympathetic and antagonistic. What did I find? Well, despite the brilliance of many of these people, they were all severely screwed up, but more importantly, they were hypocrites. They were men of ideas – not of action. In fact, that is how I would sum up socialism: an impotent idea that has never worked. The point of this post, though, is not to summarize the lives of socialists or the history of socialism. I want to make a few observations that stood out to me regarding these socialists that I read about and Barack Obama.

First, as I already mentioned, socialism is an idea – a utopian idea if you’ve read Orwell – but it has never worked. I believe one reason is this: the proponents of socialism never really understood the people they were trying to identify with. In fact, if they had – and they really had cared what the people thought – they would have given socialism up. But the common man was never what socialism was all about. That’s why they’re hypocrites. It’s well documented that Marx never even knew – or cared to know – a single worker that he was supposedly standing up for. Same for Sartre. None of them. In fact, Rousseau – the pioneer of socialism – promoted state education to justify dumping his children off at the local orphanage so that he could live an unburdened life. All their lives are wrought with immorality, hypocrisy, fraud, and laziness. (Notice I didn’t say violence – violence, which always goes hand in hand with socialism, would have required action on their part… they were much more content to write about it from their posh homes, stir up the workers with their rhetoric, and receive the praise from fellow intellectuals and celebrities). While I don’t want to accuse Obama of all the things above, I do notice some similarities. His life and career have been linked with fraud (ACORN), shady relationships (Bill Ayers), and slick rhetoric. He’s not a man of the people, but he has a way of winning them over. I’ve yet to hear anyone that’s not a tv personality or pundit, give a description of his policies – only that he is “inspiring” and “not George Bush.”

Second, Marx was pretty funny. He developed a uniform of the Russian worker (drap outfit, cap, etc.) so that people would look at him and make a relation to the worker. Brilliant. Obama does the same thing with his race. Again, looking to the common man – you could even include the pundits and personalities in this one – and he is the black presidential candidate. People eat this up and he plays right along… despite the fact that he is mostly white… then arab… then a little black. He has made himself into the minority, the one the common man can relate to – even though he’s more well off than any other candidate out there.

Third, and I mentioned this briefly already, but he has the overwhelming support of the celebrities. This has always been the case with socialism, and is quite enough reason for people to run the other direction. Celebrities, for the most part, are idiots when it comes to politics – especially economics. A good example of this is the McCarthy era and all the ridiculousness that occurred in Hollywood during this time.

Anyways, the point of my post is just to point out a few observations. Most people – democrats and republicans – don’t understand what socialism really is and have never really read the history of it. It’s fascinating stuff and solidifies in my mind the greater merits of capitalism.