I don't want to even speculate on who knows what when it comes to Halloween.  I know that growing up in an evangelical Protestant group, I heard all kinds of different theories ranging from “it's pure evil” to “it's just good fun.”  In the research that I've done, it seems to me that the answer is definitely in the middle somewhere, probably ranging more towards the just good fun category.

So if you feel you know the history of this holiday, feel free to skip the rest of this blog.  My own take on the holiday is that it is, now, almost purely commercial and mostly harmless.  Any harm it provides is via the mystique it holds for those who believe it to be a special pagan or luciferian holiday, and that is only in extreme cases.

In short, Halloween comes from a slurring of All Hallows' Eve.  All hallows is the same as saying “all saints,” albeit archaically.  The “eve” part comes from the Catholic tradition of considering the day before, and especially the evening before, a feast day (holiday) to be something of a feast day in itself.  This is, for example, why we celebrate Christmas Eve. 

Traditionally, when “eves” are celebrated, it is a time of vigilance and prayer (hence “eves“ of feasts are also called “vigils“ of the feast), and many people still celebrate the eves of major feast days in this way.  However, due to Protestant and, later, secular influence, the eves (and even the feast days themselves in many cases) have been divorced from that purpose and practice. 

In any case, Halloween, as it is popularly celebrated today, has nothing to do with All Saints' Day.  It is in no way Christian, nor is it really, in my opinion, pagan or satanic.  It has taken on, to be sure, themes of the darker side, as it were, but most if not all of this popular mystique has little to no connection with any real pagan or demonic roots.  If anything, these were added and built upon because of popular misconceptions to begin with. 

Yes, the timing is related to some old pagan celebrations, and in fact, it is likely that the date is not wholly coincidental, since the Church often tried to provide alternative, Christian celebrations during the same times that pagan feasts were celebrated.  This pastoral activity, often criticized, was an attempt to keep the local yocals, as it were, from falling back into pagan beliefs and practices.  Its success, in the short run, probably varied, but I think the long-term has proven it to be effective, as is demonstrated in part through the lack of prevalence of pagan belief and practice today.

Practically speaking, I think a Christian can innocently celebrate Halloween since it is so commercialized and lacks any real problematic roots, as I see it.  However, I do not think that a Christian necessarily should.  This is primarily because it is not, as it is celebrated, in any way Christian.  It does not make even a passing acknowledgement of the real celebration, which is All Saints' Day. 

And in fact, I see no value in celebrating mischeviousness, morbidity, or the spiritual “dark side.”  Again, it is not that I think there is inherently anything evil in popular celebration, but I also see nothing to celebrate.  So I think the efforts of many churches to provide alternatives a la “harvest festivals” and the like is a good tack to take.  This is in line with the same thinking of the Church in earlier times, as discussed above. 

I do not want to be a stick in the mud and deny children the innocent fun of getting candy and dressing up, so providing these alternatives is a great way to still allow them to have fun and yet be more ideologically sound.  Even trick-or-treating, if practiced in the context of celebrating something good (All Saints' Day) or harmless (a harvest festival, even though that lacks meaning into today's world), is a fine thing to do.

I also realize that children, especially the younger ones, generally don't get or care about the ideological issues surrounding the holiday; they just care about the candy.  So there has to be a balance, as I see it, between instruction and allowing them to just play.  Yet I do not think that blindly celebrating the popular fiction of Halloween is best for them.  Each parent ultimately must decide for themselves.  For myself, I will do my best to celebrate in the context of All Saints' Day, which is the true and good reason to celebrate this particular time of the year.