Why I Don't Celebrate Halloween
 

Illustration by Brittany Bromfield / VOX Staff

By Kai Mosley / VOX Staff

When I was finally old enough to understand the Halloween tradition of dressing up in costumes and trick or treating, I could only dream of what it was actually like to enjoy those festivities. Instead, I sat at home and watched the parade of kids go from door to door to get buckets of candy. I wasn't allowed to join in. And for years, I didn't know why this was so. One time when I was 6 years old, my babysitter asked my mother if she could take me and my twin brother trick or treating.

“No!” my mom said. “We don't celebrate Halloween!”

I originally thought it was because she didn't want us going out at night alone. I thought my mom was afraid something bad would happen to us. It wasn't until many years later that I found out the true reason why I couldn't dress up, go to parties or beg for candy. It was because my mother saw Halloween as a celebration of evil — a pagan holiday that represents darkness, the spirits of the dead and other otherworldly hokum — and that it wasn't something a good Christian should do. For a long time, I had a hard time sharing her sentiments about Halloween. All I wanted to do was have fun.
 
Missing Out on the Fun
I had always wanted to go to Halloween events, from Six Flags' Family Fright Fest to a junior high dance. Pretty much all my friends and classmates celebrated Halloween. Anyone who didn't want to be a part of this cavity-inducing activity didn't have a social life. Time after time I asked my mom permission to join in on the fun, and time after time she'd always give me the same response: “You know we don't celebrate the Devil's day.”

I never saw how just eating some candy and wearing costumes could conjure up the Devil. I already felt like an outcast, and by being forced to ditch school parties made me feel even more out of place. My only substitute was to spend the day watching horror movies on TV with my family — for some reason that was allowed.

Sometimes I got a little teary-eyed when my friends came back from their spectacular weekend with book bags full of candy. They'd open their bags up and let the candy pour out. It was always a contest to see who got the most, and I'd drool at the sight of a field of Snickers bars, rolls of Smarties and so much more. It got to the point that I began asking my mom to buy me a bag of candy — I told her I wanted some chocolate but I didn't tell her why — so I could bring it into school and pretend that it was Halloween candy. That's how desperate I was to be part of the fun and fit in with my classmates. I couldn't keep up with the lying for very long because some people knew I wasn't allowed to trick or treat and they pointed it out to everyone else.
 
An Alternative to Halloween
My mother eventually realized that not being able to celebrate Halloween was causing me problems. When I turned 10, I got invited by my mother's friend to a church-sponsored Hallelujah Fest — a Christian alternative to Halloween — and was told I could go in casual clothes. However, when I got there, I was surprised to find most kids wearing costumes. They weren't dressed up as ghosts and vampires, but rather as Cinderella or Robin Hood. I guess non-supernatural costumes were fine. The best thing about it was that no one said anything about me wearing just a shirt and blue jeans, and I felt comfortable.

The Hallelujah Fest concluded with a hay ride, some games and everyone who wanted it got a bag of candy. The whole thing was like going to the fair. I had a great time, but when I got home and started reflecting on it, I became confused. I didn't understand why it was OK to wear a superhero costume while trick or treating in church, but it wasn't OK to go trick or treating around my neighborhood. I was hesitant to ask my mother about it because I was afraid I'd be going against the church — I just wanted to understand what the difference was.
 
Roots in Pagan Celebrations
I decided to look things up. I'm sure that many other Christian teens who celebrate Halloween didn't realize that what they do conflicts with their religion. I discovered that Halloween was a pagan holiday that originated more than 2,000 years ago in Great Britain by the ancient Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods. In late fall they would celebrate all the souls that had passed on during the previous year.

Centuries later, the Roman Catholic Church basically had free reign to determine what Christianity was and wasn't. Pope Gregory IV decided to set up a holiday for remembering all the saints and set the fixed anniversary on Nov. 1. What started as All Saints' Day became known as All Hallows Day, while October 31 became All Hallows Eve and, eventually Halloween. When the Catholic Church spread to Great Britain, the ancient practices of the Celts got tied up with this new holiday — much like pagan rites of spring, most notably the Easter bunny, got combined with the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, and winter solstice rituals worked their way into Christmas.

I also searched the Holy Bible to find if scriptures could help explain the wrongs of celebrating Halloween. I found several passages that state that all holidays — the word itself is a merging of holy and days — should glorify the light of God, not the dark things in this world. Moreover, the Third Epistle of John (1:11) says “Do not imitate what evil is,” and Deuteronomy (8: 9-14) explains the ways of the Devil stating “Do not learn to imitate detestable ways, including spiritists, sorcerers and witchcraft.”
 
My Own Conclusions
Reading these histories and holy scriptures, my mother's strict interpretation of Halloween became clearer to me. The most practiced tradition for what should be a Christian holiday encourages children to dress up as witches, goblins, ghosts, little devils and fortune tellers. These are representatives of Satan, according to my faith. Haunted houses and horror movies instill fear in children rather than to teach them courage. Worse yet, Halloween turns young people away from what truly should be celebrated on this day — the lives of the saints — and they are completely unaware that they're celebrating evil in the name of fun.

I can see how this ignorance begins to work as young people are even provoked to do a little evil themselves — they vandalize property by throwing toilet paper and rotten eggs and by breaking windows. It's supposedly the trick that comes when they don't get a treat, but it's all in the name of evil
revenge. My interpretation is that though trick or treating is considered harmless by most, it actually is an un-Christian act of demanding a gift via a veiled threat. Even treat givers get involved in the evil as there have long been rumors of razor blades and poison put into children's treats.

As a devout Christian who now fully understands the holiday's implications, I choose not to celebrate Halloween as so many of my peers do. However, I do continue to celebrate Oct. 31 as a Hallelujah day. It's a day full of fun and games that is not harmful to anyone. This day should represent good and not evil. People have the right to celebrate a holiday the way they want to, and I have no problem with that. If you want to go to church on Halloween, or chant to evil spirits, that's your business. As long as your acts aren't harmful to others or criminal in nature, you have the right to celebrate what you want and so do I.

Kai is a junior at Southwest DeKalb.