What Happened to “Happy” Halloween

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? Psalm 6:5

 

I know many Christians who think that observing Halloween is sinful. It feeds a cultural downhill slide into things of the occult and a culture of death.

I didn’t use to think this way.

When I was young, it was fun. All the kids I knew created their own costumes. Only the rich kids parents’ bought them. There was candy and the meanest thing anyone did to another was throw eggs at their property.

Things Changed

As my own children were growing up, we saw a change. We lived in the city of Reading, Pa. It’s a small city with big problems: high rates of homicide and poverty.

Costumes that showed up on our porch went from bad to worse over the years we lived there. I thought it was the city. I thought it was the poverty that led them to that kind of thinking. I had compassion for many years – until I didn’t anymore.

It became a “thing” to bring your new infant up to your 16 year old trick or treating. It became another thing to look at me and say, “Is that all you have?” It was yet another for the parents to open bags for their own candy. Truly, a result of children having children.  And the costumes, even on small children were more bloody and ghoulish every year.

Last Friday I took a scenic route to get to a meeting over an hour away. I went through small town after small town and ended in one. I could not believe my eyes. Many homes had turned their front yards into temporary (fake) grave yards. One was so dark in its decorations that it scared me.

At one  busy intersection,  someone had a man’s body (a mannequin) hanging from a tree. It wasn’t a lynching scene, but it was surreal.  It made my skin crawl.

During this “Halloween season” (it used to be a day!), my son-in-law took my 2 year old granddaughter with him on an errand to one of the big box stores. She was so scared of the Halloween “decorations” that she was in tears.

Satan’s Coup

Will someone please tell me where the fun is in all of this? Why has it become a culture of death? I am now on-board with those who think it is better not to have any part of it. It seems as if Satan must be having a party, celebrating this coup over people willing to think that there is no harm in glorifying death!

Death entered the world when sin entered the world. This is not worth celebrating!

As I read what the scriptures say about death, the only good thing I found was this, from Psalm 116:15, “ Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Frequently, it is either judgment or suggesting someone ask to be delivered from it as judgment.

A Higher Standard

Why would people celebrate this Satanic obsession with death, if they are followers of the Life-giving Savior, Jesus Christ?