Devout Christian parents.....do you allow your children to celebrate Halloween?

Question

For those of you who have a close walk with God within a Christian community, do you allow your children to celebrate Halloween or participate in activities related to this day?
Why or why not?

Thank you in advance for your answers!

Wow. I've received many good, well-thought answers so far. I don't understand why so many of your are worked up about the question. I just want to know if, as Christians, your children celbrate Halloween and why or why not. No one is talking about Christmas, when Jesus was REALLY born and the like. I think the question is simple and strightforward. Let's keep it nice, please...others are just stating their opinions.
:-)

Answer 1

As a previous commentator (Popeye) mentioned and as many people know, Halloween (or "All Hallows Eve") is actually the most religious holiday in the period of Ancient Christendom. Believe it or not, many people are unaware that Christmas began as (and in many circles, still is) a pagan ritual. Now, I'll step down from the podium as a historian and revert to a commentator myself...

What has set Halloween apart from it's ancient roots is the fact that Western culture has often "demonized" the holiday by interjecting the possible presence of cults, ritualistic evil, and acts of satanic origin.

As a parent raising my child in a Christian setting, I think it is imperative for them to learn the meaning rather than just blindly participating. Just as I have explained Valentine's Day, Easter, and Thanksgiving, Halloween is no different. While I may be wary of "door-to-door" trick-or-treating (wary due to the incidents of bad candy being distributed), I will allow my child to celebrate Halloween through our religious institution. At our church, they have a "fair" that allows like-minded parents to bring their children and celebrate in a safe and educational environment, while still providing the candy and treats that children enjoy during this holiday.

Answer 2

Pretty devout; I pastor a church.

I do allow my children to do this, and it's for several reasons, despite the popular Christian view that we should shun Halloween because pagans decorate with witches and such:

First, Halloween is a Christian holy day from earliest times. It was put in October to stamp out Samhain, a pagan harvest festival (like we did with Christmas and Easter). Today, pagans, secularists and hollywood have made the trappings of Halloween a spooky hodgpodge of monster movies and disney characters, but it was a Christian event to memorialize the fallen saints of the past. So, I don't want the devil taking one of our celebrations and calling it his, which is essentially what happens when well meaning Christians retreat from the day and abandon the community, restrict their children, and turn out the lights so that everyone in the community will know that they are grouchy Christians who hate everything. We are supposed to light a light, not simply curse the darkness.

The other thing is, it is our greatest opportunity to witness to others. Wear a bible costume, give out the best candy with a tract rubber banded to it. Decorate with spiders, bats, black, cats etc. Why? Because God created all these and thought they were great! I don't allow my kids to be witches and ghosts (demons), but little kids often dress up like fairy princesses and such. The older kids often like the macabre stuff, and it is a day to memorialize the dead, so if skeletons they want to be, it will be hard to say "no." But absolutely no Ouija board parties, dressing like or pretending evil. That's out.

Change the thinking of other Christians to get on board with affirming our history rather than parroting the same junk about how Halloween is the devil's birthday and such. One year, we had the youth group over and we beat the candy out of a devil pinata, and then read the morbid stories from the Foxe's Book of Martyrs. That'll scare em into respecting their religious freedoms, let me tell you.

Anyway, "Halloween" is Christian. Much of the stuff associated with how it's celebrated is not. So, whose going to show the world the difference?

I have a sermon CD on this if anyone is interested.

Answer 3

It would not relatively. Halloween is diverse than say, Christmas, that's an entire co-op of yule. Halloween stepped forward alongside with Christian and Pagan traditions as a mundane "holiday" the place *Christians* concept the lifeless and demons have been extra possibly to stroll to earth. i think that Samhain is a thoroughly diverse non secular holiday from Halloween. of direction no Christian could have fun Samhain, yet Halloween replaced into relatively invented via Christians. To sum up: Halloween is to no longer Samhain as Christmas is to yule.

Answer 4

We celebrate the Harvest festival at our church (Christian Church) It's a few hours of fun and games for the kids...surrounded by people of like minds. The kids are allowed to wear costumes (nothing scary, gross or inappropriate) and at the end of the
"party" the kids are given a huge bag of candy & snacks to take home. (cost of admission is a pound bag of candy) Most children dress up as angels, Bibleman, Larryboy...and other secular costumes that meet the requirement.

I would like to take my children trick or treating only because it was a great childhood tradition for me that was never centered on Satan, witchcraft or anything along those lines. BUT most people around where we live have live action cemetaries, or simple grusome bloody ghouls chasing little kids. That's not for us. (maybe it's because I came to God late in life...who knows)

Our children get to bring "candy" to school (that mommy didn't just buy) and don't feel like they are 'different'. My oldest is 7 and even though he reads his Bible and attends church with zeal I notice that he doesn't talk about God etc at school. I don't want to make him feel self-conscious to where it may then become a problem for him.

Answer 5

Let's just say this , Do you celebrate CHristmas, if you do than that just as equal as celebrating halloween, which are both descendant from pagen holiday's. Halloween is the celebration of the beggining of the fall. As for Christmas, the pagans used to decorate the trees. Please don't tell me you actually belived Jesus was born on Christmas?I am a Christian but I believe that it is ok for children to go out and have fun. They can dress appropriate and you can monitor thier activities. It's a time of year to play dress up and splurge on candy. THat's all

Answer 6

Celebrate no to participate yes. Two different things.When my children were small I taught them about the different holidays and what they stood for. That way they could "participate" without having to "celebrate".And not feel conflicted doing so.

Answer 7

Well I am not a parent but as a devout christian I don't celebrate Halloween it is a celebration of the false sun god and Christmas is the celebration of the same sun gods birthday. So I don't celebrate either of them. Because of the commandment. "You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3. Hope this helps.
http://www.mcgrorty.com/halloween.htm -Halloween
http://www.remnantofgod.org/xmas.htm -Christmas
Jeremiah 10:1-5 Tree Worship Forbidden.

Answer 8

Why make such a big thing out of it? Once our local catholic church sponsored a big halloween party for kids and opened up all the rooms of the trng building for various games and "ghost" activities. It was a lot of fun. No one got hurt and God did not send a burst of lightning down and destroy the church.

Lighten up and enjoy your life for a change.

Answer 9

Halloween is a christian holiday....

Christians used to gather to worship god, and they would wear costumes as to scare away evil spirits who wish them harm for worshipping god.

I myself am not a christian, but that's just how it went down.

Historically speaking, christians started halloween. It used to have a lot more religious base than it does now though. Now it's just a harmless holiday, with candy. Celebrating Halloween doesn't really have to be about religion anymore, people sort of changed the holiday over the years.

And Halloween doesn't glorify Satan, by the way. People don't say "I want to be satan for halloween, cause he's cool." People DO say "I wanna be satan for halloween, cause he's scary/evil." It's not a glorify thing, it's a "look scary" kinda thing.

I wish to revise my previous statement "christians started halloween", the truth is, both christians AND Pagans started it. No one copied the other, it was just a case of "we both invented the same thing without knowing it" and quite frankly, it doesn't matter who started it, it matters who still celebrates it for what it was originally meant to be.

Answer 10

I'm Roman Catholic. I have no problem whatsoever with my children having fun on halloween - our Catholic Parish holds a Halloween party for the kids. I just think some people take things far too literally!

Regards

Star