{"id":192,"date":"2011-10-29T10:24:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T14:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=192"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:27","slug":"which-is-witch-discerning-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/which-is-witch-discerning-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is Witch? Discerning Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Halloween comes around once again, it has inspired the usual debate over whether it is appropriate for Christians to take part in such a distinctly pagan festival.\u00a0 Inasmuch as Halloween celebrates communion with dark powers, Christians are obviously obligated to avoid it.\u00a0 But to what extent does it still do so?\u00a0 Is it OK to take part in these non-Christian traditions around us?<\/p>\n

As I’ve written before<\/a>, most debates regarding tradition end up being dominated by two opposite points of view that are each too shallow to grasp the issue.\u00a0 One side argues that symbols have an absolute meaning that one cannot simply wish away while the others insist symbols are meaningless in themselves–they carry only the meanings that we, as individuals, choose to place in them.\u00a0 When applied to Halloween, it usually goes something like this:\u00a0 A) Halloween is a pagan holiday and it is wrong for Christians to ever celebrate it vs.\u00a0 B)\u00a0 Pagan roots don’t matter because contemporary Halloween is utterly harmless fun.<\/p>\n

Both points of view are far too narrow to really grapple with symbols.\u00a0 Each side is right in a way and wrong in a way.\u00a0 After all, the meanings of symbols are fluid, and can be given by human action.\u00a0 However, the meaning is nevertheless real and is very rarely intentionally given by us as individuals.\u00a0 Consider the cross.\u00a0 Before 33 A.D., wearing a decorative cross around one’s neck would be like wearing an electric chair.\u00a0 The gravity of Christ’s atoning death, however, filled the symbol with new meaning that radically alters the way we understand the old.\u00a0 No Christian would use it as a symbol merely of torture and death, but of redemption and atonement.\u00a0 Of consider the swastika.\u00a0 It has a history far more ancient than Nazism, but the gravity of what happened in Germany completely overshadows anything it symbolized before.\u00a0 No Westerner would use it for it’s old meaning, and no amount of pleading that “it means something different for me personally” by a white man would change its current meaning.\u00a0 The traditionalists are clearly wrong about a symbol’s meaning being absolute, but the other side is just as clearly wrong about symbols being meaningless without individual consent–we inherit the meaning, we do not usually get to create it ourselves.<\/p>\n

Bringing this back to Halloween, we see two things.\u00a0 First, the meaning of the holiday can<\/em> change from its pagan roots, whether by a profound event or simply by the slow grinding of the years in a nation where witchcraft has been far on the periphery.\u00a0 Second, it doesn’t just mean costumes & candy simply because that’s all we want <\/em>it to mean.\u00a0 So what does<\/em> the holiday mean now?\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is no flowchart or scientific process to answer this question definitively.\u00a0 We are left to observe and discern.\u00a0 Furthermore, the answer may be different from place to place and time to time.\u00a0 Just like a swastika will have a different meaning in Germany than in India, Halloween may be different in your town than mine, and might be different in another decade.\u00a0 At the very least, though, we can lay down some points to guide our considerations.<\/p>\n

How is the holiday being used in your area?<\/strong>\u00a0 Does the local high school have a popular Wiccan teacher who uses the holiday as an opportunity to promote her religion?\u00a0 When you think on the Halloweens of the past few years, do you primarily remember the vandalism?\u00a0 Are mystic religions that incorporate Halloween into their own spirituality common in your community?\u00a0 In such cases, Christians would be well advised to not take part in the festivities.\u00a0 On the other hand, if the celebration is primarily about carving silly faces in pumpkins, soliciting treats from neighbors, and dressing up as Luigi rather than Lucifer, it’s probably ok.<\/p>\n

Does the celebration itself involve wrongdoing?<\/strong>\u00a0 Despite cultural differences in their expression, right and wrong do have absolute touchpoints that we return to for guidance.\u00a0 For example, one of the most important moral obligations Christians need to consider for Halloween is chastity.\u00a0 Like most aspects of our culture, its celebration is becoming increasingly sexualized.\u00a0 While a man can go into a store and choose from costumes like “doctor,” “policeman,” or “monk,” women get to choose from “sexy nurse,” “sexy policewoman,” or “sexy nun.”\u00a0 Obviously, the latter are unchaste.\u00a0 This places a disproportionate burden on women when obtaining an acceptable costume, but those are simply the challenges given to us, no matter how unfair they may be.\u00a0 Likewise, other forms of celebration that involve destruction, gluttony, or other harm to our neighbors must be avoided.\u00a0 Furthermore, if these things have become the main point of Halloween in your community, it would be wise to avoid even the appearance of evil by participating in an otherwise innocent way.<\/p>\n

Does it bring out morbid fascinations in you or your children?<\/strong>\u00a0 As the old saying goes, he who studies evil is studied by evil.\u00a0 Is your participation in Halloween spurring a dangerous interest in the occult?\u00a0 Do you find yourself excited mainly by those costumes which celebrate blood, gore, and death?\u00a0 These are not interests that should be indulged.\u00a0 Are your kids scaring people by shoving fake guts in people’s faces or do they just yell “boo” or put a spider on a pillow instead?\u00a0 Some of these are more innocent than others, and it is your responsibility to discern which is which.<\/p>\n

The real dangers in situations like these come when Christians become either too rigid or too shallow to prayerfully and thoughtfully consider whether there is danger or not.\u00a0 We risk stifling Christian freedom and creativity by simply assuming that Halloween’s roots make it forever off-limits.\u00a0 On the other hand, we risk corrupting ourselves and our children by blithely assuming it’s all fun and games so long are there aren’t orgies and human sacrifices at your own party.\u00a0 So choose wisely when you consider whether to celebrate Halloween, but be sure to actually choose.\u00a0 If we let the choice be made for us, we might not like where we end up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Halloween comes around once again, it has inspired the usual debate over whether it is appropriate for Christians to take part in such a distinctly pagan festival.\u00a0 Inasmuch as Halloween celebrates communion with dark powers, Christians are obviously obligated … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,23,25,37],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhich is Witch? Discerning Halloween - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/which-is-witch-discerning-halloween\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Which is Witch? 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