More Halloween!
What do you think about Halloween? What will you do this year? Have you spent months planning your costume, or months planning how to make it look like no-one is at home?
Here is something about its origin.
All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows Day, it’s the same meaning) is on the 1st November. In the Bible the day begins on dusk the day before, and so Halloween or All Hallows eve is simply the beginning of All Saints Day.
All Saints’ Day is a day celebrating the victory of the Lord Jesus over death and evil and the resulting confidence that Christians (or Saints) have of their own future or the place of those they know who have died trusting in Christ. No evil power and not even death can threaten their life in Jesus. Halloween is the beginning of this celebration. It is not a New Age or Celtic day, but the celebration of Jesus’ defeat of evil.
What has happened for centuries on All Saints’ Eve or Halloween is quite simple.
God’s people act out a drama reminding themselves and others that any claim by the devil or evil forces to have won is laughable and deserves to be mocked. Jesus’ death and resurrection has changed and secured so much. And so children have dressed up in complete confidence and (from a less affluent and less sugary age) have delighted in sweets!
This same principle explains the emergence of gargoyles. These figures have the same meaning as Halloween. They are not evil faces, but God’s people ridiculing the enemy. Those who assault God’s people and his church deserve to be ridiculed.
And finally, some will know that 31st October is also Reformation Day. The day Martin Luther began the world-changing Reformation by nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. Martin Luther knew what he was doing and chose the day wisely. It’s a day of delight and confidence in Jesus Christ.
That may not be how it’s taken today, or what people know, but Christian do not fear! Do not forget the victory of Jesus Christ!
Much of this comes from and with thanks to Peter Dray and James Jordan.
And see also these helpful videos.