I Don’t See Jesus – A case against Halloween

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. –

1 John 4: 4-6

Ever since I moved to United States, the one holiday I couldn’t understand was Halloween. What is it about this holiday that both adults and kids alike, all dressed up in costumes – some beautiful but mostly horrid, enjoy spooking their neighbors? I dug through the origins of this holiday and much to my surprise, it had a mixture of pagan and Christian origins.

Back in the Middle age, when saints were highly esteemed, the Catholic and Orthodox churches honored their saints of the past on a day called All Hallows Day. The Celtics gathered their flocks and harvest and secured them for the coming winter. They believed that the ghosts of the dead came out during the evening before the All Hallows Day to enter anyone to destroy or cause trouble. So in order to confuse the ghosts, people dressed up as ghosts and wandered the roads and by lanes of their villages. Since then that evening was called All Hallows eve, which then evolved into Halloween.

Forgive me, if my words seem offensive to those who celebrate this holiday. However, I must state my case in order to justify my hesitancy in celebrating this holiday. Every holiday I celebrate, I look for the reason behind the celebration. All that matters to me is: do I find Jesus in this celebration? Take Christmas for instance, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. During Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, giving us a hope. When I celebrate a birthday, I am grateful to my Lord for keeping me alive and healthy for another year and so on.

When I celebrate, I only want to see Jesus as my heart fills with gratitude for what He has done. However, when I look at those ghoulish faces, I don’t see Jesus. Looking at houses decked up as haunted houses, kids and adults dressed up to scare those ghosts or evil spirits away, I feel that they got it all wrong. We know from the Bible that Satan roams the earth back and forth, seeking whom he may devour. That means that the Satan doesn’t choose one evening in the entire year to devour someone. He is always on the prowl. One name in heaven and earth that causes the devil and his cohorts to fear and run away is the name of Jesus. All authority is given to man to drive out the evil spirits in the name of Jesus. So how come we don’t use that name?

In conclusion, I reiterate two case points not to celebrate Halloween. Primarily, I don’t see Jesus behind the celebration and secondly, all I need is the name of Jesus to drive evil away from me and my house. These two reasons suffice.