Halloween – a festival that consumer culture has subverted from Christianity: are we subverting it back? (with apologies to pagans?)
31 Oct 2006
Today is 31st October, not just any ordinary Tuesday but of course that international western world fest known as Halloween. Thoughts in the Mayers household however have been pondering this day and its meaning for the last, oh week…
My wife, Deb, and I sat down to talk about Halloween recently. Our three year old son, Nathan, is getting old enough to realise that something is happening at this time of year and we were trying to figure out what we should tell him. The conversation went a little like this:
me: Halloween, it’s mostly harmless, people just do it for fun
Deb: isn’t it evil, some sort of witches, satanic thing?
me: well maybe, I don’t know but, come on its kids running around, dressing up, having a good time and well going to parties, the only spirits they’ll be communing with will be their high ones from too much chocolate and E numbers.
Deb: Right so why are all the shops full of scary costumes, everywhere you look its all monsters and witches for sale. And pumpkins. And even the chocolates are in halloween monster shapes.
me: about the only evil thing seems to be the tackiness of the items for sale and the sheer consumer spectacle.
Deb: yes well what are we going to tell Nathan?
Me: that it is meaningless tat/junk and we don’t believe in it?
Deb: but what is it about and what does it mean? I don’t feel happy just telling Nathan it means nothing so we don’t celebrate it. What about when he gets older and wants to go trick or treating, I find that very scary, and the old people down our street will likely be terrified, you don’t know who’s at the door until you open it…
So this post is in a big way sharing my thinking of what I could tell my son about the meaning of Halloween, but more than that inviting you to tell me what you think, how you react and whether as Christians it is not just about whether we agree/disagree with the tat from the shops, trick n treating, dressing up as witches, going to parties etc etc but whether there is something we can find to re-discover/redeem/reclaim/re-subvert back from the overwhelming consumerist secular celebration that it is becoming (UK)/become(USA).
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Halloween – a secular consumer religious celebration of consumption?
Be afraid, be very afraid! No not another viewing of Michael Myers in action but a viewing of the facts revealed from this article from The Observer about the UK’s consumer consumption of Halloween:
- this year expected we’ll spend £120m up from £12m 5 yrs ago;
- Halloween is the third most profitable event for retailers after Christmas and Easter;
- the 7 shopping days before the 31st October are expected to be the 2nd busiest of the year;
- in 2005 the number of anti-social behaviour orders issued at Halloween doubled to 786.
The UK is still behind the US where “an average family spends £65 on Halloween decorations, sweets and costumes in a nationwide industry worth $4.7 billion” By way of contrast Republicans and Democrats are expected to spend about $1bn on the mid term elections
Halloween has become big booming business, with major stores dedicating staff to research trends and providing marketing to drive this consuming experience. When I was a child we hardly bothered with Halloween, not because we were Christians but because no one else did either, apart from a few parties and the occasional child knocking on the door. Now it is a feast that we are invited to participate in, to spend, to experience, to enjoy a night of all age celebration with a price tag to match any other the family market manufactured experience (a fun day out at a theme park for instance cost us around £50 for 2 adults and children). In and of itself I do not see it is wrong to choose to participate in this consumption but I do think it is important that I do so with my eyes open in what I am celebrating is a secular subverted market manufactured feel good experience. So as a Christian how can I engage in the process/project of subverting Holloween back to something that connects with my culture and the traditon of Halloween in its Christian traditional heritage?…
All hallow’s eve – the evening before the saints day after
Wikipedia explains the etymology of “the term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe’en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before “All Hallows’ Day”(also known as “All Saints’ Day”).” So Halloween is the night before the church calendar celebrates All Saints Day which has been celebrated on 1 November since 835AD and the feast has been offically celebrated in one datein the church calendar from around 610 AD (and a whole of host of celebrations on different days in different parts of the church from the 400s AD). For 1400 years parts of the church have celebrated All Saints Day and this may help us then understand more of the Christian context of Halloween.
“Lord, how I want to be in that number, when the Saints go marching in…”
All Saints Day is in the words of Pope Gregory III a celebration of “the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world.” It is a time when Christians can celebrate all those who have gone before us and who through their faithful service and sacrifice allow us to be Christians today – that long chain of faith that ripples back from us through millenniums and millions of ordinary Christians, and going forward from us will extend onwards into the future. It is a moment to appreciate the awesomeness of the river of faith that we stand in and in some way “honour all the saints, known and unknown.” Part of the marking of this celebration would have been a vigil that would have become on the evening before All Saints Day and hence All hallows eve became marked as well. The All Saints Day for the Eastern Orthodox Church is still celebrated in the summer period (actually the Sunday 8 weeks after the Easter Day).
Subversion of Pagan feasts?
There is a question of whether the church in moving the celebration of All Saints Day to 1 November was in some way trying to subvert an already existing Pagan festival which happened around the end of October to celebrate the end of summer a pastoral and agricultural fire festival or feast, when the dead revisited the mortal world, and large communal bonfires would be lit to ward off evil spirits. There are doubts that this was the main intention of moving the Church feast but it does raise an interesting issue of cultural subversion rather than cultural obliteration which is a tension we can see in the world still today (not least in an era of new colonialism/intervention in other nation states). Hence the maybe of the apology to the pagans who may or may not feel that the church has subverted their own celebration.
Perhaps tho the question for Halloween is whether as Christians we can rlearn from this contextual in-filling/transfoming process and make Halloween a subversive engagement rather than obliteration or cultuaral obligation?
Exploring how Christians could redeem/reclaim/re-subvert Halloween?
Finally, I would like to explore with you some possible ways of taking the hollowed out pumpkin of consumer halloween and look we could possibly begin to fill it back again with a deeper resonance…
1. “Deliver us from evil” – so far I have glossed over my wife’s concerns that there might be something evil about, well what about the witches and the satanists? According to occult Wicca practices “Halloween is one of the four major Sabbats celebrated by the modern Witch, and it is by far the most popular and important of the eight that are observed. . . Witches regard Halloween as their New Year’s Eve, celebrating it with sacred rituals. . .“ (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 120). But on the other hand some members of the Wiccan practice feel that the tradition is offensive to real witches for promoting a stereotypical caricature of a witch. Additionally, many Wiccans and other neo-Pagan adherents object to Halloween, which they perceive as a vulgarized, commercialised mockery of the original Samhain rituals which are traditionally celebrated on 31 October. In our subversive mindset, rather than reacting in horror from wiccans, pagans or satanists perhaps instead we could find ways to talk, we may already have the anti-consumerist theme as a common ground (HT to John for his modelling of incarnational conversation with these folks).
2. “Transform fear – or know your neighbour through loving them” – In The Observer article one woman describes her Halloween thoughts as:
‘I loathe Halloween,’ she wrote. ‘Every year that night comes round and I know what will happen. Early on you get a few cute younger children all excited and dressed up. Then you start to get big groups of teenagers in no costume other than horrific masks shouting and banging on the door demanding “cash or food”. Ignore them and you get your home attacked, open the door and you get nothing but cheek.’
Halloween has become a fearful time in part because we have strangers knocking our doors – we live in fractured streets where we know hardly any of our neighbours and have no idea whose kids are knocking at our door. We are probably fearful and suspicious of any stranger who knocks on our door at any time that we don’t know – no doubt doubly so when we know it is strangers who will demand from us, threaten us and possibly hurt/damage us. That fear and isolation are powerful areas for redemption – maybe we as Christians can do something in terms of using halloween to get to know our neighbours more, maybe have a party for local kids in church? Invite their parents along so it’s a party they can enjoy too? Maybe take the chance to talk to the kids that come to your door and ask them where they live, say hi to the parents that come along?
It is not just about opening our front doors but opening the doors of our lives. It is something that we struggle with in a time pressured, disparate society but perhaps Halloween gives us the opportunity to reflect again that its perfect love that drives out fear and we are meant to be a people who reflect that perfect love.
3. Treat no trick – if Halloween stands for anything it is about me and my fun, my consumption, my outfit. Is there anything I can do to subvert some of my own consumerist self centred ways? What if instead of shopping for me I looked at buying chocolates for my neighbours, or looked for an opportunity to connect with them, or serve them in some other way? One year on halloween our house group went around the streets where we met giving away little wrapped bags of chocolate as a servant evangelism project. People were just so shocked to be given something nice for free rather than having to do something or pay for something.
What if I decided this year to use my halloween money for something else, something about life rather than death and found ways to engage my family, friends, and neighbours in this? What about those like me who were intending to take no part, maybe i can think of what I might have spent and give some part or all of that to a life giving cause, or invest it in connecting with friends and neighbours?
4. Vigil-lantern for All Saints Day – I need to be hallow-weaned, no longer fed on the sweet, high in fat, low in content, extra rich but ultra poor milk of the consumer version. I need to connect throught that to something that will feed me and grow me spiritually, not leave me soul saturated with consumer clobber…
So I am excited this year as this coming sunday for the first time ever in my life I will be attending church which marks All Saints Day. I am looking forward to doing so as part of a community of saints celebrating an even bigger community/cloud of saints. I wonder though if today I can pause to reflect on the vigil that is all hallows eve, maybe to light a candle (even the one in my pumpkin if i had one) or some other meaningful symbolic action, maybe read/reflect on Psalm 145 or Hebrews 12 that will engage me and my family back to the story of our faith and our faithful God? At least I have something to tell Nathan about what I believe Halloween is really about…
Tell us what you think?
Well those are some of the ideas/ways/thoughts that cross my mind, but please tell me what you think? What will you be doing today? Have you been inspired to be more subversive, if so what/how? Are you already doing something different, please do share? Have you thought of any Qs as you’ve read, please do ask…
Tagged: Christianity, church-calendar, Consumerism, halloween, paul-mayers
29 comments
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Comment by ZooMuse
8.01 am on 31 Oct 2006
There is nothing so (un)sacred that we can’t use it somehow to make a few (billion) bucks/pounds. Once again, we “proud” Americans lead the way!
Comment by marc
11.49 am on 31 Oct 2006
Dang it…I was just making up my pancake mixture too:)
Comment by Paul
12.10 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Marc (2) I admit I do not know my chuch calendar any where near as much as you, clearly tho I have been under the mistaken impression that pancakes were symbolic for shrove tuesday, i thought halloween was about pumpkin pie ;)
Comment by ZooMuse
12.21 pm on 31 Oct 2006
In all seriousness, I appreciate the depth of thought you have given to this issue with the question: how do we redeem such occasions. Even as Protestants, Catholics and Muslims have worked together on issues like pornography, abortion and other things, I wonder what it would be like to partner with some folks way outside my comfort zone to redeem Halloween. The question is, does this “holiday” have something to redeem, or do we simply leave it to every individual believer (or community) to decide what is appropriate for them. We do need some more reasons (seriously) to have fun, to have parties and celebrations which reflect on our faith, God’s goodness and our opportunity simply to show exuberance.
Comment by Helen
1.27 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Hi Paul,
As you might have seen, we had a discussion about Halloween on CatE recently:
Halloween is coming
I live in an area with lots of families and halloween is a fun social event, with neighbors opening their doors with a smile on this one day of the year, giving candy (sweets) to the children at the door and calling out “Hi, how are you?” to the parents standing a little further away, making sure their children are safe. Many people seem to enjoy having all the dressed-up children come to their door. Between 4 and 5 p.m. it gets kind of crazy with several groups of children out, excited, running back and forth across the street – I hope everyone drives carefully this evening…
Comment by Jamie Arpin-Ricci
4.34 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Great thoughts. I am glad that you placed the evils of rampant and gluttonous consumerism at the top of you list (I made a similar comment over at Pernell’s blog). I also posted on the topic last night, if you are interested. Thanks again!
Peace,
Jamie
Comment by Paul
7.43 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Zoomuse (1) & (4) – as a half american I have a lot of love for the culture, lol.
I am deliberately trying to steer away from a one size fits all solution, I think we need to work within our own communities and context in turms of engagement, interaction and subversion – mainly I wrote this post to subvert me :)
Comment by Paul
7.45 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Helen (5) I saw some some of that post and thanks for linking to it. I like your community halloween spirit, its fun when people have something to mix around and have a lot of common ground for conversation or just to wave and say hi!
I hope people drive safe n slow too!
Comment by Paul
7.48 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Jamie (6) thank you. I think consumerism is good in moderation, lol but for me the wider question is this just another opportunity marketed at me to over indulge or is there something worth indulging in that will help connect me with God, my faith and my community… For me, I think there are…
Will go check out your blog, thanks for the heads up!
Comment by Heidi Renee
7.48 pm on 31 Oct 2006
I have a son 8 and a daughter 10 – we had this very same conversation (North American-ized though) and decided that we need focus on teaching our children how to sift through things and keep the good, toss the bad and learn from it.
We decided to encourage our children to participate in this holiday and what we have learned from it has been amazing. It is not the #2 experience that you mention above. It is the most communal holiday that exists on our calendar. We get to know our neighbors, welcome their families to our home and meet the kids our children go to school with in a new and different way.
We have found it a shame that so many of the Christians who rarely meet their neighbors because they are so busy with ‘church things’ have this amazing opportunity and waste it by secluding themselves off at their ‘harvest parties’ or just plain locking their doors.
I think that Jamie’s point about being horrified by the real evil that is happening around us would give us a lot of perspective if we really were serious about addressing evil where it lives.
Great post – thanks for the good thoughts!
Comment by ZooMuse
8.47 pm on 31 Oct 2006
Heidi (10) Great application, thanks for sharing what you and your kids learned. Yes, it is a crying shame that the Christians tend to go into their bubbles and take off the door. I am really encouraged by what you shared.
Comment by Simone
9.11 pm on 31 Oct 2006
I too have written about this topic!
I’ve told my kids (3&4) that Halloween is something that makes Jesus sad. The kids + adults that celebrate it might not know exactly what it means (see wikipedia) so they’re just having fun, but we don’t celebrate it at all because we know Jesus and we don’t love any other gods. I’ve encouraged them to still love and enjoy time with those people, jesus loves them, so should we!
Elijah (3) made a pumpkin and a scary bat today at playschool. I explained to him that I don’t think it’d be a good idea to hang these creations around the house. I explained and he didn’t seem to get it.
When we got home I asked him what he wanted to do with his art. He wanted to chuck it in the bin and we decided to make a ‘Jesus candle’ together. A piece of rock from the garden with a candle bluetacked onto it!
I think we need to teach our kids, however young they are, the truth. Halloween is a pagan festival that celebrates witchcraft. They need to know and they do understand. We need to creatively re-invent festivals like these so that they don’t feel left out but I really believe we need to let them be lights for Jesus.
Heid said:”We have found it a shame that so many of the Christians who rarely meet their neighbors because they are so busy with ‘church things’ have this amazing opportunity and waste it by secluding themselves off at their ‘harvest parties’ or just plain locking their doors.”
I totally agree. Let’s be real and engage with people, but I do believe we musn’t be ignorant about the very real spiritual side to it.
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9.50 pm on 31 Oct 2006
[...] Jason Clark » Halloween – a festival that consumer culture has subverted from Christianity: are we subverting it back? (with apologies to pagans?) [...]
Comment by molly
12.04 am on 1 Nov 2006
We’ve never done anything close to Halloween before. This is our first year…
I posted about it here:
http://adventuresinmercy.wordpress.com/2006/10/22/great-pumpkin-party/
I’m not a fan of promoting evil. But I don’t mind fun. And, probably the biggest thing for me, was that I think I had this idea that in celebrating Halloween, one was dabbling in serious evil. Whereas, while not making light of occultic evil, I think that maybe religous snobbery and/or personal pride, fear of the unchurched, and/or just general selfishness might be MUCH greater evils than trick or treating will ever be.
I dunno. Just learning as I go. Who knows what I’ll think in a few years…? :)
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12.36 am on 1 Nov 2006
[...] Jason Clark » Halloween – a festival that consumer culture has subverted from Christianity: are we subverting it back? (with apologies to pagans?) [...]
Comment by Paul
10.44 am on 1 Nov 2006
Heidi (10) to echo Zoo (11) great practical action – I think that is the best antidote to the fear experience is to infuse it with lovingness that builds on the connctions with our neighbours that I am trying to develop with them all yr round.
Was a lot of fun last night as I knew most of the kids and their parents who stopped by last night at our house, they all live in our street and was great way of saying hi. I wonder what they would have thought if we had not been welcoming, warm and accepting of them last night?
Comment by Paul
10.52 am on 1 Nov 2006
Simone (15) thanks for sharing your experience and what you and your family do. I can see where you are coming from as this is something I have thought in the past.
I think I have been challenged by the fact tha halloween has been for well over a thousand yrs a christian festival, a vigil for all saints day which is today. As I posted above I don’t need to celebrate any evil associations with halloween and i don’t think most people i interact with have anything evil in mind when they are as well – it’s just a fun occassion to have a good time.
As a Christian I am wondering how I interact/engage with that reality? To me Jesus seemed to like partying with sinners (who were clearly getting drunk/over indulging as Jesus was getting lablelled as one of them by association) so maybe there is something there for me in terms of trying to be incarnational in these celebrations, bringing Christ into the heart of them rather than withdrawing outside them?
I agree that for a relatively small group of people, halloween is a spiritual celebration of darkness – i just wonder whether I need to do something to make it a celebration/connection with the light…
Comment by Paul
10.57 am on 1 Nov 2006
Molly (13) – how was that pumpkin party? I agree with you that this is a whole learning experience, i think that for so long i have reacted out of my evengelical heritage of withdrawal from the world and fear of being contaminated that Halloween was just something to be disdained or to protect the kids from.
Increasingly I am wondering about Jesus who seemed unafraid to touch the unclean, the unhealthy, the un-holy and rather than him being contaminated by these things and being made un… himself the reverse semed to happen – life/health/holiness would flood out from him and fill/embrace/cover those who he touched… maybe that is something I need to think about, rather than being scared of contamination, scared of doing the wrong thing, scared of being seen with the wrong people, scared fullstop.
Comment by Simone
1.35 pm on 1 Nov 2006
I’m all for engaging, spending time and having fun with ’sinners’, as Jesus very clearly did. I think it is equally important to be different and not to participate in certain things on principle. I do try to do this sensitively and loving, without soundng self righteous and judgemental but I also think that sometimes that means offending people. Jesus spent time and loved prostitutes but he didn’t like what they were doing. He turned their lives around by loving but being different.
I think we need to find creative and fun alternatives, WITHOUT being cheesy and having a holy huddle.
Comment by dh
3.27 pm on 1 Nov 2006
Paul, should we apologize to pagans? Should we apologize to people who worship false gods? I personally don’t think so.
Comment by dh
3.28 pm on 1 Nov 2006
Simone, right on. I totally agree with what you said. :)
Comment by molly
12.03 am on 2 Nov 2006
dh, At the risk of sounding way more touchy-feeling than I actually am…
I think we should apologize when we hurt people. Even if we’re not sorry for what we said (if we think it is right/true), we can still express sorrow that it caused them pain.
That said, I think the addition on the title was meant partly in good-natured fun. (Are we allowed to have that? lol)…
Comment by Paul
3.09 pm on 2 Nov 2006
Simone (17) I think you are right, this is something we have to make a call based on our communities and convictions, it would be real fake if you tried to do something that you did not believe/engage with.
Comment by Paul
3.10 pm on 2 Nov 2006
DH (18) you said it bro…
Comment by Paul
3.14 pm on 2 Nov 2006
Thanks Molly (20) – It was mostly in fun but also I think we need to be aware as christians that want my sound like subversion to us sounds like some form of christian colonialism – that wasn’t the intention of the post but if I am serious about engaging in dialogue then as you say I should be prepared to extend an apology, even where it’s a case of misunderstanding.
I’d rather climb down to build up than talk down…
But that’s jus me…
Comment by dh
3.31 pm on 2 Nov 2006
I’m sorry for being “touchy-feely” in my response to the title. I don’t know why I didn’t recognize the humor. After you guys pointed it out I had a really good laugh, ha ha ha. :) I do agree with apologize for causing pain but we also should help people not to take it as pain when it is truth. I think we can lovingly say the Truth and still accept the person so as not to be a misunderstanding. I think we can help people to have “soft hearts” and relay Truth at the same time. IMHO Molly and Paul I see your points and agree. For me it is all attitude behind what is said than it is what is said.
Comment by Paul
7.37 pm on 3 Nov 2006
Lol, DH (24) now that is funny :)
It’s an interesting thought DH, especially with how much of communication is meant to be non-verbal?
Comment by chuckk gerwig
9.20 pm on 3 Nov 2006
the one day in the year when neighbors in my area visit one another for a moment or two – what an opportunity for relational development with those neighbors Jesus calls me to know and LOVE.
Comment by Paul
12.51 am on 4 Nov 2006
Thanks Chuckk (26), I like yourdesire for engagement and your commitment to love…
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