Tuesday Column: Dale Mail

For a long time it seems that every October when this ancient holiday comes around many issues come with it. Somebody will undoubtedly bring up their problems with this holiday, but are they right? If they are, I suspect there will have to be a major change in many Christian families around the US. The ancient holiday really did have some creepy and messed up origins. It was originally a day set aside for the dead. More specifically, the people’s deceased relatives (history.com). To try and communicate with their loved ones, they would perform many rituals. The idea of masks came later when people would try and ward off the evil spirits. They hoped that the masks would help them to blend in, or even scare them off. It’s understandable that this would make some people wary of this holiday. Claims have been made against this day that it is a “satanic holiday,” is this true?

In order to answer this question we need to look at what Halloween is today. I suppose there are those out there that may attempt to spend their halloween nights trying to duplicate the practices of the olden times. On the whole, Halloween is a day for kids. It’s a time for children to dress up, walk around the neighborhood and stuff themselves with candy. Like most things in this world, it can be a day that is abused. Any day, can be a day that is abused. Most people are not thinking about the devil, or trying to worship the devil. When it comes down to it, Halloween controversies are not salvation issues. It only becomes wrong when we try and force an unbiblical opinion on somebody else. This goes either way. If somebody’s conscience is affected by the celebration of Halloween, we should not be a people that try and convince them otherwise (Acts 24:16). We can explain if they’re interested, but that’s probably where we should leave it in order to maintain unity (Ephesians 4:3).