Is it sinful for Christians to participate in Halloween?
This is a good question, and one which is always relevant at this time of year. Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve as it was originally known, is thought by some to be originally connected to the Catholic holy days which annually honored saints on November 1 (All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows Day) and the souls of departed saints on November 2 (All Souls’ Day). Therefore, the night before November 1, October 31, became known as All Hallows’ Eve, with the etymology of the term eventually changing to “Halloween.” However, most connect Halloween to the Gaelic festival Samhain which was commonly observed by the Celts of Ireland and Scotland and was thought to have roots in paganism, especially with regards to various pagan myths and legends about supernatural, otherworldly beings. Over time, some myths and legends associated with Halloween would have Satan in them. For example, the origin of the Halloween staple known as the jack-o-lantern stems from a story about a man named Jack and his deal with the devil. From the early twentieth century on in America, Halloween has been mostly about children dressing up in either cute or scary costumes and going from house to house asking for candy. Because of its connections to paganism in times past, however, some Christians believe that it is sinful for any Christian to participate in any way with anything associated with Halloween. Is that the case?
To answer, it must first be pointed out that our Lord condemns hypocrisy (cf. Matt 6:2, 5, 16; 15:7; 22:18; 23:13ff; etc.) Thus, we must consciously work to be as consistent as possible. Indeed, that’s one of the ways to rightly divide the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:15) and determine what God considers right and wrong. My study of God’s Word shows that God does not promote situational ethics and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11). Thus, if God in the Bible calls something sinful through direct edict or necessary inference, it is always sinful with no exceptions save for the ones which God has specified (cf. Matt. 19:9). In other words, if God considers you to be sinning by doing this, He would consider everyone else to be sinning by doing the same thing. Concerning the question of whether Halloween is inherently sinful, the reason this question exists is due to the holiday’s past connections with paganistic supernatural myths and legends. If the answer to the question is “Yes,” then consistency would demand that anything having origins which are in any way connected with anything sinful would have to likewise be condemned as wrong.
Thus, one would have to condemn using the names of the days of the week because of the connection their origins have with pagan idolatry. For example, a study of the etymology and history of the name “Thursday” shows that it was originally known as “Thor’s Day,” a day set aside to honor the Viking god Thor. Consistently applying the standards held to Halloween would likewise require that we refrain from calling the fifth day of the week “Thursday” for the same reasons we would shun Halloween. In like manner, we would also have to condemn the celebration of July 4 because what the colonists did on that day in 1776 was a technical violation of Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17. Indeed, since we live in a sin-filled world, there would be many things from which we would have to completely abstain simply because at some point in the past they had some sort of connotation with something sinful, even though now such would not be the case. Trying to consistently abide by such a standard would indeed be a “heavy burden, hard to bear” which the Pharisees would praise (Matt. 23:4).
Yet the actual commandments of God Himself are “not burdensome” (1 John 5:3; cf. Matt. 11:28-30). In fact, a study of 1 Corinthians 8-10 shows that God did not inherently find anything wrong with a Christian who bought food which had a connection with idolatry simply because he wanted to provide sustenance for himself and his family, even though He also directed that Christians abstain from buying and eating that food if doing so would offend the weaker conscience of their brethren who had not yet come to realize that truth. Indeed, a close study of these chapters, and the similar situation found in Romans 14 and 15, shows that God desires that those who have yet to understand that He found nothing inherently sinful in the things they themselves find sinful must come to that understanding and stop binding upon their brethren that which He Himself had not actually bound.
Applying these scriptural principles to the question at hand, one must realize that how anyone relates to something in the present day does not by necessity require them to condone or participate in its nefarious origins, especially if what it has stood for in days long gone by is not even a thought held by the person who is celebrating it now. In other words, I can condemn idolatry while still calling the fifth day of the week a name that literally means the day of a Viking god, I can obey Romans 13 even while shooting off fireworks on July 4, and I can be against paganism even while taking my child to get candy while she’s dressed in a cute outfit on Halloween. If doing the same would violate your conscience, God would certainly want you to not be involved in it (Rom. 14:23). However, He would also not want you to judge your brethren for coming to a different conclusion than you concerning these matters (Rom. 14:3-4).
Pre-Denominational Christianity 