Our American and Canadian friends seem to be wholly into it with all its paraphernalia, even Christians. The church I grew up in frowned upon it and thought it all of the devil!
Last year we had some high school pupils come to our door unexpectedly 'trick and treating' but I just ignored them. They turned our outside light fixtures upside down as a punishment for not responding to them and then left us alone.
This year I didn't know what to expect but I had my wife bring inside anything outside the front door that could be interfered with. She thought I was unduly anxious about a non-event but I asked her nicely anyway. Being a dutiful wife she complied.
When no visitors came last night she made sure that I knew all about it this morning!
Particularly for those like myself who grew up in non-conformist churches such as Baptist, Church of Christ, Brethren, Pentecostal of various shades, the whole issue of Halloween seems bizarre and off-limits. By the way, I also think that still.
What does 'Halloween' mean?
Basically 'Halloween' is a contraction of 'All Hallows Eve'. 'Hallows' are saints, departed saints. Saints in this context are 'hallowed, sanctified, separated ones'. Think of the Lord's prayer in which we are pray for our Father's name to be 'hallowed' or sanctified.So strictly speaking, Halloween is the evening before All Saints' Day (which is November 1st) which is followed by All Souls' Day on November 2nd.
The liturgical churches Roman, Orthodox, Anglican (High) and some Lutheran celebrate All Saints' and All Souls' with differing levels of attention. The idea of those who take these days very seriously is that the Church Militant (here on earth) and the Church Triumphant (in heaven) are one whole church not two separate groups. Hence, in the first three denominations above some would believe that the departed pray for those of us still here because they are in a real sense one with us.
I know from my time in middle of the road Anglicanism that stress was laid on thanking God for those who have gone before and have been instrumental in helping us come to the Lord. In some churches, every Sunday, prayers will mention those 'whose anniversaries fall at this time of the year'. This practice is commendable and I find nothing in scripture that forbids us to thank God in this way.
Interestingly, churches who are strongly related to the Protestant Reformation (Lutheran and Reformed churches) celebrate October the 31st as Reformation Day.
What is a Saint?
Today, November is November the 1st, is All Saints' Day. But built into this day unfortunately is sometimes a misapprehension of what a saint is. The use of 'St' in front of various well-known apostles and teachers--which I have done to my shame--promotes the idea that Paul was a saint along with all the big names in the Church through the ages. And it's true. Paul was a saint! But this saint and apostle calls his Christian readers 'saints', some of which we would not describe as too 'saintly'! (See 1 Cor 1.2; 2 Cor 1.1; Eph 1.1; Col 1.2; Jude 3.)What I fantasised about doing if we did have visitors last night was giving them 'a treat' by telling them about Halloween and its link to All Saints' Day. Then I was going to say that the best treat I could possibly give them was to introduce them to One who could make them a saint!
'In the end, life offers only one tragedy: not to have been a saint.' (Peter Kreeft attributes this saying to a catholic convert, the French writer Charles Peguy.)
For more on this topic of saints Peter Kreeft's, a former Reformed (Calvinist) Christian, now Roman Catholic, who presents an excellent piece on saints (excepting his last two paragraphs). Highly recommend Kreeft's work; just strain out the Romanism!
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