This past All Saints / Halloween was especially interesting because Halloween was on a Saturday night and All Saints on Sunday morning. The kids in my neighbourhood went to a lot of trouble to look as scary as they could; one of my neighbours even made a few fresh looking graves on his front garden.
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| Hell - depicted in a C21 reenactment C8 mystery play. |
To tell you the truth it all gives me the creeps. It is quite ghoulish - and a little bit scary. But all of
this helped me to understand what the church of the past few centuries has tried to convey on Halloween and All Saints Day. The contradiction between that which is Hellish and that which is Holy.
Dressing up as ghosts and wondering around the streets on Halloween is really meant to scare the 'hell out of you...' Medieval mystery plays told moral stories and threatened the most severe and hellish punishments for those who did not choose to follow God and do what was good. If you read Dante's inferno and listen to the descriptions of disembodied spirits suffering in torment in hell you'll get an idea of the kind of images that people used to scare people.
Graves - pumpkins carved to look like demented demons, people dressed as the walking dead - all of this designed to make you ask yourself - what is the condition of my soul?
I'm not a very hell fire and brimstone preacher. The graves, the ghouls, the ghosts make me feel a bit uncomfortable - but it made me think about evil; about the death that results from our evil - and it made me look forward to church on Sunday morning. From the night of terror to the dawn of all saints day - a presentation of the alternative...
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| Heaven |
On all saints day I spoke of God's promised alternative to the horror of Halloween night. I explained the halos in depictions of the saints - a graphic depiction of 2 Corinthians 3:18 -
"And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."
Saints - or the 'sanctified' are those who have been completely transformed by the glory of God - who reflect the glory of God; the light of God - into the world. Gold halos around their heads are meant to depict their reflection of God's glory.
The other passage that I thought was relevant is 1 John 4:17-21 a passage that invites you to examine your soul. Verse 17-18 reminds us: "We may have boldness on the day of judgment... There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." The graves, the ghosts, the demons are meant to make you fear hell and worry about judgment - 1 John 4:17 reminds us that we need not fear all of this because in Christ we have been perfected: "...as he is, so are we in this world." (Vs 17) More simply translated (and interpreted) in the TNIV "...in this world we are like Jesus."
After all the angry, scary, ghouls and ghosts - to think of a world, a heaven, full of people who are full of love, light and joy - like Jesus; is a hopeful contradiction.
The problem is - All Saints Evening / All Hallow's Even / Halloween - went viral. Frights and scary costumes are too much fun to resist; and so you get all sorts of things happening on Halloween... just like Christmas - there is not as much focus on faith as Christians would like. But it might be a good idea to teach your children the Christian origin of Halloween.
The trick or treat part is symbolic of choosing heaven or hell. Heaven is often depicted as a feast (cf Psalm 23 "You prepare a table for me..."; Isaiah 25:6 "...the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples...") this would be the 'treat' option; the trick on the other hand - is a terrible fright. When children call out 'trick or treat' you get to give them a fright - or give them some sweets. Next year I plan to lie under my car and grab people's legs as they go past...
Some Christians are very uncomfortable with Halloween - there is quite a lot of misinformation - and there are a lot of people who do unChristian things on Halloween; I don't blame people for avoiding it. I think the death side of things - the graves, skeletons and skulls should help us to take a closer look at our fear of death. And I think - Christians should take every opportunity to teach about hope and light; and should not be afraid of the darkness.
