Christian Churches Encourage Faithfuls to Celebrate Event with a Religious Twist

REUTERS/Mike Blake

A remote-controlled plane in the form of a witch flies over a neighborhood as the sun sets on Halloween in Encinitas, California.

While many of those who belong to the Christian faith are skeptical about celebrating Halloween, various Christian sectors and ministries are now encouraging believers to embrace the celebration and observe it with a twist.

Although Halloween is a secular event that is no longer associated with any religion, many Christians are uncomfortable with the celebration because of the involvement of the scary supernatural creatures associated with evil in it. However, for the past couple of years, various Christian churches and denominations encourage the people to embrace the celebration by giving it some religious flavor.

Paul Stockwell of the Scripture Union, for instance, has been sending out its Light Party packs for the past four years already as a replacement for the traditional trick-or-treat loot bags.

Instead of filling the Light Party packs with chocolates and candies, it is filled with ideas for light experiments, games, a service plan, and Bible-based activities. According to Stockwell, the Light Party packs are way safer than trick-or-treating, which has children knocking on strangers’ doors for goodies.

Stockwell has also revealed that, while the Light Party packs they sent out four years ago only numbered 4,000, they are expecting to send out twice the quantity this year.

Apart from the Light Party packs that are meant to be an alternative to the trick-or-treat loot bags, Christian-style Halloween celebrations have also introduced alternatives to the arguably most popular Halloween symbol, the Jack-o-Lantern. While the alternatives still involve pumpkins, those who want to decorate their houses with the said Halloween character are encouraged to carve positive symbols, such as heart and cross, instead of the usual scary faces. In fact, the Christian children’s charity World Vision has even introduced the Halloween character Patch the Pumpkin, a pumpkin with a carved heart and emits light, as the more religious version of Jack-o-Lantern. 

Four years ago, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of the Philippines, which is a predominantly Catholic country, dissuaded the parents in his parish from dressing their children in costumes that represent demons, witches, vampires, zombies, and creatures from local folklore as, according to the prelate, scary costumes are not in sync with the Christian faith.

Fr. Alvin Platon of St. John Cathedral, still in the said country, organized a March of the Saints event as an alternative to the traditional Halloween parade, with the participants dressing in saint costumes rather than the scary ones.

“(Monster) are not our friends so why should we dress like them? How can we reconcile the belief that we are good Christians but we are friends with bad creatures? Let us celebrate ‘All Saints’ Day and not ‘All Monsters’ Day,”’ Platon said.