Why My Family Decided to Give Up Halloween .

The Halloween debate in many Christian circles can get heated as if it were politics. This article is not meant to cast judgement on people who choose to celebrate Halloween. There are a lot of people I know and love who celebrate it. This article is merely sharing my family’s story and the reason we gave it up. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. It’s between you and God.

My husband and I both grew up celebrating Halloween. I would say we both had the stereotypical upbringing of carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating. My family would throw Halloween parties, and I remember getting a plastic Smurfette costume and wearing it proudly. Early on for me, Halloween was something that seemed innocent.

Somewhere along the way, it changed, though. I’m not exactly sure when that happened. Was it the time I dressed up as a witch, and my mother thought I looked so convincing that she wouldn’t let me go out of the house without a cross around my neck? Or was it the time that my aunt and I went into a “Haunted House” put on by the local theater company? I was so terrified that I begged my aunt to let me hide in the building in some random closet.

By the time I was in high school, I worked at a Halloween store, where I dressed up nightly and choreographed their runway show every year. At that point, I know something inside of me had started to wake up to the fact Halloween isn’t all fun and games. I remember working in that store and playing Carmen songs as this horrid pre-recorded witch would cackle a song. This is also about the time I began learning about the supernatural.

What I kept coming back to as I grew older was that there really is a devil; he is out to steal, kill and destroy. But God is bigger. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Once I began learning about and seeing exorcisms (demons leaving people) as well as praying for people to get free from demonic activity, it was no longer fun and games to me. It was a very real battle.

Then my husband and I had children, and our oldest was old enough that we had to make a decision. The more I thought about this whole Halloween debate, and learned what its origins really are, the more I couldn’t deny it wasn’t a holiday just meant for fun and games. Rather, it has a very dark side. How could I parent children and encourage them to live their lives on fire for Jesus 364 days a year but tell them it was OK one day a year to act out some practices that are deeply saturated in witchcraft? Could I let the traditions I was raised with overpower a growing check in my spirit when it came to Halloween? 

That’s about when a friend of mine sent me several videos. I started doing my own research regarding the origins of Halloween. It’s still celebrated today as a holy day in many demonic circles. Historically, the day is filled with things I do not believe people who are trying to move forward in their relationship with God need to be celebrating.

My simply answer is that Halloween is a holiday for a religion to which I do not adhere.