Assignment #7: My Views on Halloween: On Caves and Costumes

     Here we go again, another confession:  I have never been trick-or-treating.  Yes, it's true.  I have never rung a doorbell, popped someone's eardrums with a resounding "TRICK OR TREEEEET!!", or played man-hunt in the dark wearing a pirate's hat.  The reason is quite simple, but at first, questionable: I have never been allowed.  Ever since I was very little, and all my friends would invite me for their annual jaunt around the neighborhood, I would always kindly decline, saying that "We don't believe in Halloween."  Even today in tenth grade, when I was invited to go, my mom said I couldn't, for the same reason I gave in preschool: we don't believe in Halloween.  
     This is by nature a confusing statement.  It's unclear, it's frustrating, and it's downright politically incorrect.  But is it wrong?  This article makes several good points about Halloween.  It explains its origins in a detailed, educated way, making a quasi-apt comparison to the modern traditions of Christmas.  I say quasi, because though on the surface the comparison makes sense, test it with a little logic, and the whole thing falls apart.  It is very likely that Halloween started as the Celtic holiday Samhain, which was then transformed by missionaries into the Catholic celebration All Saint's Day, or All Hallowed Day, with the preceding celebration of All Hallow's Eve.  And of course, with our English habit of messing up our vocabulary, has been verbally corrupted to Halloween.  Christmas underwent a similar, but not exact, transformation.  Instead of turning a pagan holiday into a Christian one, the Christian holiday absorbed pagan attributes to better appeal to the lost.  Red and green were Roman traditions; holly, mistletoe, and the Yule log were German; and caroling was a Celtic bardic tradition.  The Early Church already celebrated Christmas; they didn't make up a holiday to account for a previously existing pagan one.  Instead, they added pagan traditions to Christmas.  This is the fundamental problem that spurs on many more in the rest of this article.  Christmas began as and remained a Christian holiday; Halloween began as a pagan one, and was adapted for holier purposes.
     The basic theology of the two holidays is very different.  Christmas was always a celebration of Christ's birth, while Halloween was morphed from a "day of the dead and of devils" to a "christian" holiday.  This is reflected especially in how the holidays are treated today.  Cashiers at Walgreen's are forbidden from saying "Merry Christmas" because it is a religious term.  But are they not allowed to say "Happy Halloween"?  No, because it is not a holiday with religious underpinnings.  As admirable as the Early Church's attempts at converting this holiday were, those attempts have failed over time, degenerating into a night full of gluttony and ungodly intentions.  Although Christmas certainly has suffered under the weight of secularity, it has not fallen as far as Halloween.  In the end, I stand by my original statement: I don't believe in Halloween.  It was a day of the devil, and despite attempts to reform it, it still is.  Nothing or very little about this day glorifies God, and though I have nothing against churches that host "Trunk or Treats" and "Fall Festivals" instead, so many of the typical Halloween characteristics pervade even these "christian" alternatives.  When so many attempts to convert this holiday have been made, and so many have failed, it shows that Halloween retains its original, pagan intent, and I cannot participate in something that is so clearly not honoring God.