Here we are again: the Great Pumpkin is upon us, All Hallows’ Eve, Día de los Muertos—or, for us Protestants, Reformation Day. October 31st, is back.
Halloween now rakes in billions of dollars each year and is second only to Christmas as the most lucrative holiday of the year. It’s no longer just toddlers in cute costumes courting candy. Kids of all ages join the frenzy. In 2024 alone, Americans spent $11.6 billion—a fourfold jump since 2005.
So what’s the fuss? Christians should just celebrate something else, as Halloween is just death, gore, and goblins, fueled by high fructose corn syrup. But is this all Halloween is?
Let’s unpack a bit of history, look at scripture, and then I’ll share what my family does—and why.
Some folks on the “Halloween is demonic” train say don’t even look at a pumpkin, let alone carve one, and they have a case. There are many ex-Satanists turned Christians who call it “the Devil’s day.” They claim it celebrates evil and warn Christians to steer clear of it, or they too may be trapped by the darkness. One, Riann Swiegelaar, quotes Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan: “It makes me so happy that Christian parents let their children worship Satan one day a year.”
LaVey likely said this. But he founded the Church of Satan in the 1960s as a rejection of Western culture, and the faith that established it, Christianity—LaVey didn’t believe in God or the Devil at all. Was he thrilled that kids were worshiping fiction? It’s doubtful.
Swiegelaar adds in an interview: “Christians who celebrate Halloween are having ‘a one-night stand with the devil.’” Really? I suppose he’d say every time a Christian goes to church on Sunday, he’s really worshipping the Sun? Yes, witches and demon-worshipers dedicate the day to dark arts. But does that taint everyone?
Years ago, my wife Jenny and I adopted a black kitten in early October. The shelter warned that they would stop adopting black cats mid-month—people would get them and use them for Halloween night sacrifices. (This was Southern California.) Evil happens. But guilt by calendar? Hardly.
Halloween hosts dark acts—so do Saturdays, Mondays, and every other day. Romans 14 cuts through the noise.
One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Paul might as well be talking about Halloween. If Thursday (Thor’s day) and Saturday (Saturn’s day) aren’t demonic, why single out October 31? Some Christians boycott; others dive in. Who’s right?
Halloween’s Messy Roots
As one may expect, the history is not as clean and neat as many would like. More information can be found on this topic, but some key points need to be stated. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III set November 1 as “All Saints’ Day” to honor Christian martyrs. Centuries earlier, Celts celebrated Samhain, which was the end of the harvest and the start of winter. They broke the year up into two parts; this was their ‘New Year’s Eve’. They believed spirits roamed freer as the veil between the living and dead thinned at this time. Bonfires blazed. Masks scared off spirits. Food and drink offerings fed fairies. There were even mythical guests: the Headless Lady Gwyn in white, chasing unsuspecting wanderers, some would say, while riding a black pig.
Certainly, these vibes still linger in 2025. But does that ruin the day for toddlers and teens to dress up and get free candy?
As Christianity spread, paganism faded. Gregory III was not the only one to seek to change Europe’s cultural course. Pope Boniface, 3 centuries earlier, tried moving the feast of saints to May— it flopped. Gregory slid it back to November. There is much to be said about the Roman Church co-opting or using certain cultural holidays and traditions within a given local community to direct them towards the church. This time of year is no different.
Much of the modern mood of Halloween began in the Mid-1800s with the Irish Potato Famine, which flooded America with Roman Catholics. They brought All Hallows’ Eve with them: the tricks, the apple-bobbing, the masks. A Patchwork holiday? Understatement.
So, celebrate it then?
See Romans 14. If it pesters your soul—skip it. Easy. Know why you do what you do. And remember: “None of us lives to himself.”
If dressing your daughter as a ballerina and your son as a cowboy while scoring free candy honors God, then knock yourself out. And if you do, and another does not, then do not hold that over your brother in Christ.
Most folks have no clue about Halloween’s origins. Western Christians do pagan-rooted stuff daily without blinking, but Halloween is often singled out. Paul said to the church at Corinth,
All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Ouija séance for Aunt Edna? Hard pass. That’s sinful, don’t do it. Do not even pretend. Black-cat sacrifice? Run. Sinful and idolatrous. Martin Luther costume and pumpkin bread? Here I stand!
What We Do
You may be surprised and think that I am a bold, naive advocate for the dark day of Halloween based on what I’ve written above. I am not. Halloween has many other trappings, not the least of which are women flaunting more skin than a summer beach in Florida, gore and guts are now seemingly at every home, and horror is the currency of the day. If you can go house to house with a clean conscience before the Lord, or you live in Mayberry, then like I said, ‘knock yourself out. We stay in each year and have for over a decade.
We ditched cultural Halloween years ago when our oldest child was 4. No decorations of death. No trick-or-treating through the neighborhood graveyards. Not even the Baptist version, “trunk-or-treat” at the steeple down the way.
What do we do instead? “Fall Family Movie Night.” Stockpiles of favorite candy. Cozy clothes and favorite films. The children (now 7-15) love it—they never feel deprived. Years back, we handed out gospel tracts with candy, but that faded.
Sadly, too many people, even “Christians,” now festoon their lawns with skeletons, death, gore, and all manner of grotesque wickedness. Why? Cultural drift, it seems. No convictions. You want to hand out candy to local children and see cute costumes? Do it to the Glory of God! But do not celebrate the last enemy to be defeated: death. Doing so is stupid at best and sinful at worst. Just leave a couple of pumpkins out and your porch light on.
Believers shouldn’t sway with every wind of cultural custom; we must be rooted in the revealed word of God. Walk with the Lord. Worship Him alone. Death is the enemy—and it will be crushed last under King Jesus’ foot, how could anyone celebrate it?
But cute costumes and free treats?
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
