I briefly practiced witchcraft before I was a Christian, my husband was in the occult and New Age. We celebrate Halloween as a family. Because of my past, I feel I have a unique perspective on the whole thing. In all of my pagan worship, which was specifically Wicca, not once did I dress up and beg strangers for candy, except in the practice of a secular American holiday known as Halloween. The Wiccans I was with celebrated the fall equinox a full month earlier, and Halloween was nothing in particular, at least not for the people I practiced with. I know a lot of other covens do, specifically those more Celtic who practice Samhain. They did, however, worship and adorn evergreen trees during the Winter Solstice, which falls quite close to Christmas. There was also those who adorned and set out symbols of fertility, such as rabbits and eggs in the Spring to worship the goddess. I have no respect for any Christian conviction to abstain from Halloween but makes no such change over other pagan practices, such as Christmas trees and Easter Eggs. If you are going to do one, go all in. I know people who do abstain from all of it and I respect that. We do not. We put up our tree, hide our eggs, and yes, we go trick-or-treating. Why?
We are no longer pagans. If anything I love taking something from my old life and watching it reborn into something new. Assigning new significance to it with my new found freedom in Christ, just as I myself was reborn and given a new assignment. I love how the symbolisms can cross over, evergreen tree equals eternal life, eggs equal a rolling stone. Pagans don't own evergreen trees and eggs. God created them. Pagans don't own candy and dress-up either. I can only imagine that early converts from Paganism to Christianity felt as I do, as they reassigned all their cultural festivals and Holy Days to reflect their new found relationship with Christ. I love it. The Jerusalem counsel in Acts told pagans to not eat blood and not to fornicate but left out: "and don't celebrate your holidays." That bit was not in there. If you don't have Jewish heritage, your ancestry is pagan, and everything about converted pagans applies to you. It's why you have the freedom to eat that honey glazed ham. That same freedom applies here.
In 1 Corinthians 10 it says in regards to Pagan practice: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I believe the early ex-pagan Christians did just that by converting their holidays into a worship of The Creator rather than the creation. Halloween, by the way, means All Hallow's Even (Holy Night). It is the day before the anniversary of the reformation of the church and All Saint's Day. The dead and martyred in Christ were celebrated as having achieved the final victory over sin and death. Halloween has associations with Samhain, I admit that. Samhain was practiced by a specific sect of pagans on a small European Island. Modern day Halloween practices would be considered irreverent and sacrilegious to a practicing pagan who would view this as a somber and sacred event and take issue with the light-hearted play and merriment.
So this is how I feel about it.
I suppose I'm not so easily offended by it because I know better what real pagan worship looks like and it doesn't look like a church's "Trunk or Treat" festivities. My daughter is not a pagan or satanist for dressing up like Elsa and getting bags of candy, nor will she be. And if I'm not going to take down my Christmas tree or put an end to my children's egg hunts, I will not take down my pumpkins either.
Refrences:
https://www.circlesanctuary.org/index.php/celebrating-the-seasons/celebrating-samhain https://answersingenesis.org/holidays/halloween-history-and-the-bible/ https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/trees.shtml
PS: On a personal note my name is "Autumn." I want a fall festival to enjoy and this is what I have. Don't tell me Thanksgiving is a fall festival. All Thanksgiving really is is a prelude to Christmas.
