I’m a big advocate of enjoying things such as holidays and festivities in such a matter as one sees fit – trusting others to be able to discern for themselves how they choose to celebrate, even if it’s different than myself. I have a group of friends who all enjoy well made horror films. We all draw enjoyment from this and find no harm in it. In fact, I recently watched Saw (an example of a fairly thoughtful modern horror film) with a couple of people from this site. Afterwards, we had what I felt was a very interesting and helpful discussion about it. No harm done.

I’ve never partaken in a Reformation party, partly because it doesn’t really interest me and mostly because I feel like it would inevitably feel “holier than thou.” For those that do, more power to you. Hope everyone that did over the past few days had as much fun as I had celebrating Halloween.

I’d be hard pressed to say that these kids were celebrating evil. There were pirates and we all know that these were men of questionable character, but these kids were dressed as the fun-loving Peter Pan-style of pirate. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, etc. I guess the army kids could be considered evil if you’re inclined to think poorly of the armed services. Pacifism, what hey. Really, the only kid of dubious character was the kid dressed as the guy from Scream. But I mean, what’re you gonna do. When guys hit Jr. High, they think that stuff’s spooky cool.

All said, I don’t think any of these parents dressed their kids as disgusting things. And to pretend that they were is to read gross moral calamity into their parents—which seems unfair.

Setting a gentle example to friends that “We won’t be celebrating Halloween like the rest of society today; we are celebrating our rich heritage of God’s Word that day,” is only weird to those who don’t get it.

It’s actually weird to those of us who do get it too. Look, I’m a reformed Xian. I enjoy the fruit of Luther’s work every Sunday. That doesn’t mean that I don’t find it weird for people to intentionally say, “Hey. Look. I’m not going to be celebrating your evil holiday guys. Instead I’m going to be celebrating the life and work of this dead guy. ” It seems like just another way for Xians to come off as holier than thou.

And plus, it’s entirely unnecessary. Saying that Halloween is completely against decent moral values is a pretty sizable stretch. It 1) presumes that there is one acceptable way in which to celebrate Halloween and 2) suggests that if one’s celebration does involve some level of acknowledgement of death, that holidays acknowledging death is somehow abhorrent in moral society.

1) When you say things like, “You dress your kids up as disgusting things,” you need to realize that you’re only representing a small number of people. I dressed my daughter up as Yotsuba for Halloween last year. As Ponyo this year. My recent costumes have included a Barrel of Monkeys, a nun, a monk, and a cartoon character. I hosted a Halloween party every year and gore, violence, and death were never thematic elements. It was just a good time for everyone.

If you don’t want to dress your kid as a zombie, then not having fun on Halloween is not your only option. You could also simply not dress your child up as a zombie.

2) All cultures have their traditions and ritual ways of acknowledging death as a society. I don’t personally use Halloween for this, but I don’t begrudge those who find a certain kind of catharsis in the day’s reminder that our bodies will one day be a mouldering of bones. It seems a little cheeky to judge someone for that. Maybe you don’t like it, but showing a little empathy toward those who do might lend more toward pointing your neighbour toward Christ than simply deeming their celebration evil when you seem to have a rather-too-facile understanding of what the holiday means on a cultural level.

@Sharon

Just because Halloween is a nationally recognized holiday doesn’t mean it’s ok to celebrate it in all its gore (zombies?! Really?!).

One doesn’t have to celebrate gore or zombies in order to celebrate Halloween. Just like one doesn’t have to celebrate gross commercialism in order to celebrate Xmas. These things are not intrinsic to the celebrations. Your Halloween celebration can simply be your family dressing up in fun costumes, having fun fellowship with friends, and enjoying the common grace of the Lord through the festive atmosphere of the season. Or your celebration can be something else.

My Halloweens these days involve carving fun designs on pumpkins, dressing my daughter in cute costumes, being a good neighbour to the children who come to my door, and maybe enjoying the company of friends at a party or two. To hear people describe my Halloween as nasty or evil or as a conformation to worldly pursuits is sad—because it shows how little they care to understand these sorts of things. They’ve allowed a couple negative experiences to wholly corrupt their ability to approach things with any sort of nuance.

If you’re celebrating for the right reasons, it isn’t weird. God reclaimed the Gospel in the Church via the men and events we celebrate in Reformation Day.

Trying to ignore the gruesomeness of celebrating death, wickedness, and gore on Halloween is not weird.

Setting a gentle example to friends that “We won’t be celebrating Halloween like the rest of society today; we are celebrating our rich heritage of God’s Word that day,” is only weird to those who don’t get it. That’s their problem. It isn’t my responsibility to be not-weird by getting sucked in to a nasty secular holiday.

Perhaps before blogging, and before commenting on blogs, and before indicating that Reformation Day celebrations are strange or inappropriate, consider that Halloween is completely against decent moral values (Christianity aside). You dress your kids up as disgusting things, send them to strangers houses to beg candy, then you have to sort through it to make sure those strangers aren’t trying to kill the kids with razor blades or the like. “Go run around on the street at dusk in a costume…but be safe!” Isn’t that weird, and almost irresponsible, of parents?

There are communities that have many practicing devil worshipers — people who DO mutilate animals for sacrifice and other horrid practices. Halloween isn’t a joke. Why does Reformation Day have to be looked at as one?

Get solid priorities.

Re #2: Seriously, wouldn’t you hate it if you went to, like, a 4th of July BBQ and got a lecture on John Madison and Alexander Hamilton, etc.

Re #3: This terrible trend can be reversed by being Zombie Luther, pinning the 95 bags of theses on the Zombie Door of Vittenburg with a unicorn’s horn, and having a Calvinist Crossword Burning Party (copies of The Institutes are also welcome for the extravagant guests).