Halloween, should Christians celebrate it?

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ArcticFox
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I don't want anyone to misunderstand - my acknowledgement of the pagan aspects of Christmas, Easter and Halloween do not prevent me from enjoying these things. I love all that stuff. For me, the pagan origins are irrelevant. It's a culture thing. When I put up the Christmas Tree I'm not thinking about the pagan Solstice. When I'm hiding Easter eggs for the kids I'm not thinking about fertility symbols. When I'm buying Halloween costumes for the kids I'm not thinking about Samhein.

Incorporating these fun elements into Easter and Christmas are, in my opinion, useful ways to get the kids enthusiastic about them and are a teaching tool. Use these elements, but just don't let them distract away from the point of our celebrating them, which is the miracles associated with the Savior.
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micah211
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I dont do halloween anymore or easter. But I still do christmas just because I have a huge family and they arent the brightest either and they would keep bothering us about how we dont celebrate christmas. but I know It isnt really the birth of Jesus.
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I think as long as you do not take evil into your heart and allow it to negatively impact your relationship with Christ, then there should be no problem. People repurpose things all the time in history, why should holidays be any different?
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I can't speak for every Christian, but I can speak for myself.
My parents were never into the whole halloween thing, I guess they knew me and my brothers were quite sensitive to the whole horror side of halloween, which I now understand. We also live a little outside of our neighborhood, and when I was younger, I never made the connection that the kids that bullied me lived in that neighborhood. So I suppose that I won't be celebrating halloween when I am older.
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qshop
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Our family stopped celebrating Halloween when I was six because it's pagan back round and origins. I personally
didn't do any research but I think that Christians shouldn't celebrate it because if they believe in God you shouldn't
be celebrating ghost's and goblin's and monsters because they are all pagan. I understand small children want to
dress-up and get candy but from the back-rounds of Halloween kids will be focusing on what's bad and not what is right. (this post was really hard to express but all I am saying is that halloween has a lot of bad character in it.) thanks for listening,

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lshop1
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We do not celebrate Halloween, Easter, Christmas either. We want to please God and this is the right thing for our family to do. We are not judging others. It is hard to go against the world. It makes us different but we are supposed to look strange to the world.
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qshop wrote:I personally
didn't do any research but
The more you know, my friend
My name is ChickenSoup and I have several flavors in which you may be interested
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LAVA89
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I think holidays are what you make of it and you choose what you are celebrating. For instance, if someone celebrates their birthday which happens to fall on the 4th of July, does that mean that they're automatically celebrating the USA's independence?

Many people still celebrate the pagan holiday of winter solstice around Christmas. If they celebrate it on Dec 25th, does that mean they're automatically celebrating Christ's birth? And similar to what Artic said, if I celebrate Christ's birth around the winter solstice, does that mean I'm also celebrating pagan culture and gods? If someone only sees Christmas only as a time to get gifts and put up a tree in their living room, are they automatically celebrating Christ's birth?

The part of Halloween that bothers me the most in its contemporary form is its infatuation with darkness and death. As a Christian, I feel dressing up on October 31st is harmless (depending on what you dress up as of course) and if I do it, its not because of some long pagan or catholic tradition, but for the sake of dressing up and the fun inherently in that. That being said-- outside of just dressing up and getting candy, I find the celebration of vampires, death, skeletons, etc to be disturbing; bothersome no matter what day those things are glorified.
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No i do not think it is something Christians should celebrate. Because the history of it is pagan and the Bible says we should be wise concerning good and simple concerning evil. (Romans 6:19)
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ArchAngel
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Actually, the history of it is Christian, while Easter and Christmas have pagan origins.
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JOJ650s
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Pretty surprising considering the way it's celebrated now days.
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ArcticFox
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ArchAngel wrote:Actually, the history of it is Christian, while Easter and Christmas have pagan origins.
Sort of. Christmas and Easter are legit holidays, except the date they're celebrated was moved to coincide with existing pagan festivals, and the pagan elements incorporated into the Christian observances in order to ease the conversion from paganism to Christianity. Jesus was actually most likely born in early April, and the Easter observance, being related to Passover, was celebrated about the same time as the pagan Spring festivals anyway.

I don't really mind this, except that it felt like some of the symbolism was pretty contrived. I was taught, when I was little, that Easter eggs and bunny rabbits symbolized life, as in Jesus coming back to life. This is utter nonsense, of course. Those are fertility symbols leftover from paganism. But if it gets the kids interested in the holiday... meh. When my kids ask, I tell them the truth, but I still hide Easter eggs for them.
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A little more than a year ago, ArchAngel said in this thread that the celebration of Halloween is a bit like what Paul wrote about eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. I think that's a great illustration. There were people who used to avoid eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols and then served at dinners, for moral reasons. There were other people who had no problem at all with repurposing that meat for their own uses. They viewed all meat as good, nutritious food, and placed no value on the fact that it had been used as a symbol of something pagan.

There are people in modern times who avoid celebrating Halloween, and even Christmas and Easter, because of moral objections about the holidays' origins. Then again, there are other people who have no problem repurposing these days for their own use in worshipping God, entertainment, or whatever. They view these days as being fine days for special events, just the same as any other day in the year, not tainted. They place no value on these days' pagan origins or the symbols that had been used for pagan worship.

In both the modern situation and the ancient situation, people can go either way. They can say the pagan deities are false and have no meaning, or they can take steps to avoid even the appearance of evil. Take Paul's advice to heart, whichever side of the issue you're on. Do what you feel comfortable with. If you feel that celebrating is innocent, then it's fine to celebrate. If you view celebrating these holidays as an act of worship to God, such as Christmas or Easter, then certainly worship the Lord on that day. If you feel that participation would be an act of honoring demons and false gods, then don't do it no matter who invites you to a party. If you abstain, don't look down on people who participate. If you participate, don't look down on people who abstain, and don't push them into situations where they may feel that they are dishonoring God. If you want to take it a step further, like Paul wrote, you might want to consider not even celebrating a perfectly fine holiday, if you think your celebration creates a temptation that could lead someone else to do what they feel is equivalent to worshipping false gods.
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ArcticFox
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Well said.
"He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool."
—Brigham Young

"Don't take refuge in the false security of consensus."
—Christopher Hitchens
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selderane
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I rock it old school:

Feast of Tabernacles instead of Christmas, Passover instead of Easter.

Gave up Halloween a long time ago.
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