Halloween Revisited: A Caveat

Image Credit

Last Halloween, I wrote a series of essays that remain my proudest intellectual accomplishment to date. Oh sure, they weren't perfect, but the concept was something that has been in my soul for a long time. In case you didn't read them or don't want to go back, the thesis was this: that our modern Halloween celebration stems from our desire for God. 

This is not a new concept. Everything we love really stems from a desire for God, so why should Halloween be any different? Finding God in the secular is an old Catholic intellectual practice. To steal a very imperfect metaphor (I think it's Tolkien but it might be Peter Kreeft), God is the unchanging white light. We are the prisms that reflect the Light's colors. All existence glorified God.

There is one troubling implication of this though: if everything that exists is inherently good, then everything evil is a version of something good that falls short of its intended purpose. The desire for God is present in Halloween, but it is filtered through lesser things. Why tell stories of immortal vampires when we will live immortally with God? Why tell ghost stories when we could commune with the saints? Why play pranks when we could a act for justice? Why settle for less? Isn't it dangerous to move to the side rather than aim directly for the goal?  After all, to sin in Hebrew literally translates as "to miss the mark."  

My answer is this: yes, it is dangerous, but this does not necessarily make it evil. All created things when loved improperly can tear us away from God and lead to our doom. Candy can lead to gluttony, or it can lead to moderate feasting. Halloween costumes can be designed to instill lust, or they can be designed to instill wonder. Ghost stories can lead to seances, or they can lead to praying for the souls in purgatory.  Demons costumes can tell the lie that demons aren't really malicious, or they can remind us that--with Christ on our side--demons are nothing to fear.

This is not to say there is some middle ground between heaven and hell.  There isn't.  But it is possible to glorify God through secular things (as long as those secular things are not in themselves against church teaching).  In fact, it is not only possible; it is necessary.  

I wrote the 7 Desires of Halloween in the hopes that I could pry this holiday away from the spiritualism (Note 1), necromancy, paganism, rebellion, and bacchanalia and claim it again for Christ. I do not wish to claim it for a puritanical, dry Christ who gives out apples to children dressed as saints.  I wish to claim this beautiful and dangerous holiday for a beautiful and dangerous God.  I love Halloween in all its shadowed vibrancy.  And ad majorem Dei gloriam, I shall continue to celebrate it.

Image Credit

Note 1: Halloween does have one unique pitfall for hungry souls: spiritualism (Ouija boards, seances, witchcraft etc). However, I would argue that this is no more essential to Halloween than parents fighting over toys on Black Friday is inherent to Christmas.

Halloween is like a walk along the edge of a cliff. I feel confident in my ability to stand well back, and I have good hiking boots. Those inclined to dangle their toes over the edge, however, may wish to avoid the hike entirely. That being said, I do sometimes envy the powers of creatures of myth, rather than being satisfied with my own humanity. I do sometimes hear the serpent's cry in Eden “You will not die; you will be as gods.” I acknowledge this pride, and rebuke it. Hmmm, I might need a second essay on this topic.