Halloween - don't fear it, enjoy it! It's a Holy Day for Christians.

This was printed in the local newspaper, the Leader Telegram, on Saturday, October 25, 2014.

How do you celebrate Halloween, or do you not celebrate at all?

Matter of Faith: Halloween celebrations lead into All Saints Day
By The Rev. David Huber

One of my very favorite holidays is peeking out of the shadows, and it'll soon to be upon us - that wonderful day of dress up and make believe that is Halloween.

That might sound weird coming from a minister, but Halloween has a long Christian history, despite those who preach against celebrating Halloween, such as Pat Robertson recently did, saying it is demonic, Satanic, evil, etc.

Halloween is none of that. Well, okay, some people dress up as demons, devils, witches, zombies, vampires, etc. But we know those things don't exist, so there is no need to fear them. And that's the real beauty of Halloween. It is historically All Hallow's Eve leading into All Saints Day.

The tradition has been, going back even to pre-Christian times in England, that on All Hallow's Eve the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest, allowing souls to travel back and forth. People would wear costumes to disguise themselves and to scare the dead back to their own world.

As it became a Christian holy day, the costumes became a way of basically ridiculing the powers of fear and death for being impotent against God's grace and love.

We need not fear because those things are not real. Halloween is about Christian hope, not about Satan worship, which is just silly to think about.

Some say the phrase "do not be afraid" appears 365 times in scripture, which is one instance for each day of the year, a daily reminder that we have nothing to fear. Not even those who would have us fear Halloween itself.

For whatever reason, we humans enjoy scary things in pretend or in safe situations. That's why we ride roller coasters, bungee jump, watch horror movies and go to haunted houses.

My Octobers are always filled with revisits of classic horror movies (John Carpenter's "The Thing" is always shown.) and novels. I just read "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde," will revisit "Dracula" and likely blow the dust off some tomes of H.P. Lovecraft and Poe.

We celebrate because we know that demons, devils, witches, monsters don't really exist and so have no power. Halloween is a ritualized living out of that Christian hope against fear.
We get so few chances to pretend we're someone else, to dive into the horrific and grotesque, so celebrate and enjoy Halloween! I always do.

So does my congregation of Plymouth. We have an annual Halloween party, so come join us! (See our website - pcucc.com - for information.) We will be in front of our church to hand out candy during trick-or-treating.

Our celebrations then lead into All Saints Day when we remember those who have died in the last year and are comforted with the hope that they are enjoying eternal life with God.

So please enjoy your Halloween celebrations. Be scared in a fun way, enjoy the treats and the spookiness and remember there really is nothing to fear, not even the holy day itself.