Here’s Why I Don’t Like Halloween
This will be an unpopular post. I understand that. To be clear, I don’t really dislike the fun and cute side of little ones dressing up in adorable outfits to parade around to friends’ and family’s houses. I find that to be harmless fun. But perhaps, if you’ll read this entire post, you’ll think just a little differently about the uglier parts of Halloween by the time you reach the end.
The main reason I am not a big fan of this day or season or “holiday” is pretty simple. I don’t like death. I know it’s real and I’ve watched it happen to people I loved dearly. There’s nothing aesthetically pleasing about it. Skulls depict a clear image: decay and loss of everything that sustains and supports life, as well as the transformation of what is beautiful into an ugly and empty shell. All of the other common Halloween decorations pursue this same image. Spiders and cobwebs aren’t innocent. They represent an empty and deserted place where all manner of decomposition has begun. Demonic creatures, monsters, and the rest are not endearing or worthy of celebration. Displaying images of these sort on the lawn in a whimsical spirit does two things: it indicates that we don’t take evil seriously at all - that we may not even believe that real evil exists, and it grants these macabre images easy access to our imaginations. My good friend suggested an even more sinister idea to me, as well: that perhaps many who decorate their homes with these eerie and loathsome images do indeed believe that spirits, demons, and evil are real and desire them to be so. This idea troubles me greatly. While Christians are ever tempted to disbelieve the existence of the devil and his cohorts, unbelievers are ever tempted to believe simultaneously in their existence and their harmless nature. Both temptations are dangerous.
I believe evil is real. I believe it is powerful. Stories like Beowulf, the Snow Queen, St. George and the Dragon, and essentially all of the Grimms’ fairy tales depict gruesome scenes with monsters and embodied evil. But the stories tell the truth: evil is not glorious and has no lasting power. Those tales enliven our imaginations so that we can vividly picture the Light overcoming and conquering the darkness. Their treatment of evil is not shallow but takes the plight of human beings living in deep darkness seriously. Children who feel terror in the night were not told these stories to increase their terror but so that they could have confidence in the utter defeat of such terrifying entities.
Furthermore, death ought not to be treated lightly. It is not our natural end. Death is the sad result of our sinful existence but also the gateway for Christians to eternal life. Death is but a sleep for us. It has been conquered forever. There is no reason to glorify death or meditate upon it by decorating with its symbols. We should, rather, delight in the symbols of its defeat: the cross, the empty tomb, and the celebration of all the saints who have awoken to new life before us. And during this season of fall, we do have a few natural images of death that can provide us with the right way to celebrate the season: The leaves slowly changing, the bulbs planted deep in the ground for a long sleep, dormant grass, birds abandoning their cold nests, the brisk breezes that drive us indoors, the frost in the morning that make all the lingering flowers and green plants droop. These all depict nature succumbing softly to a deep winter slumber that will return joyously to life in the new spring warmth. If you want to decorate and celebrate the change of the season, nature provides plenty to imitate. While we don’t want to celebrate death, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth is worth our meditation. Dwelling for a moment upon the reality of death better prepares us for the joy of new life.
I know I am being a killjoy. Dress up in your silly and cute costumes and have fun collecting some candy. Again, I find that harmless. Decorate with pumpkins, colorful leaves, and other hallmarks of fall. But please reconsider practicing the sinister side of Halloween. Take down the creepy ghosts and eerie zombies. Leave the symbols of death off your front porch and instead find joy in the slow sleep that comes over nature at this time of the year, with the promise of new life to come in the spring.
