Redeeming Halloween 2

In recent years I have become more and more intrigued by Halloween as it has become more and more prominent a phenomenon in the UK. I don’t remember Halloween being a big deal when I was little, but over the last few years trick or treating seems to have become more and more common - interestingly, among quite young children. On 31st October there are frequent rings on my door as small witches, wizards and zombies ask me for sweets, their parents usually hovering in the background. I love it.

Yes, I love Halloween, for three reasons. Firstly, I love the community atmosphere. I live in the suburbs, and suburban people are notoriously bad at getting to know their neighbours, particularly in areas like the one where I live, where a large proportion of the population are commuters. Halloween is the one day in the year when people are out on the streets knocking on their neighbours’ doors. We Brits have a tendency to social awkwardness (read Watching the English by Kate Fox if you don’t believe me); the crazy costumes are disarming and the agreed “Trick or treat?” script helps us to talk with people we don’t know. Some people argue that children shouldn’t be taught to demand chocolate from people. I think it’s a fun, rather cute new tradition, especially bearing in mind the young age of most of the trick or treaters I encounter. And actually it seems many parents have taught their children to say “Happy Halloween” instead - a Halloween blessing. In addition, most trick or treaters will only approach houses with Halloween decorations - there is a shared understanding that by putting out a Jack o’ Lantern you are signalling your participation in the festivities.

Secondly, I love the fun. I have always been rather drawn to some aspects of goth culture, although unfortunately black hair doesn’t suit me (I once tried it for two weeks. Not a good look.) As a child I adored the Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas and I’ve always rather liked skull patterned clothes. Unfortunately I once unthinkingly wore a skull hoodie to a Roman Catholic mass for the dead. That was embarrassing. In every other respect I am quite a cheerful, positive, high-energy person, drawn to bright colours and life in all its fullness. I sometimes wonder whether my fascination for gothic imagery is the shadow to my cheeriness. I am drawn to what I cannot understand. So for me Halloween is a lot of fun - a chance to be playful and dress up and eat cakes in the shape of eyeballs. Quirky fun.

I can hear my Christian friends shaking their heads in disapproval, so I will hastily add that thirdly, and most importantly, I love the message of Halloween. Last year my Halloween post quoted other Christians who had come to see Halloween as a kind of mini-Easter, facing the reality of death on All Hallow’s Eve and proclaiming the truth of resurrection on the following day - All Saints’ Day, 1st November, when traditionally Christians have remembered people who have died in faith over the past year. Christians believe that Christ has defeated the powers of darkness through his death on the cross and even overcome death itself. Halloween seems to glory in all that is dark, frightening and malevolent, and that seems a contradiction of the gospel. I respect those who hold this view, but personally I see it differently. Yes, Christ has defeated the powers of darkness, even death itself. But during our life on earth we will continue to be affected by these dark powers, and we will still die. Christians understand us to be living in an “in-between” time, the time in between Christ’s coming and his second coming; between the inauguration of the Kingdom of God and its final consummation. We ultimately have nothing to fear from the defeated enemy, but it can still hurt us deeply. When someone dies in the hope of resurrection their friends are left with a great hope, but they still dearly miss their friend. Think of Gandalf declaring to the Balrog: “You shall not pass!” in The Fellowship of the Ring. The Balrog doesn’t pass, but in its death throes it takes Gandalf with it. Ultimately and mysteriously he does not die, but comes back as Gandalf the White. In the same way, Christians die in the hope that they will rise again. Nevertheless, we can see how a defeated enemy in its death throes can still do terrible harm.

I believe Halloween gives people the opportunity to confront their deepest fears and, in doing so, to break the power of these fears. Christianity is not about skating over or ignoring the harsh realities of life to hold on to a glorious future hope. It is about hanging on to that hope won for us by Christ while staring those harsh realities in the face.

Consider this wonderful reflection by William Brodrick, courtesy of the Northumbria Community:

We have to be candles,

burning between 

hope and despair, 

faith and doubt, 

life and death, 

all the opposites.

That is the disquieting place 

where people must always find us.

And if our life means anything,

if what we are goes beyond 

the monastery walls

and does some good, 

it is that somehow, 

by being here, 

at peace, 

we help the world cope

with what it cannot understand.