LONG
LIVE HALLOWEEN!
A
malaise comes over me whenever I hear people shrilly and insistently crusading
against Halloween. It reminds me of
the youngster in one of my wife's Sunday school classes back in New Jersey.
He was slightly confused about the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana.
According to his version, Jesus went to the wedding reception and changed
the wine into water -- the moral being that, once Jesus comes into your life,
the fun is over.
Don't misunderstand me. I
respect, even if I don't agree with, the decision of parents to prohibit their
children from participating in traditional Halloween fun.
But has Halloween become such a degenerate concept that the only solution
is to scrap it altogether and replace it with a "Christian"
observance?
In a well-meaning but, in my opinion,
wrongheaded attempt to "Christianize" jack-o-lanterns, some have taken
to eliminating the grimace by insisting on a smiling mouth, and perhaps even
removing the teeth, as well as carving the eyes into the shape of a cross.
To my mind, this begs the response: Can you really
"Christianize" a jack-o-lantern by knocking out his teeth and making
him "cross-eyed?" (Admittedly, the pun is ghastly, but, I submit, so
is the "Christianizing" procedure."
There is something pathetically naive
about thinking one can effectively battle the devil by tilting against scowling
pumpkins and shredding paper witches. Would
that it were so simple!
For the sake of argument, though, how
does one purge a pagan festival of its paganism? The Jehovah's Witnesses say it can't be done.
And so, get rid of it. Our
Halloween slayers seemingly argue that the overt Christian content with which
the church has invested Christmas and Easter countervails against the pagan
background of these festivals, thus legitimizing our keeping them.
But where is the Christian content and witness in Halloween?
My answer is, in the sheer, pure exuberance of the festivities!
Throw out the witchcraft, but retain the innocuous fun.
We legitimately celebrate Christmas on December 25th, originally the date
for the pagan festival of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, not by
rejecting the date, but by changing what is celebrated on the date.
In like manner, why can't we keep the
innocent, fun features of Halloween? It's
really not a celebration of witchcraft, after all, but a spoof of it. The high
jinks are no Satanic orgy but a hilarious mockery of Satan’s sourpuss side,
the side that would mute our laughter.
Is it permitted a Christian to intone
only "Hallelujah!", or can he also shout out a "Whoopee!"
now and then? An annual wing ding
called Okterberfest is celebrated at our seminary.
I must confess that I’ve never attended this foot-stomping Fest.
But that’s because I’m not very adept at rhythmic foot-stomping, not
because I think the fun and festivities are suspect.
Does this Fest somehow have to be infused with overt theological
content in order to neutralize it and make it legitimate?
Is there not a Christian witness in the sheer exuberance of the joie
de vivre?
Why not let it be known that the Christian is glad not to be inert moon dust, but dust of the earth into which God has breathed the breath of life? That animated, redeemed dust will, indeed, shout "Hallelujah!" (perhaps even during Lent). But it will also shout "Whoopee!" And if one listens closely, he should hear echoings of the hallelujahs in the whoopees.
The
late Dr. H. Armin Moellering served as a professor of exegetical theology at
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
This article was taken from the October 1992 issue of The Lutheran Witness, a magazine for the laypeople of the LCMS. Reproduced with permission.
The companion articles Why Not Celebrate Reformation Day? and Who's Laughing Now? offer somewhat different Lutheran opinions on the question of Halloween.
For more detailed information on the origins of Halloween and the proper Christian response to it, read the essay Can Christians Celebrate Halloween? by Rev. Dr. Richard P. Bucher.