Discussing death can be uncomfortable. Most of us would rather avoid the subject unless circumstances force us into it, and even then, we’ve largely rebranded funerals as a celebration of life rather than a memorial for the departed. To be clear, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that.
Still, the end result is that most people in our culture tend to be pretty bad at wrestling with the fact that we’re mortal. But if there’s one time of the year when we’re willing to drop our defenses and open ourselves up to a conversation about death, it tends to be Halloween.
As Hannah Miller King describes, Halloween is “that stretch of weeks every fall when our death-avoidant culture reveals its underlying fascination with mortality and the afterlife. Already the houses on my street are transforming into macabre scenes full of skeletons and plastic tombstones.”
The problem is that we’re unlikely to be able to take advantage of the opportunities this season might present if we’re just as uncomfortable with the idea of death as the lost around us. So today I’d like to take some time to discuss how we can do better. And we’ll start with a place most of us would probably rather avoid: cemeteries.
Why Christians worshipped among the dead
On this week’s episode of the Faith & Clarity podcast, Dr. Mark Turman discussed how cemeteries used to be next to churches so that every week, “you were confronted by looking at the reality where all human beings are ultimately going to end up until Jesus comes again. And it was a profound reminder of the brevity of life, of the fragility of life, as well as the promise of eternal life that the gospel brings to us.”
He’s right, and for most of Christian history, cemeteries have done just that.
In King’s article, she describes how the early Christians renamed their catacombs as coemeterium, which is Greek for “dormitory.” From the start, these cemeteries often served as a meeting place during the periods when gathering in a building was a good way to get arrested or killed. They also gathered in recognition of the fact that when they worshipped among the dead, they were among brothers and sisters with whom they would one day be reunited.
Even after the legalization of the faith, when it became possible to have dedicated churches, Christians kept the practice going by placing graveyards next to their houses of worship. In fact, it wasn’t until overcrowded graveyards started to pose a health problem that the final resting place of the dead was moved into more rural areas.
That shift still wasn’t enough to dampen people’s enthusiasm, though, and when the first modern cemetery in America opened in 1831, it “was dubbed a ‘garden of graves’ and gave rise to the nation’s first public parks—places for the living as well as the dead.”
While I doubt our culture will return to such high levels of familiarity and comfort with the departed, Halloween offers us the opportunity to ask why that thought inspires fear rather than hope. After all, Christians have been taking advantage of this day of remembrance for more than a millennium, and we should do the same.
The Christian origins of Halloween
As I discussed in “What does the Bible say about Halloween?”, the oldest version of the holiday is typically considered to be the Celtic festival of Samhain—pronounced “SAH–win”—which began more than two thousand years ago.
It originated as a pagan celebration marking the end of the harvest season and the start of winter. The ancient Celts believed that it was also a time when the dead could walk among the living. They would light bonfires and wear costumes to either blend in or ward off the ghosts, depending on which accounts you read.
The celebration took on a Christian flair in the eighth century after Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day, a time to honor the memory and legacy of the saints. Even if you’re not Catholic, Hebrews 12 gives evidence of the benefit of remembering and celebrating the heroes of our faith. As the centuries passed, such holidays became even more significant because the majority of the population could not understand Latin and therefore what was said at Sunday Mass.
Consequently, when the holy day reached the Celtic lands, it served the important purpose of helping guide the people there to a greater understanding of Jesus, as well as their fellow Christians who had already gone to reside in his presence.
By this point, St. Patrick, Columba, and others had already led large swaths of Celtic culture to embrace Christianity, often by Christianizing elements of pagan worship to make the transition to the faith simpler. As such, it was largely par for the course to incorporate aspects of Samhain into All Saints’ Day as well. Thus, October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, which was eventually shortened to Halloween.
However, as we look for opportunities to do the same and use this weekend’s festivities to draw people closer to the Lord, it’s vital that we be discerning about which aspects can and cannot be redeemed.
Two common mistakes
To begin, anything that minimizes the power of Satan or dabbles in the demonic is never alright. We don’t need to be afraid of the Devil, but, as Jesus said, “He was a murderer from the beginning” and remains “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). And the temptation to think activities we’d never consider any other time of the year are somehow permissible on Halloween is one of his favorite lies during this season.
That said, we make an equally dangerous mistake when we allow our fears about this holiday to take the Holy Spirit’s place as the primary decision-maker in how we’ll approach it.
It could be that God’s will for you is to stay as far away from the festivities as you can. Or it could be that he wants to use them as an opportunity to see neighbors you might not talk to any other time of the year. The Lord could even intend to use Halloween to open up avenues to conversations about death and the hope we have in Christ that could change someone’s fate for all of eternity.
Ultimately, only God knows. So, take some time today to ask him what your approach to Halloween should be. Give him a blank slate, and see what the Spirit says.
He just might surprise you.
Quote of the day:
“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” —C. S. Lewis
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