It's the ugly season again, when Halloween junk is displayed in the neighborhoods. In our home, the only sign of the holiday — set for tomorrow night — is bags of half-size Halloween candy. My wife buys the candy in anticipation of the arrival of a horde of trick-or-treaters.

When I was a boy, Halloween was fun. It still is fun for little children who dress up in costumes and go from door to door crying in their piping voices, "Trick or treat!" But Halloween has turned ugly. In more ways than one, it gets uglier every year. In some neighborhoods, ringing door bells is risky business for little children. One of the neighbors may be a psycho, eager to harm a child.

When I was a boy, it was fun to tell ghost stories. They were scary, but nobody believed them. They were just scary stories. Not now. Ghost stories have turned ugly. Widespread obsession with the occult has given the stories a menace they did not have when I was a boy. The powers of darkness are bolder than when I was young.

Every year sincere Christian people raise questions about the appropriateness of their involvement in the holiday. They are aware of the holiday's pagan origins and ask if it is all right to let their kids go trick-or-treating.

Last year, relatively few children came knocking on our door, and those who came were accompanied by a parent. They came dressed enchantingly — as clowns or princesses or Sesame Street characters. None of the children looked ghostly or menacing. They were quite lovely. I did not mind being disturbed by the ringing of the doorbell or the children's voices calling "Trick or treat!" Tomorrow night I shall not be bothered at all; from 8 p.m. until 9, I shall be in the studio for the Open Line program.

For the children who will come to our door asking for candy, Halloween means something different from its original intent. Anthropologists talk about cultural reinterpretation, which is the process whereby an imported cultural trait or feature is reinterpreted to make it compatible with the values of the society embracing it. Presumably, the parents of little children who come to the door every year have reinterpreted Halloween, or ignored its original meaning so that their kids can have fun without the ugly elements usually associated with Halloween.

Strictly speaking, it is impossible to reinterpret Halloween. Unlike Christmas and Easter, which also had pagan origins but were successfully changed into Christian holidays, Halloween is still pagan. Parents who dress their children in clown suits don't really reinterpret the holiday. They just divest it of meaning in order to turn the children loose for an evening of harmless fun.

Halloween cannot be changed, but in the Christian community it can be replaced with church-sponsored programs. More about this tomorrow. Meanwhile, let the kids collect a bag full of free candy, I say. The only harm it can do is to their teeth.

Commentary is a production of the Moody Bible Institute. Used by permission.

Copyright© 2001 Christianity Today International

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