Explore the History of All Hallows’ Eve
Did you know Halloween started as a Christian holiday? It marked the beginning of a three-day celebration called Hallowtide.
For centuries Christians celebrated Hallowtide as a reminder that Jesus defeated death and our future home is with him in heaven.
Hallowtide
Here’s the breakdown of this three-day event:
October 31 is All Hallows’ Eve, later called Halloween. Just as Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas Day, All Hallows’ Eve is the night before All Hallows’ Day. It’s a sacred watch.
November 1 is All Hallows’ Day. Hallow means a holy person or saint. All Hallows’ Day, also called All Saints’ Day, remembers all the saints and martyrs who have died and are in heaven. We let their lives and sacrifices inspire us.
November 2 is All Souls’ Day. It remembers all the rest who have died and are with our Lord. Knowing that we’ll one day join them encourages us.
Collectively, Hallowtide celebrates Jesus’s death and victory over it, joyfully remembering all those who have gone before us to be with our Lord.
All who believe in him will one day join him in heaven. And the remembrance starts on Halloween, or at least it should.
Shifting toward Halloween
In the last century or so, All Hallows’ Eve shifted from celebrating Jesus’s victory over death and our future home with him in heaven to Halloween, which increasingly promoted the darkness of death.
And we dismissed the two subsequent days of Hallowtide: All Hallows’ Day and All Souls’ Day. It’s as if our future in heaven no longer matters.
It’s all about death. Not Jesus overcoming death, but death without him. It’s a dark time, void of hope. It’s certainly nothing to celebrate.
Yet too many of Jesus’s followers today have a naively unexamined view of Halloween. They shrug off what it now stands for and embrace it as a time for fun, albeit in an eerie way. In truth, Halloween today promotes evil, increasingly so.
Just consider the emphasis on cemeteries, skeletons, and blood. Reflect on all the witches, goblins, and ghosts. Even worse are the demon and devil emphases.
But witches aren’t benign. A goblin is an evil spirit. And ghosts are beings to fear. Paul calls witchcraft an act of the flesh (Galatians 5:19–21).
Jesus and his disciples drive out demons, as well as evil spirits (Mark 1:32–34 and Luke 9:1). And God will defeat the devil (Revelation 20:10).
Halloween celebrates death and the macabre. Instead, we should choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Though we can strive to avoid the ungodly negativity of Halloween, it’s getting harder to do. A better solution might be to skip observing the day altogether.
Questions:
- How can we promote Jesus’s light during the darkness of Halloween?
- What can we do to celebrate Jesus and eternal life instead of the devil and eternal death?
- How should we respond to Christians who shrug off the evil of this day?
Prayer: Jesus, help us to remember you on this Halloween, how you died to save us, rose from the grave to conquer death, and returned to heaven to prepare a place for us. May we turn from the evil this day now celebrates. Instead, let us celebrate your light.
Discover more about this holiday and many others in Peter’s devotional Holidays with Jesus: 40 Devotions to Center Your Holidays on the Savior.
In Holidays with Jesus you’ll find forty impactful devotions, covering twenty holidays, that will help you keep Jesus at the center of every celebration.
Get your copy of Holidays with Jesus today!
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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