The Well Blog

When you speak of Halloween to a church, you're destined to raise a variety of questions:

• What is it?
• Where did it come from?
• What should the church do with it?

Here are some thoughts about Halloween as you look to participate in it or abandon ship for the nearest trunk full of candy. Opportunity is the key word to keep in mind. We are canceling one of our services to give individuals and families the opportunity to engage with their neighborhoods.

Our mission is "Helping People Connect to God and to Each Other in Every Neighborhood." This may be one of the only times in a given year where your neighbors will go outside and actually come over to your house. But you say, "Isn't that the Devil's holiday?" To that we offer some historical nuggets:

• Mankind has always been fascinated with death and life and the paradoxes between them. Historically, Halloween fell on the night between "The Day of the Dead" & "All Saints Day" (November 1).
• All Hallows Eve: The name given to October 31 and the eve of the Christian festival of All Saints Day (November 1). How there came to be a feast of all the saints on November 1 is not known, but its observance seems to date back to the eighth century. The pagan festival of Halloween originated with the pre-Christian Druids of Gaul and Britain. The Druids believed that on this night ghosts and witches were most likely to wander about. The lighting of bonfires and feasting on Halloween also date back to Druid activities. Pagan peoples of western Europe also believed their god (called the Devil by Christian observers) became incarnate in human or animal form (such as, in Britain, the bull, the dog and the cat). Gradually, Druid practices were merged with the Roman fall festival in honor of the goddess Pomona and the Christian feast day.
• Historically, it has taken numerous twist and turns as a holiday. It is impossible to define Halloween as witnessed in today's American culture definitively from a historical vantage point.
• The American culture has tried to change Halloween because of the numerous "negative experiences" associated with it. What we know as kids (costumes, candy, pumpkins, etc.) is only about 50 years old in tradition. The influence of media (such as Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin and Looney Tunes) helped Halloween take off as an economic opportunity.
• There has been a seismic shift in ideals from "the dead doing the haunting" to "living people doing the haunting."

So what are we to do? If your quick answer is to punt, we caution you to be careful and consistent. If you punt Halloween, you probably need to punt Valentine's Day, Easter eggs, bunnies, candy and dresses, Christmas consumerism and "gift" delivering myths, and even St. Patrick's Day.

In our opinion, Halloween offers an opportunity - an opportunity to engage with people around you, to meet them, invite them over for dinner, walk with them and give away the best candy on the block. It can simply be good people giving good things to expectant children.

We would love to challenge you to the difficult work of investing in relationships. It's easy to pass something out or to opt for a different experience. But why not do something for the people? Meet them where they are. Use it is a stepping stone for relational building. Here are some ideas:

• Host a block party. Have soup, chili and warm drinks, and host it on your driveway.
• Kids and people love to make a mess. Host a pumpkin carving time for neighbors. Find out their stories while you sit around and cut vegetables. Use turnips if you want to be historically accurate (wink, wink).
• Set up a table in your front yard with coffee for parents who walk by.
• Turn your porch light on early and leave it on a little late. Opportunity literally comes knocking.
• Follow up with neighbors. Continue the relationships with future times together. Don't let it be the only night of the year they come out of their house and the only night when you are intentional with them.