I have been asked a lot this year what I think of Halloween. Possibly more than any other year, which I think goes to show that, each year it’s getting bigger and bigger. I noticed a new trend this year and that is, as radio hosts and callers rave about Halloween, they have started bagging out Christmas and Easter. Saying things like, at least Halloween doesn’t have hidden messages, at least at Halloween, there is no pressure to spend time with family and pretend to be happy, or hey Halloween is all about just having fun without the pressure of having to purchase presents.
I was going to put a warning on this blog that there are some pretty ugly pictures in the blog, but hey…why warn people, Coles and Woolies and costume promoters are shoving it down our throats on a daily basis, so no warning here….Keep reading.
So let me give you my thoughts on Halloween. And there are a number of lenses through which to view Halloween.
- The Traditional Lens.
We spend all our time telling our children not to take lollies from strangers, and then one day a year, we let them walk the streets asking strangers for lollies. I think there are bigger issues than this one.
- The Paedophile Lens
This seems like the first one, but it isn’t. Police actually monitor known child sex offenders during Halloween, and I remember one quote from a few years ago, that Halloween was a paedophile’s Christmas, because the presents come to them. We have to understand, there are some pretty sinister undertones to Halloween, its not all just demons and ghouls.
- The International Lens
This lens is heard every year….Halloween is an American tradition so why do we celebrate it? Personally, I think if we are going to embrace American Traditions, let’s start celebrating Thanksgiving. But that is way too positive for our left leaning media to pick up on. I guess the American excuse for not liking Halloween is a bit of a moot point. I celebrate the death of a Jewish Rabbi each year.
- Victims of Violence Lens
I have written many blogs on the Domestic Violence situation in Australia. Yet on Halloween, people get dressed up as victims of violence and to be honest it seems to trivialise a serious issue. I looked online for some costumes and you can get blood soaked bride costumes, blood soaked wife costumes and even blood soaked schoolgirl costumes. Seriously, I have to ask…why is this ok and why is this celebrated by Australia? If I am being honest this really ticks me off.
I have the same issue with suicide. Suicide is a major problem in Australia. When someone kills themselves, the media won’t even say it was suicide. The only way you know it was, is because there is a Lifeline phone number at the end of the story. We keep it all hush hush in case someone copycats it. (ok I am whispering now) We can’t talk about suicide or even mention the ‘s’ word. Shhhh!
(ok loud talking now) Except on Halloween where Woolworths will put up a Grim Reaper hanging from the ceiling in their stores to promote its decorations, in what looks like a suicide So we can’t mention suicide even when it happens, but we can glorify it for commercial gain for the 4 weeks leading up to Halloween. Roger that.
- Just Plain Poor Taste Lens
I remember when those four people died on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld a few years ago. I was living on the Gold Coast, where the ride was located, and it really impacted the Coast. There was a collective sense of grieving. It happened just 6 days before Halloween. I remember walking into my local IGA about three days after the accident, only to be greeted by a checkout operator, dressed as a blood covered nurse. The level of insensitivity was off the charts. And again I find myself asking the question, why do we think this is acceptable?
- Freak the Kids out Lens
I always hated the lead up to Halloween when my daughters were young as I didn’t want them to see demons and ghouls and zombies etc. Now the counter argument maybe, yeah but you can’t protect them all their lives, which is true, but at 5 it’s age inappropriate for them to see those kinds of things. Now if Halloween decorations were sold in a Halloween shop instead of Woolies and Coles, that would be a different story. But personally, if I am buying my 5 year a Kinder Surprise, I don’t want the surprise to be the undead coming out from behind the ‘candy’ aisle.
- The Demonic Lens
I am a Christian and I think Halloween is outright demonic. The promotion of evil as good, is a deception forced down our throats. Whether you are a believer or not, does not remove the spirit behind what is driving the Halloween tradition. There, I called it as it is. And for anyone with any experience in helping people escape from the occult, you will know that Halloween is one of the biggest events in their calendar. I know more in this area than I care to share publicly, but honestly, you have no idea what is happening in the occult world this weekend.
Ok now to be fair, lets talk about what’s good about Halloween.
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Anyway, that’s what I think
Peter – Not a Halloween Grinch, just calling out Halloween for what it is.
Categories: Australian, Controversial, Current Affairs, Gold Coast, International Issues, Theology
peterpilt 
I saw a really interesting take on Halloween. That these days it’s a celebration of makers and creators. Other holidays are steeped in tradition. Each year they aim to be similar to last year and the years before them. Halloween allows us to celebrate clever and/or well-make costumes and decorations. While Xmas decorations have been getting bigger and bigger they are all very much contained to a certain style. Halloween decorations get to explore without traditional restrictions.
I’m also fond of the neighbourly part of it. In my area people who want to be part of a halloween festivities put orange decorations on their letterbox. Children are out with their parents meeting and greeting other neighbours. Christian holidays tend to be more family oriented. Halloween is possibly the most social and inclusive of the holidays.
I think there’s a lot to your concerns about certain elements being in danger of being a ‘trigger’ to certain people. On the flip side there are also benefits to exposing children to controlled “spooky” scenarios. Kids and teens love to play around with fear. (Teens are by far the biggest audience for horror films) Learning how to deal with danger and fear in safe situations is an intrinsic learning behaviour. Just like puppies play-fighting it prepares us for the emotional dangers of the world.
Well that was a very balanced reply. Good job.
I completely agree with you, Dan. I grew up in America and celebrated Halloween every year since I was born. It was always a creative holiday where my mom or friends would get together, choose a theme, and make a costume. We were pumpkins, m&ms, clowns, ladybugs, etc. The gruesome side of Halloween is only ‘some’ people in society. It’s not the main theme of the holiday in America for a typical American family. Every year we went to haunted houses at church and truck or treats in the church parking lots. We only visited houses of people we knew in our neighborhood. We spent valuable time with friends and neighbors (lots of elderly) we wouldn’t otherwise have spoken to.
I also agree with the positives of exposing teens to scary situations. Dan said it better than I could.
There are an amplitude of positive experiences and relationships that grow from celebrating Halloween. It’s time to stop dwelling on the potential negatives that may come from the holiday and focus on the many positives.
PS The grim reaper isn’t being ‘hung’ like suicide. How else were they supposed to hang them for display? They tied them from the ceiling, no suicide note attached. However, I do completely agree that it shouldn’t be advertised in a scary way at the local grocery store for all families to have to experience. A separate novelty shop to buy costumes and decorations would be sufficient.
I am REALLY not a fan of Harry Potter and the rest of the Wizarding community, and not just because I was shot by a warlock as I was riding home from school. Long story…
I thoroughly agree with all your points, both for and against. I don’t understand the USA fascination with the Halloween holiday and I don’t think that I ever will. I have a pastor-friend who is from the USA and she misses the USA tradition, including Halloween. I have asked plenty of questions and I still don’t get it.
I did come to the conclusion that Christians ought to stop telling people that they are Christians until people recognise a useful and positive difference in their lives and want to know what makes them so special. If people are not impressed with my life enough to want to know more about my life then me actively broadcasting my beliefs probably is not helping the cause of Christ. The Church – in some circles amongst Australia – has lost the right to speak into the community; largely due to the rampant violations and errors over at least the last 40 years. I suspect that Halloween becomes a big deal in a nation when the society stops caring about what the Church is saying and doing.
Totally agree Peter. We had some serious issues with teens and their amusing “tricks”. Two letterboxes went up in smoke, and this was 20 or so years ago. Relatives say it’s just a bit of fun, but I think it’s as far from funny as you can get.
I think people who say %”It’s only… dressing up …. playing games…. its harmless, do not understand the function of the spiritual realm. Enemies of God are legalistic, give them a way in and they become squatters. Why do they not understand? God said “My people perish for lack of kmowledge”. The Church (organisation and believers) are both guilty of not fighting this sinful practice. It is time to stand up.
It’s never ceased to amaze me as to why self professed christians celebrate Halloween, I just don’t get it…do they not understand? Years before I was a Christian, my 3 sons were not allowed to participate at all, it was because of the knocking on the doors of strangers and expecting lollies & also the blood and guts displayed all over the place.
I agree with your points Pete, thanks for sharing.
Brilliant post Peter.
Thanks.
God Bless
Bob
Bob French
Mobile: +44 7920 727 225
bobfrench500@yahoo.co.uk
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I am a Christian and I abhor Halloween…I cannot understand how people can allow there children to dress up the way they do with blood all over them, going from house to house asking strangers for lollies and thinks it’s OK…To me you’re confusing the child…And if that said child was walking home one day they might think its ok to take lollies off a bad person that is trying to lure them into a car…Children cannot differentiate between the 2…It’s dangerous, it’s evil and it’s teaching our children that violence is OK….
Saw Body Parts lollies in a local shop. Really have to think how grotesque that is.
More conditioning and desensitiving of our most vulnerable, our children.
The commercialisation of religion is nothing new. The birth of Christ has turned into the celebration of ultimate commercialism and a fat man comes down a chimney during the dead of night to leave gifts in return for cookies.
Same with the Easter bunny!
Why the hate for Halloween? There is a term known as Samhainophobia which is a fear of Hallowe’en.
Samhain is an ancient Gaelic and Scottish tradition celebrating the end of harvest and back in those days the shortening of the days meant there was a linear between the dead and the living so the dead were celebrated.
How do you cope with the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead?
My blog explains why I hate Halloween.
Well said Peter.
Can I add, the supermarkets that are currently broadcasting their enviro-concsiness (sorry, misspelling made up word) are currently happy to have their shelves overflowing with imported cheap plastic rubbish that will be thrown in landfill within a week.
Also, there is little consideration by people who push their kids to participate that maybe everyone else in their neighbourhood doesn’t want to purchase lollies to hand out to random strangers that any other day won’t even say hello. My area has been good last few years, with people only going to houses that clearly are participating, which I hope means the message of not believing in Halloween has gotten through and the kids will start questioning why so many houses don’t do it.
The idea of teaching your kids to beg is abhorrent to me. Children should be taught to work to earn rewards, not harass strangers for reward.
This will start turning very foul as not far from kids re-enacting scenes from American shows/movies with tricks (more like pranks and vandalism). A few years ago I broke up a fight starting outside my house between kids fighting over lollies they stole (they emptied entire bowls and buckets of lollies people had left out).
Apparently there is a shipping crisis and potential Christmas presents may not arrive in the country, cars, phones, computers, white goods are in short supply… yet somehow containers of Halloween rubbish (that’s what most of it will be next week) got through?! I’ll take a new iphone over that other rubbish any day!
It astounds me that “the greens” aren’t protesting the inedible pumpkins that are sold to be cut, candles melted inside then thrown in landfill. This is such a terribly unsustainable practice and wastes water.. precious limited resource.
I don’t and never will understand why people think all this is okay but have an issue with anyone who believes in the one true God.
Charles Schulz covered it well I think in Peanuts, as Charlie Brown was always let down by the big pumpkin.
The normalisation of the abnormal is alarming and it is sad that we seem to be beyond the tipping point in end times, where it is becoming increasingly obvious how easy it will be for the deception to occur.
I’m stunned that people are so ignorant they will do this while we are still in the biggest pandemic any living person has seen (except for a handful of those over 100 who may recall their early childhood). I don’t want door-to-door covid.
The parents who travel with their kids to watch them beg for lollies have not considered that strangers may film or photograph their kids for sick purposes.
I gave my kids teachers lists of things they couldn’t do in class-it was primarily about this and anything associated with it. God blessed us with compliant teachers for most of their primary schooling.
I actually think (could be wrong) that the arrival of Aldi and Costco hastened the increase in participation in this country. Not bagging the stores, just pointing out they sell products that match their origin traditions, for instance Costco also have items for Thanksgiving as US origin store.
The thing that bugs me the most, is that even people who can explain the rest of their reasons for Halloween, cannot explain how it morphs into begging for lollies off strangers and why that should be a tradition.
To conclude, I can’t help but wonder why the tradition isn’t giving slices of Pumpkin pie (Insta off eating the pumpkin flesh) instead of teeth rotters.
When I was in America I saw the true meaning of Halloween and this was to give thanks to the Lord of the harvest. Interestingly though they had a snake (Satan) slithering through the display showing us (I believe) that Satan comes to Rob kill and destroy what is good. Halloween is then followed by thanksgiving which is a celebration of God’s goodness of a successful harvest. The church where I was attending held a Halloween celebration where children all dressed up in beautiful costumes to celebrate the good things God had done for them in the past year. But they didn’t know it!! And this is where the problem lies. The churches everywhere should be teaching the young ones what Halloween represents. The parents and the children should be celebrating together. I’d get rid of the trick or treat it’s too dangerous. Every Christian should get rid of goulish costumes, pumpkins and decor. These all celebrate Satan coming and robbing the harvest. He certainly has done a good job of it and the church has let him hijack the event. If the church started teaching what Halloween was truly about and started celebrating it in a Godly way we could bring it back to sanity!
Well said! I totally agree. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Brilliant! Totally agree with all you’ve said!
Brilliant! Totally agree with all you’ve said!
I’ve watched Halloween degenerate into a really satanic affair over the 30 or 40 years it has been gaining popularity here in Australia. It used to be just a witches or ghost costume. Now it’s full on satanic ritual sacrifice and abuse!! Besides all the money Coles and Woolies rake in every year from the environmentally polluting rubbish they sell. We should be celebrating REFORMATION DAY 31st October in a MUCH BIGGER WAY than we do OF COURSE! But let’s face it Satan has been LOOSED and in his short season. The NATIONS HAVE BEEN AND ARE BEING DECEIVED!!