Halloween: Trick or treat?
By Mary C. Lindberg W
hen the toddler daugh- ter of a friend was just learning to talk, she spent
Halloween shouting, “Trick treat! Trick treat!” She was way ahead of her time, that youngster, for it’s not easy to take the “or” out of this phrase and out of Halloween itself. Halloween seems to off er yet
another opportunity for our polar- ized culture to show that it’s stuck in an “or” mentality. We seem quite fond of pigeonholing people into “or” positions. Are you politically right or politically leſt ? Saved or not saved? My way or the highway! So, too, with Halloween: Is it a playful day for kids or devil worship? Years ago Halloween seemed
much simpler to celebrate. We just watched for Oct. 31 on the calendar and looked for kids in costumes. We’d pull out the two costumes stored in a drawer in the attic and beeline down to the second house from the corner, where the neigh- bors passed out sticky-sweet home- made popcorn balls every year. Observing Halloween today
can be complicated. Certainly we can fi nd the holiday in some of the same old places (with well-wrapped, store-bought candy, of course). But we also discover Halloween in stores that tout costume and candy sales across several months and in culture war arguments on the Internet about whether it’s sacrilegious or not to observe the holiday. As Halloween alternately excites
or incites those around us, how shall we think of it—as a hollow trick or a
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www.thelutheran.org traditional treat? Maybe we could start, like our
friend’s daughter, by leaving the “or” out of Halloween. Aſt er all, since ancient times Halloween has been about death and life. Traditionally, All Hallows’ Eve
was celebrated the night before All Saints Day, with bonfi res, feasting on apples and nuts, and mocking evil with costumes and masks. All Saints Day was celebrated with worship services that used hymns and liturgy to remember the saints and proclaim God’s promises of eternal life. Together these two events formed
an eve and a holiday, like so many of our special celebrations. T eir hybrid blend of an ancient fi re festival and a
religious feast personifi ed humanity’s many images and feelings about death and a world beyond their own. Not merely evil or good, but mysterious and redeemed. Perhaps we can draw
inspiration from the ways our
predecessors observed All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Day together. “At Halloween, everything spooky, unseen, mysterious, or otherworldly connects to the souls of the dead which the church celebrates in its feast at this time of the year. Perhaps it is a time to channel some very basic human fears and fascinations,” wrote Gertrud Mueller Nelson in To Dance with God: Family Ritual and Community Celebration (Paulist Press, 1968). Other cultures seem much more
comfortable than ours with seam- lessly blending caricatures of death and lives of the saints. For example, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on All Saints
Ideas for observing Halloween and All Saints Day
During their participation in a community Halloween celebration, members of Church of the Beloved in Edmonds, Wash., offered trick-or-treaters both candy and a chance to light a candle in honor of a departed loved one (www.elca. org/en/Living-Lutheran/Stories/2011/10/111019).
“On All Saints Day, take a walk with your children in a nearby cemetery. Wonder about the people buried there and stories the headstones might suggest. Share stories of members of your family and congregation who have died, especially stories about how they lived their lives of faith. Affi rm the lives and service of those who now rest in God and the love they received from God throughout their lives” (excerpt from Living the Promises of Baptism: 101 Ideas for Parents; Augsburg Fortress, 2010).
Many sites in the U.S. now host Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities that are open to the public. Research what’s available in your area and intro-
duce your children or grandchildren to a rich celebration of life and death.
KATHRYN BREWER
ISTOCK/JENIFOTO
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