Students preparing for Halloween festivities will inevitably find the tools to dress themselves as a witches, goblins or devils.
But some religious leaders object to the devilish costumes – and pagan implications – the holiday brings.
Rooted in both pagan and Christian celebrations, Halloween still finds varied and complicated acceptance from the Christian Church.
What has evolved into Halloween was originally a Celtic holiday, said the Rev. Patrick Smith from St. Alban’s Chapel, an Episcopalian church.
According to The Boston Herald, the holiday was originally called Samhain. It was the festival of the dead. Celebrated on Oct. 31, Samhain also was the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.
Many Celts thought that on this night souls could pass from the world of the dead into the world of the living. The people built Samhain fires to keep the spirits away.
Eventually, the holiday was claimed by the early Christian Church.
“Many of our religious holy days were some kind of pagan holiday that has been redeemed through Christ,” Smith said.
The actual word Halloween comes from the name for the holiday as it is celebrated by the Catholic Church, All Hallow’s Eve.
All Hallow’ Eve is the night before All Saints’ Day, which is a remembrance of holy men and women canonized by the Catholic Church as saints. It also is a celebration of all believers, Smith said.
But though the day has been claimed by churches such as the Catholic and Anglican Churches, Peter Hyatt, Baptist Collegiate Ministry assistant director, disagrees with the nature of the celebration.
“As Christians, we believe there is real witchcraft; we believe there is real evil in the world,” he said. “We don’t want to make light of something we believe is very real.”
Hyatt said he does not encourage children to dress up as goblins and witches for this reason. Instead, he encourages them to attend fall festivals.
Many Baton Rouge churches hold fall festivals for children in the church, he said. These celebrations include candy and fun without the witch costumes.
The University Presbyterian Church Day School hosts a fall festival. But the Rev. Patti Snyder, pastor of the church, said she thinks Halloween is “absolutely harmless.”
“While I understand other churches’ view on issue, I don’t think Halloween is bad,” Snyder said.
In her sermons, Snyder tries to tie Halloween to All Saints’ Day to give it a Christian context, she said.
“Our country doesn’t celebrate the holiday as if it were pagan,” she said. “We are not teaching them a pagan religious ritual. We’re teaching them imagination.”
Smith shares Snyder’s view.
“I personally don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “Although I realize anything can be abused.”
Part of dressing up as goblins and devils involves making light of those figures, but that can be a good thing, Smith said.
“We sort of poke fun at the devil and at death,” he said. “We are not afraid of death, we have Christ.”