This post is in response to Drew’s recent post called “Pagan Christmas” but you should also read my previous post on Halloween before you read this post if you want a complete perspective.
I agreed with most everything Drew said in the first paragraph. There are, of course, many variations on the history depending on the source you reference but I didn’t see anything in Drew’s first section that I hadn’t read before and I have no additional comments. It’s the paragraph that starts with “I have a few friends” that I would like to comment on:
(Drew’s words are in red and mine are in green)
I have a few friends that don’t celebrate Halloween in regards to its pagan nature and see no value in it. Even though Halloween brings communities together, makes kids laugh, multiplies candy, belittles evil, and is fun, celebrating such a holiday appears to question their moral Christian principles.
My wife and I are some of those friends and yes, we see no value in Halloween. I address each of the reasons Drew gives as “even though”s in my Halloween post so I am not going to redo that here. Halloween does not make me question “moral Christian Principles”, it just provides an excellent opportunity to practice them. 
Please read my Halloween post for a full explanation.
I wonder if the Church had decided to incorporate Samhain (pagan holiday) and Christ’s birth if some Christians would be more apt to celebrate the holiday of Halloween.
The church has already done that…its called “All Saints Day”. The answer is no, it didn’t make me more apt to celebrate Halloween. Just because the church sanctions an event doesn’t mean it is worth celebrating or not worth celebrating. We have to decide for ourselves what we should participate in. Many churches now celebrate Halloween…in fact, all of the churches I went to growing up celebrated Halloween in some form or another. I decided to stop ‘celebrating’ because I thought the issues through for myself and my conclusion is fully explained in my Halloween post.
Note: In my Halloween post I don’t mention ‘pagan origins’ as one of the five reasons why I don’t participate….”I am not nearly as interested in the history of Halloween as in what it means today” – the same applies to Christmas symbols and traditions.
It does seem that Christmas (probably due to its commercial push and the multitude of Christian sheep corralled into the stalls of justification) is viewed primarily as a Christian Holiday, and therefore most Christians can celebrate the holiday without a sered conscious.
I have to confess (regarding the seared conscience), my wife and I have struggled with whether or not to celebrate Christmas for several years. Christmas has become such a commercial enterprise and Santa has nearly completely replaced Christ as the focus of Christmas, at least in the malls, public school plays, and around the office. Christmas was not celebrated by the early church and many of the symbols of Christmas can be traced back to pagan rituals. To be honest, my wife and I are still sorting this out and don’t feel like we have reached closure (mostly because we don’t agree yet…usually means I’m wrong but rationalizing in my mind so I don’t have to see things the way they really are or the way God sees them). We actually got rid of the Christmas tree a couple years ago and didn’t celebrate Christmas, at least not in the traditional way. We simply read the Christmas story and tried to focus on helping others (like the original Saint Nicholas). My family still enjoyed Christmas and it was nice focusing on others but I felt like there wasn’t as much joy and happiness in my home as previous years. I decided the following year to start celebrating Christmas again for the inverse reasons of why I don’t celebrate Halloween.
I started off my post about Halloween by explaining that even if I didn’t have religious reasons I would still not celebrate the holiday. The opposite is true of Christmas. Even if I wasn’t a Christian, I would still see the value in a holiday that celebrates love, family, giving, friends, happiness, beauty, etc. The whole tone of Christmas is nearly the opposite of Halloween. I wish I had a picture of some houses in my neighborhood from earlier this year. One in particular was covered in symbols of evil – demons, zombies, decapitations, blood, and ghosts. Now, just months later, that house is not decorated at all, but the house next door is decorated with beautiful lights, a smiling Santa Claus, and other symbols of friendship, love, and happiness.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with the materialism, deifying a magical Santa, or other facets of ‘X-mas’ that draw our attention away from Christ. However, the reason I decided to continue celebrating Christmas and the reason we have put up a Christmas tree this year is because for me personally, Christmas draws my attention back to Christ. When I see a Christmas tree I think of Christ. When I sing the famous Christmas carols I think of Christ. When my family gathers and shares gifts with each other I think of Christ. I think we each have to ask ourselves:
1. What are our motivations for the things we do?
2. What is valuable and worth supporting?
3. Do we believe what we plan to do will glorify God.
For this reason, I am not upset when someone else chooses to celebrate Halloween, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever. If they believe their motivations are right, that there is value in observing the holiday, and that observing it edifies God, then who am I to disagree…it is between them and God. For me, I can celebrate the birth of Christ (labeled as Christmas) confidently with those 3 questions in mind…I can not do the same for Halloween.
I suppose (once again) it’s all the Church’s fault.
We are the church. It’s our fault as individuals. We have encouraged the whole process all along by singing about Santa, buying gifts beyond our means and with wrong motivations, and submitting to the political correctness of the media and the marketing schemes to promote consumerism. No worries though…the bible doesn’t forbid or require us to celebrate Christmas so there is nothing to lose. If Christmas is eventually completely lost in materialism and emptiness it doesn’t change the reality of Christ. If we lose Christmas we have lost nothing. If we lose Christ we have lost everything.
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards men.”
Merry Christmas, BoB
Tags: BoB, Christianity, Christmas, Culture, Halloween, Holidays, Paganism, Symbols
PS – I just found an article, written by Joseph Tkach, that I think is relevant to this discussion. Please don’t think that by sharing why “I” don’t celebrate or do celebrate any given holiday means that I think others should or should not do the same. Jesus came to free us from our sins and the law, to set us free through grace, and not to enslave us with more laws. While evaluating our motives and seeking to glorify God are important, it is important to remember that God sees what is on the inside of a man and a behavior that may bring glory to god from one person might not from another person…not because of what appears to be happening from outside but because of what IS happening on the inside. Only God can judge that. Here is the article by Joseph…it does a much better job explaining what I am trying to communicate:
A Call for Tolerance on Christmas and Easter
PS – For anyone that was offended by the salutation “Merry Christmas” here is a politically correct ‘holiday’ greeting for you (unknown author):
Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;
Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.
(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)
hah I’m gonna memorize and use it!
Have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!
Angie,
Happy Hanukkah! I believe today is the eighth day…correct?
I just read all about the “Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah” at http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm
I had no idea about the history. I knew it was a Jewish holiday but that’s about it…totally cool story.
Glad to see you on the site!
Shalom, BoB
Bob,
You stated earlier:
“For this reason, I am not upset when someone else chooses to celebrate Halloween, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever. If they believe their motivations are right, that there is value in observing the holiday, and that observing it edifies God, then who am I to disagree…it is between them and God. For me, I can celebrate the birth of Christ (labeled as Christmas) confidently with those 3 questions in mind…I can not do the same for Halloween”
…you listed Halloween, but are you open to the fact that other’s by celebrating Halloween you could also truly say, “If they believe their motivations are right, that there is value in observing the holiday, and that observing it edifies God, then who am I to disagree..”?
You brilliantly display your faith structure within your soul much like a realtor would at an open house. Your realtor skills are excellent and truly it is a brilliant faith structure full of splendid architecture. Most who visit the open house are delighted and though it may not meet the needs of their particular family, they can appreciate its beauty (I know I can). However, often when others who perhaps live in a more basic faith structure and especially those who have ornate embelishments beyond your known architecture attempt to show you pictures of their faith structure, your comments can be defensively critical; your criticism based on subjective knowledge of a singular style of architecture. Such behavior reminds me of the “white flight” saga taking place in Atlanta (interesting… “Christian Faith Flight”). I think it’s brilliant that you used a Joseph Tkach article, I picture you guys living side by side in a beautiful opulent christian cookie cutter neighborhood. Make no mistake, Jesus being the builder and it being a wonderful place.
I personally love your faith structure. The reason I post items like “Pagan Christmas” is in the hopes that beyond your brilliant intelligence and gifted integrity, you would view others not just as “simply not there yet”, but as beautiful, Halloween loving Christian brothers whose faith structures are solid built by the same Jewish carpenter as you and that when the storms of life come (which is the only real test), that more houses than you think may still be standing. I know you believe that, but I wonder if you believe that?
For those of you who don’t know my friend Bob, he is a role model of integrity and someone I tend to model much of my life after when possible. I imagine few (if any) would say the same of me. Please take that into consideration.
Drew,
I appreciate your comments and am sorry if I offended you with my post. I know that you know me well and I am sure you know that I accept people as they are. All of my closest and dearest friends celebrate Halloween and yet they remain my closest and dearest friends. I would never walk up to someone and condemn them for celebrating Halloween. This blog provides the opportunity for all of us to share ‘why’ we believe what we do without having to have a ‘target’. By that I mean, I would never just walk up to someone and start spouting off “and these are the 5 reasons you shouldn’t celebrate Halloween”. The blog provides a forum for us to explain our reasoning without having to directly ‘attack’ someone. I get to come here and read the different perspectives of many different people, debate in a safe environment, digest the feedback of others regarding my reasoning, and then take what resonates as truth with me and throw out the rest.
I do want to say three more things:
1. I have no idea who Joesph Tkach is…I found the quote using Google and didn’t look up who he was…his words seemed logical and true to me so I shared it. I still don’t know who he is so I’m not sure if I should be flattered or offended that you think we are so similar but, regardless of who he is, the “cookie cutter” part of the comparison seemed derogatory. I am surprised to read that you think I have a “cookie-cutter” faith…especially since my Christian friends frequently disagree with my viewpoint, making me more like a black sheep, at least among my closest friends.
2. I will not be at all surprised to see many “houses standing”. I am becoming more and more convinced everyday that God’s goal is that all houses would stand…”no matter how basic their faith structure” or bad in need of repair the interior of their house has become.
3. I wasn’t sure what you meant by ‘white flight’ as I had never heard the term before. I just looked up what ‘white flight’ means and I still am not sure what you are suggesting but based on the definition of white flight I would guess it is also derogatory.
I sincerely apologize as it appears I have deeply offended you. I have known for sometime that I am not a very sensitive person and I also know that many people think of me as a “know-it-all” and sometimes as a “manipulator”. I usually, afterward can see how my actions and words were interpreted to cause people to think those things of me and I don’t deny that frequently I am those things, no matter how hard I try not to be. However, this time I have read through my post repeatedly and I am still not sure what it is that I said in my post that was “defensively critical” or was “criticism based on subjective knowledge of a singular style of architecture”. Please help me by pointing out the comments that fueled your reply.
Blessings,
BoB