Booo!! ‘Spooky in the dark’ was always a favourite game amongst the kids at family get togethers when I was growing up. You close the curtains, turn out the lights, and hide. Then someone enters the dark room and tries to find everyone as their eyes adjust to the dark. It was hide and seek with the lights off; it felt intense, scary!

I do wonder whether we have a strange fascination with being scared. Whether it’s by watching a tense film or jumping out on people to shock them, feeling scared or shocked is perhaps appealing in a strange kind of way. Of course being afraid of the right things keeps us alive, it’s probably a good idea to be afraid of sharks, cliff edges, and [insert whatever you’re afraid of here]. But what about fear when there is seemingly nothing to be afraid of? Fear of the unknown? Fear of the dark?

The dark will be full of strange creatures, monsters and ghouls over the next few days as the UK and the US gear up for another Halloween. I’m left wondering what’s really at the heart of Halloween and what it’s all about. On one side it seems to be just another commercial success as Halloween becomes the the third biggest ‘event’ for retailers behind Christmas and Easter, with shoppers in the UK estimated to spend a staggering £400 million on Halloween items this year. Maybe it’s just another excuse for us to dress up, to have some fun, and for kids to demand sweets from strangers with veiled threats of ‘tricks’ to those who don’t cough up! But does it go deeper? And should we get involved?

There’s a decent litmus test to help us here in these words from Paul:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

I suppose the question to ask is whether or not Halloween is based on values such as truth, honesty, justice, purity, love, goodness? If it isn’t, should we spend our time ‘celebrating’ it?

I’m not entirely sure to what extent people who celebrate Halloween think they are really conversing with the dead, maybe in darker ages people were more genuinely concerned with connecting with ‘other worlds’. In ancient times God warned against paying attention to those who thought they could summon the dead:

“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you…one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 18:9-13

In more modern times Paul again encouraged us to:

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:11

So as we spend time thinking about Halloween, it’s origins and what it stands for, the darkness, fear and threat that comes with it, perhaps we should instead think of the light which Jesus spoke of:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

(This and other blogs can be found on the website of our sister church in Morecambe)