Let's redeem Halloween

The Church has often adapted cultural traditions for its own use, trying to turn holidays into holydays. We did that with Christmas, tagging on Christ's birthday to a year-end pagan celebration honoring Saturn (the god, not the car.) We did that with Easter, adding Christ's resurrection to a springtime festival of Eastre, goddess of spring. We adopted Mother's Day and refer to it as The Festival of the Christian Home. So far, we've been unsuccessful in doing much with Ground Hog's Day -- no preacher I know wants to crawl into some hole.

In recent years, we've tried to redeem Halloween. It was really ours to begin with, but we let it get away from us. November 1 is All Saints' Day -- or All Hallows. The evening before was known as All Hallows' Eve or E'en. Either as a protest against the perceived evil side of Halloween, or as an effort to restore this increasingly popular observance to its religious roots, many churches encourage children to go trick or treating for UNICEF. That's nice: it teaches our children to be less selfish and to think of others. That's also why so few children want to do it.

I have some other suggestions:

Hold the church rummage sale the week before Halloween. Let the children wander through the racks of clothes to pick out some "costumes." They can go trick or treating dressed as "church people." Neighbors might mistake them for Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons and be afraid to answer the door.

Combine the observance with the finance crusade. During worship, have the children ask, "trick or treat?" as they pick up pledge cards from worshipers.

Encourage families in the congregation to give out copies of the pastor's sermons to all the children who come to their door. If enough of us did that, we could banish Halloween forever.

Let the children wear a nametag that says, "I'm from the local United Methodist Church. I have 'open hands' in which to receive the candy." Just think of the free publicity.

Cokesbury could begin carrying biblical costumes. What little girl could resist dressing up like Mary Magdalene? Or little boy like Judas?

Have a child wear a mask of your district superintendent and sit in the back of the congregation on the Sunday before Halloween. That will scare the devil out of the preacher, if no one else.

Make your "celebration center" into a Haunted House. Put Orange and Black paraments on the communion table, with a matching stole for the preacher. Tell Holy Ghost stories for the Children's sermon. Tell how Adam and Eve were really bobbing for apples. Carve a pumpkin into the face of John Wesley. The sermon could be about "Ezekiel and the Valley of Skeletons." Entice the bats out of the church belfry. Have a parade (like we do on Palm Sunday) with the children coming in dressed like the animals on Noah's Ark.

Now, if we can just figure out what to do with Super Bowl Sunday.

The Rev. Bill Schwein is senior pastor at Sunrise at Geist UMC, Indianapolis.

Last updated on 01/14/2004

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