An acquaintance has been talking about the roots of Halloween. She claims it was satanist and evil. Just wondering what your opinions about Halloween are. (and about adopting of so-called "pagan" rituals for other Christian holy days).

Answer:

Why I keep All Hallow's Eve (and other holy days)...

 In the beginning, when God created the Heaven and the Earth,
 the Earth was without form, and void, and the Spirit of God
 moved on the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be
 Light'…. And God made two great lights, the greater to govern
 the day, and the lesser to govern the night. God put these
 lights in the vault of Heaven, to govern day and night" 
                                                          -- Genesis 1.1-3,16-17.

And so God made equinoxes and solstices, and seasons in their turn: spring following winter, then summer and fall. And for everything its season, and for every activity its time. In the gentle Mediterranean, God chose a people, lured them with a Promise and goaded them with a Law, to live their lives in harmony with God's rhythms. But in the broad harsh lands north and south God's law had not yet come. Throughout the earth God goaded the people with the burden of winter and the promise of spring. In time, God's Promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, who brought all the people of the earth into the covenant of the promise. Just as the Law was not overthrown, but fulfilled; neither are the rhythms destroyed that were determined when God set the Earth upon its axial tilt.

Winter is still bitter and dark in the north. Even though we do not face starvation and sickness as our ancestors did, we face the darkness and the burdensome cold with dread. On late October nights, my breath steams as I dart outside to run a quick core and hurry back in to the warmth. The moonlight looks thin and unpromising; the grass lies withered on the ground, not yet blanketed in snow. Death is a reality - shall I not look honestly upon it, and look through its bleakness to the Promise beyond? In midwinter I will be yearning for the light - shall I not light a fire, call in my friends, and tell the story of the True Light that came into the world? In February, when cabin fever peaks and Seasonal Affective Disorder claims the most victims, shall we not process candlelight through the streets and into our homes and churches?

The Celts did not know God by name as God's chosen people did, but they saw God in God's handiwork and named God's nature as they named their Gods. Just as a Jew, on receiving Christ's offered salvation, may continue to keep the Law, not to be saved by it but out of sheer love of the Law and the God it revealed; the Celts continued to keep solstices, equinoxes and quarterdays, out of sheer love of the seasons and the God they reveal. So I *will* celebrate rebirth and new hope and fulfilled promise as the bulbs burst into bloom: and I am unashamed to call the celebration of my Lord's rebirth by Ostara's name, for that very name means rebirth and resurrection. The flames of the Holy Spirit are recalled in the Midsummer bonfires; we knew that God was present, empowering God's people even before we knew Christ - should we celebrate that empowering Spirit less now that we know Her better?

Pagans do not "own" the solstices and cross-quarter days. The days of the earth belong to the earth, and to the people of the earth, and to the Creator, Saviour and Sanctifier of the earth. Christians didn't "steal" "their" holy days: we share with them the earth, and all the days of the earth. And some Christians acknowledge that commonality. And some Christians shun the commonality. Perhaps those that shun it also shun the earth, having their eyes firmly fixed on heaven. Or, perhaps, their eyes are just firmly shut. Whichever it is, I pity them; this earth over which we are given stewardship is beautiful indeed. Still, an they harm none, let them do what they will. It is between them, and God as they conceive God to be.