Masquerades

There was a time as I was growing up that Halloween was little more than dressing up and taking on the persona of a scarecrow, a hobo, a princess, a cowboy, a bride, an Indian, or even a clown. I’m not talking about the scary live-in-a-storm-drain, but the classic ones like seen in a circus. One of the easiest costumes of all was the ghost; using an old sheet with holes cut out for the eyes.

The decorations for Halloween were mostly dried corn stalks arranged and tied into shocks, with pumpkins, and maybe some old clothing stuffed with newspapers sitting in a lawn chair on the front porch. But today, the decorations have expanded to the point that many people have spent more to decorate than at Christmas. So, what’s the problem? Halloween is just another holiday, right? It’s a celebration of the dark things in the world: a celebration of the evil things that go bump in the night; demons, skeletons, monsters, ghosts, vampires, witches, and Satan himself. Costumes have gone from spooky to overly bloody and gory. Homes have light displays; mechanical blow up decorations, and front yards filled with Styrofoam tombstone cemeteries. Skeletons clamber over cobweb covered porches and on rooftops. Skeleton horses pull horse-drawn coach hearses. I’ve seen plastic cat skeletons for sale at Wal-Mart. I can hardly wait for skeleton dogs to grace the shelves.

Even trick-or-treat has a sinister past. Druid priests would go door to door to collect tribute and if the homeowner refused, they would refuse to bless the house and not chase away unwelcome spirits. The Celts believed that the dead returned to earth at the festival of Samhain, which was celebrated on the night of October 31^st. Bonfires and sacrifices to the dead were offered. The Celts would disguise themselves in costumes of animal skins to drive away phantom visitors. Later people began to dress as ghosts, demons, or other malevolent beings. They would perform antics in exchange for food and drink. This custom is considered the precursor of trick-or-treating.

Too often the celebration of this season overshadows and swallows up the next holiday, Thanksgiving. The blessings of God are lost in the evils of Halloween. Our gratefulness is deflected by the rush toward the Christmas holiday. Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christ child; the Light of the world and our gratefulness and the birth of a Savior should outshine the darkness of Halloween.