George Instagram 18 hours ago

Why Orthodox Christians Avoid Halloween and Offer Light Instead

The speaker describes how many Christian families celebrate Halloween without considering its meaning. He grew up in a village where no one dressed up for the holiday, but as an adult he attended Halloween parties because they seemed like harmless fun. After returning to the faith, he began to ask what is actually being celebrated on October 31. The name Halloween comes from All Hallows Eve, the night before the Western feast of all saints, but the saints have disappeared from the observance, leaving only ghosts, witches, demons, and death.

In the Church of Satan, Halloween is one of the biggest holidays of the year. The Orthodox Church does not celebrate Halloween; although there is no official rule, Scripture warns against playing with darkness, and many priests ask Orthodox families to stay away from it. The speaker acknowledges that avoiding Halloween is not easy, especially when children see all their friends dressed up.

He advises parents not to scare their children or turn the matter into a fight. Instead, parents should give children something more beautiful: tell them the story of a saint, light a vigil lamp together, and pray together so they grow up celebrating the light and not the darkness.

Key moments

Many Christian families dress their children as witches, zombies, and demons on October 31 without stopping to think about what they are actually celebrating.
The speaker grew up in a village where no one dressed up for Halloween but later attended Halloween parties as an adult because it felt like harmless fun.
After returning to the faith, the speaker began asking what is actually being celebrated on Halloween.
The name Halloween comes from All Hallows Eve, the night before the Western feast of all saints, but the saints have disappeared from the observance, leaving only ghosts, witches, demons, and death.
In the Church of Satan, Halloween is one of the biggest holidays of the year.
The Orthodox Church does not celebrate Halloween; although there is no official rule, Scripture is clear that Christians do not play with darkness, and many priests ask Orthodox families to stay away from it.
The speaker acknowledges that avoiding Halloween is not easy, especially when children see all their friends dressed up, and advises parents not to scare their children or turn the matter into a fight.
Parents should give children something more beautiful: tell them the story of a saint, light a vigil lamp together, and pray together so they grow up celebrating the light and not the darkness.

16 opinions in the discussion 16 participants The opinion with the most support One of my spiritual fathers explained that you can't accidentally worship Satan because you dressed up like a princess and got feee candy. Read the discussion

138 comments at the source Original on Instagram

Discussion · 16

Opinions are anonymous retellings of real comments from the original discussion. The same colour marks the same participant.

opinion#2430 5 likes at the source

One of my spiritual fathers explained that you can't accidentally worship Satan because you dressed up like a princess and got feee candy.
opinion#2419 2 likes at the source

I explained it to my daughter and she chose not to do Halloween, she's 7, and she has made this choose for the last 3 years. We skip school that day, hang out as a family and have a movie night.
opinion#2429 2 likes at the source

On this day I used to dress my kids in ethnic cloths my mom had brought to the US, we celebrated October 28th, and as they got older they really didn't dress up or go out, we were the odd family🫣
opinion#2421 1 likes at the source

From what I had heard, the origins of the celebration are actually pagan, called Samhain, from Ireland. It was a festival where they believed the boundary between this world and the world of spirits would blurr. That's supposedly why dressing up started, as a way to avoid being harmed by evil spirits. It was then apparently christianized, brought to America through the great migration of Irish people there, and then marketed around the world basically.
opinion#2422 1 likes at the source

I recently came across an interesting perspective on this, instead of celebrating darkness it could be seen as mocking darkness. If god fearing people were truly scared of these demons and witches they would hesitate to dress up as them.. but since we know they have no power over us (when in comunión with god) we can mock them without fear. I still don't feel 100% in agreement with this but wanted to share it and hear other orthodox Christians' opinions.
opinion#2427 1 likes at the source

Like you, I used to take part because that's what we did in Canada. Now I am wiser. I don't care about Halloween. I don't even want those symbols near me anymore because I know what they represent.
opinion#2431 1 likes at the source

So much has changed since I was a kid, and even since I raised my sons in the 80s and 90s. Halloween used to be a fun day with silly, playful costumes. Now kids dress in dark goth stuff, adult parties are all skeletons and horror, and lawns have these awful displays. I grew up non-orthodox so nobody warned me about any of this back then. After I converted, I finally got why there were objections to celebrating Halloween. Our church puts on alternative fall celebrations for the kids, with guidance on which costumes are acceptable. The problem is Halloween is baked into American culture. Decorations and ads show up as soon as school starts in September, and it's hard for children to escape that. What was once a playful day has become something very dark over the years.
opinion#2416

THINK ABOUT IT. YOU TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT TO KNOCK ON STRANGERS DOORS AND accept lollies n treats. We tell our children not to talk to whith strangers and never take lollies or anything from them. But then parents take the kids and do exactly that?
opinion#2417

If you call yourself a Christian, Halloween shouldn't be on your calendar. You can't follow The Heavenly Father and celebrate what He came to defeat. Look at what the night actually celebrates: death, fear, witches, demons, spirits, the occult. Its roots go back to Samhain, an ancient festival built on the idea that the line between the living and the dead grew thin, when people tried to appease or ward off spirits. Today it's wrapped in candy and cute costumes, but the theme hasn't changed. It's still a night that makes darkness entertaining. Scripture is clear about where we stand. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:11). God warned His people plainly against witchcraft, sorcery and consulting the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). He doesn't call these things harmless fun. He calls them detestable. So I can't understand why so many believers dress up as the very things God died to free us from. We wouldn't joke about what nailed Him to the cross, so why decorate our homes with it for a month? And while we're talking about man made holidays, here's the truth: not a single holiday on the Gregorian calendar comes from God. Man made them. God gave us His own appointed feasts (Leviticus 23). ❤️🙏
opinion#2418

We don't celebrate Halloween in our Orthodox Tewahedo family. My children, ages 5 to 13, have never even asked to celebrate it. Instead, I've taught them that Halloween doesn't line up with our faith and beliefs. As a family we spend the evening together, having a tasty dinner, lots of popcorn and a biblical movie. I feel truly blessed to be an Orthodox Tewahedo Christian. Thank you for sharing, my brother. God bless you!
opinion#2420

Halloween has its origins in an ancient pre Christian Celtic Festival called Samhain which was the Celtic New Year, the end of the harvest and the start of Winter, and was celebrated in countries including Ireland, Scotland and other Celtic countries. Holloween came to America with the migration of Scottish, Ulster Scots and Irish people in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and it evolved into the Holoween we know today in the 20th century.
opinion#2423

We gradually got rid of it, but if you read carefully, it started off as a evil holiday, no offense, the Catholic Church took it and tried to make it Christian. But it went back to being the evil holiday, so it never was something good to celebrate. Do your own research if I'm not mistaken? I think it started in Ireland.
opinion#2424

Our church encourages family events. Dress up, have fun. Just don't commit blasphemy or any kind of dark shit. Carving pumpkins was a pagan thing, doesn't make you a pagan if you carve one. It's the intention.
opinion#2425

It's a Celtic tradition. It was a pagan, agricultural fire festival marking the dark half of the year. The Celts believed the boundary between the living and the spirit world blurred on this night, so bonfires and disguises were needed to ward off or hide from roaming spirits. I prefer Día de los Muertos, remember your ancestors.
opinion#2426

I have a question. Halloween originated in Ireland, a Christian country, and they used to carve turnips, now it's pumpkins, to keep the devil away. I believe dressing up was also meant to scare the demons away... so overall the original meaning of Halloween was rooted in christian belief and faith, so why let some people who may celebrate it in a darker way ruin a holiday meant to be good?
opinion#2428

I READ AN ARTICLE THAT SAID A HALLOWEEN TRADITION BEGAN ON THE ISLAND OF RHODES IN ANCIENT GREECE. THE CHILDREN USED TO DRESS UP AS BIRDS AND GO FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE THREATENING THE OWNERS TO GIVE THEM TREATS (LITTLE HONEY CAKES) OR ELSE THEY WOULD TRICK THEM (VANDELIZE OR CAUSE MISCHIEF TO THEIR HOMES)!!!