Rev Richard Barrett: Some Christians are very uneasy about Halloween

This evening you may get children knocking on your door playing Trick or Treat, asking for money or sweets and dressed up in masks and clothes as witches or Grim Reapers.

It started off 2,000 years ago as a Celtic festival marking the end of summer and the onset of dark winter nights. It was associated with the dead, whose ghosts were thought to be able to cross the border between the living and the dead at this time. Ancestors were welcomed and honoured, but harmful spirits were warded off by wearing disguises so as not to be recognised.

Carved turnips or pumpkins were placed on window sills to represent the faces of the departed and to scare off evil spirits. Lighted candles would be placed inside and bonfires lit to challenge the darkness with its frightening, unseen mysteries.

In 835 the Pope made November 1 a holy day to honour the saints – All Hallows, or All Saints' Day, and so the day before became Hallows eve or Halloween. This was an attempt, just as with Christmas and Easter, to Christianise the ancient Celtic festival. And like the other festivals, Halloween contains a mixture of customs, ideas and beliefs.

Some Christians are very uneasy about this. They feel it is an unhealthy focus upon death, the dark side and the occult, and object to celebrations in schools and homes.

Other Christians regard the whole thing as a harmless bit of fun, not to be taken too seriously.

Is it significant that after Christmas, this is the next most popular season of the year for celebrations and spending?

The coming of autumn and the dominance of darkness over light remind us of the fragile balance of light and darkness, life and death, good and evil. Our fears are real – about our own death and fate of those who have died, about the forces of evil and destruction that seem so strong, about what power really controls this world?

These fears need to be faced. If we deny them, they will assume monstrous proportions and threaten us. Death is the last taboo because our culture is based upon the false idea that everything can be manipulated to meet our needs, every obstacle can be overcome. We have to confront the truth that death is beyond our control.

If we did, death and all we associate with it might not seem so dreadful. Could it be that these notions of spirits returning from the dead contain a sense of continuity between the living and the dead? Is there a 'thinness' between the two dimensions that Halloween points to? Is there a community of persons, a quality of relationships that stretches beyond the grave?

Christians believe in the communion of saints and All Saints' Day is time to show we pray for those who have gone before, as they pray for us. Our fear of death can only be overcome if we look it in the eye, and see not an enemy, but a friend.