A Letter from a MacDonald

A Letter from a MacDonald Dear Pastor, Congratulations on your very sensible article on Halloween! I grew up in a very conservative Christian home in Scotland after world war II. As children we were not encouraged to go door to door as it was considered begging! HOWEVER, we were taught that dressing up (guising we called it) was for the purpose of SCARING OFF the evil. And, by the way, we never dressed up as witches or goblins as we were not trying to be like them, but to be different from them to scare them away! I had never heard the phrase "trick or treat" until coming to North America in the 70's. If that had been a tradition of the ancient Druids or Celts, believe me it would also have been part of our handed down culture too! After all they were our ancestors! When we went door to door we were given a penny or an apple if we performed a song, dance or poem, but there was never ANY mention of a trick if we did not receive something! Also, we did light bonfires, but we were never celebrating evil - rather the conquering of it! We carried a carved out turnip also to ward off evil! We did know that the ancient Celts believed that past, present and future met on that night and that spirits of the dead would abound - trying to snatch their relatives into the afterlife. It was also rumored that fairies and witches were afoot that night, BUT WE WERE NOT TAUGHT TO BELIEVE IT! We had taken that day away from pagans and made it ours.

To put things in perspective, think of this! When I was child in Scotland, Christmas was not celebrated! After the reformation it was considered devil worship and so was forbidden and that attitude lasted until a very short few years ago! Only Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches in our town celebrated it. For the rest of us it was an ordinary day. We did not sing Christmas carols in church at Christmas, but would sing them throughout the year! (We did sing them at school, though and eventually did at church too!) There was no national holiday until the 60's or 70's, so everyone worked on that day - even the mailman . We were told that celebrating Christ's BIRTH was of the devil and that we needed to celebrate his DEATH AND RESURRECTION - again, throughout the year - not at Easter which in post reformation Scotland was considered a popish holiday! We did hang up our stockings for Santa Claus, who brought us gifts FROM OUR RELATIVES but for some families that was done on New Year's Eve (Auld Year's Nicht or Hogmanay) to separate it from the pagan date of December 25th (the Winter Solstice.) So, as you can see, there was as much controversy when I was a child about Christmas as there is today about Halloween! I am a born again believer and believe we are to use discernment.

Our children should not dress up as witches and spirits and ghoulish characters, but they should have fun using their imagination on that day. Because Satanists have stolen that day, let's fight back! It's not theirs to steal! Along with candy I have given out tracts. This year I am going to give out bible verses with the candy. We are called to be "in the world and not of the world." So let's use this day to reach out to those who need to hear the gospel.

Because He Lives! Diane Macdonald To other Halloween articles