The Holiness of Halloween
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Psalm 73:1-26
Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Read the written message below with music videos:
With roots in both paganism and early Christianity, Halloween (meaning “Saints’ Evening”) is a fascinating holiday that I think we shouldn’t be shy about celebrating. Many of the various, seemingly random elements of our Halloween rituals seem to have roots in the past, from bobbing for apples to going door to door asking for treats. Even its more disparaged aspects have roots in ancient ceremonial practices, such as dressing up like the dead (“saints”) and even putting on skimpy outfits (many ancient ceremonies were in the nude or semi-nude, albeit not necessarily Christian ones for All Hallows’ Eve). Further, the roots of the tradition tie into a celebration and mourning for our lost loved ones - our personal saints - and into an awareness of our own mortality, with a hope for personal transformation: transcending, avoiding, and escaping evil spirits and deathly habits.
I don’t know about you, but it can be a fun reprieve to have an excuse to dress up as someone or something else. Halloween provides that for many of us, a chance to put on a mask and feel transformed. Of course, for some, putting on a mask may mean taking one off - allowing them to act with a little more abandon, without worrying as much about what the boss, the other kids, or the neighbours think. There’s something to be said for the feeling of the often positive, earnest transformation that can come from letting go of our reputational and other social pressures, and even if this reveals our dark side, this can have a positive impact on our ability to know ourselves and grow. As the scientist-turned-mystic Emanuel Swedenborg writes, what we’d do if we could get away with it is a good assessment of the state of our hearts.
Moreover, this dressing up (often as the dead) has its roots in a deep history within both ancient Christian and pagan traditions and celebrations, all centering around this time of year – typically from October 31st to November 2nd. These outfits were often meant to celebrate the saints and the deceased, to ward off or confuse evil spirits out on the roam, or as is often true today, to just celebrate or mark the occasion. This occasion to many being the last day recently passed spirits roamed the earth, and also a time for remembrance and reflection, with people often lighting candles in church or placing them on the graves of loved ones.
Rituals like these can be healing, relaxing, and consoling, especially around the mourning of loved ones that we yearn to be with again. So in that vein, let’s take a moment to lift a figurative (or material) flame for our passed loved ones right now, as well. Holding the eternal flame of their mutual love in our hearts and the brightness of their countenance in our minds for a time. Accepting, seeing, and relaxing into any mix of emotions that might arise as we do so.
The legacy of the ancient traditions within what we call Halloween speaks to humanity’s continued need to celebrate, remember, and mourn the dead, as well as face the prospect of death and, perhaps, hope for personal transformation, a dying to ourselves. Swedenborg believed that death in scripture often symbolized life anew or, in other words, a transformation of character. His typical approach to reading a Bible story involved looking at all the characters and story aspects as representatives of the human condition, including God’s as Christ, and thus he interpreted deaths as a letting go of a specific characteristic for something new. Even if we’re unaware of Swedenborg’s approach to scripture, which he believed mimics the symbolic nature of the spiritual realm, I think we as human beings have a natural tendency toward this type of symbolic storytelling. As we see with Halloween, we even tend to treat our day of the dead as a time to literally transform who we are (so to speak).
Marking the start of the “darker half” of the year, I think this holiday also marks the beginning of a time that we tend to contemplate mystery and transformation, which is carried along through the Advent season and the hope that Christ, the Saving One known by many names that’s within and around us, will advent more obviously into our lives and our consciousness. Our favorite Christmas carols have a haunting sound and carry the aura of mystery and wonder forward. And in this time’s culmination, we find the star shining on Christmas, and the burgeoning, bright countenance of the One who conquers death is celebrated around the world.
But whatever our tradition, I think this tendency holds: we celebrate in such a way, unknowingly or not, that speaks to the eternal nature of life and the conquering of death by the Divine. Halloween, what many Protestants consider to be a “secular” holiday nowadays, speaks to that. It shines through in our costumes, in our joyful consumption of horror movies, in our decorations, all of which we sail through unscathed. As we go from macabre lawns to the joyful colors of Christmas, Swedenborg would read within the transformation a yearning for and a representation of the type of transformation that the Bible and many other traditions invite within us. A letting go of our tendencies toward deadly habits for an eternal perspective - renewed life centered on loving compassion for all, giving, connecting in community, improving our surroundings, and letting bygones be bygones while working to rehabilitate and improve. Ultimately, a life centered on the Prince(ss) of Peace, the light of the world (i.e. the root of all consciousness).
Although it can go off the rails, this day also serves to highlight more broadly who we look up to (for better or worse) and who we celebrate in our world. In a way, when we’re not dressing up as our fears, we tend to dress up like our gods, human or otherwise. And forgive me for finding a vein of positivity in this idea, but such metaphorical transformations naturally speak to our deep yearning for transcendence and a more obvious connection with the God(dess) within, and the coinciding transformations.
Halloween, as we celebrate it now, invites us to bring our monsters and fears out into the light and find that we can heal from them, that there’s nothing to be afraid of after all. It points to our need to remember the dead and reflect on the fact that we all are going to die, what many sages say is a very healthy reflection. Even the giving of candy in this holiday has ties to the historical practice of “soul-giving,” where poor children would go around asking for cakes in exchange for praying for deceased loved ones – highlighting the importance of giving and uplifting the poor. Ultimately, this day represents our need to go from being death-centered in our personal and social practices, to turning toward the light of non-judgmental, loving compassion for all. Our celebrations allow us to embody the call to transformation, a coming into the knowledge that there is nothing to truly fear and all things can be held more like a child, albeit also with more presence and compassionate engagement. These rituals help remind us of our saints and the Mysterious One that transcends death - how they are closer than we could ever imagine, empowering change.
Peace and presence to you,
Cory