“As Halloween decorations creep onto store shelves earlier each year, America’s spookiest holiday is casting an ever-longer shadow over the retail landscape. With projected spending of $11.6 billion in 2024, Halloween is inching closer to Christmas-level importance for retailers and consumers alike.” (Francisco Velasquez, Quartz, “Halloween Creep is Haunting Christmas as it Becomes Retail’s New Rising Star,” October 1, 2024)
Halloween retail statistics are common these days with 2025 spending expected to be more than 2024. While our nation’s attachment to the “trick or treat” milieu of Halloween seems to be ever-increasing, something else is also on the rise – a comfort with or even dismissal of occult practices reflected in decorations and Halloween activities all around us.
What originated in Christianity as a season of remembering the departed (saints, martyrs etc.) on All Hallow’s Eve, has been co-opted into a fascination with death, horror and all things ghoulish. One definition of Halloween activities includes, amidst apple-bobbing and pumpkin decorating, the playing of “divination games.” We have taken the devices of God’s enemy and put them in the hands of our children.
Or at least in the hands of children who don’t know any better.
In the last three weeks of October, we’re going to call ourselves back to the knowledge that God has imparted to His children about evil things.
This week in worship, we’ll begin at the very beginning considering the ancient battle between Order and Chaos and what exactly happened in the Garden of Eden when a tasty apple changed everything.
We won’t be bashing the fun of many Halloween activities but, hopefully, our eyes will be opened, our faith will be engaged, and we can better discern the spirit of these times. Don’t be afraid to invite a guest to hear the everlasting Word of God with you!
See you Sunday!