Today, after reading the well written Facebook note by my friend Jonathan Chan, it occured to me that much of the debate amongst Christians surrounding Halloween has to do with the broader, deeper issue of how we approach something that is integral to our popular culture: symbols.
Symbols are powerful. They provoke deeply emotional, sometimes diametrical responses from us. Take something seemingly as innocent as a corporate logo: During the last few weeks, in the wake of Steve Jobs’ passing, the Apple logo for some represented innovation, perseverance, technological and commercial brilliance while for others it represented everything that is wrong with corporate America: greed, jealousy and exploitation. One only need to follow some of the discussions on FB about Steve Jobs’ to get a glimpse of the depth and breadth of the responses.
Symbols are powerful because they allow us to ascribe meanings to them. It is not just what they represent or identify, but what they represent TO US (Again, the Apple logo as case in point). Traditionally in the church we have a tendency to ascribe meanings to symbols in a way that separates us from others: For instance, when environmental concerns became a passion amongst some Christians, other evangelicals identify those who are “green” as representing not just a concern for the environment, but an entire “theologcal position” that is somewhat “liberal” and drew a line in the sand that says “we are not like that”.
Similiarly, in the past Halloween has been viewed in the church as a “symbol” that represented the occult, witchcraft, and all things associated with “the dark side”. As well pointed out by Jonathan, while there may be historcal reasons for those interpretations, we must learn to ask two questions: (1) Is that STILL the popular interpretation by our culture or are we woefully living in the past, and (2) Why don’t we asribe NEW meanings to the symbol, in a way that brings people together rather than dividing “us” and “them”?
I, for one, choose to celebrate Halloween as a festival of creativity, community, and diversity. I work in an immigrant service centre and today we have children at the centre from all different nationalities dressing up in their costumes. They all speak with different accents, everyday at lunch the different aromas of their lunches delightfully fill our centre, but today, they are ALL united by the three familiar words: “Trick or Treat!!” as they celebrated, most of them for the first time, this new custom in their new home. Rather than some medieval roots or links to the occult that most don’t think about anymore, today Halloween became a symbol that says, “Together, we are becoming a part of a new culture that is Canadian.”
Speaking of interpreting symbols in a way that brings us together, can’t we say the same about the cross? In the church, so often we instinctively look at the cross as a symbol that separates people: “Christians” vs “Non-Christians”, “Saved” vs “Unsaved”, “Heaven bound” vs “Hell bound”, and so on. But wasn’t it at the cross that the curtain in the temple was torn in half, thus “symbolizing” an end to separation? While we ponder about Halloween today, can we perhaps at the same time re-examine the meanings we ascribe to the symbol of the cross, and learn new ways to interpret it so that it becomes a symbol that brings people together, rather than dividing them apart?
