<\/p>\n
Before there was \u201cHalloween\u201d, there was \u201cAll Hallows\u2019 Eve\u201d \u2014 and All Saints Day. For hundreds of years, before jack-o-lanterns and zombies and candy corn, Christians around the world have remembered the dead, the saints, the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us.<\/p>\n
Halloween comes from the same root word as \u201challowed\u201d or \u201chalo\u201d, meaning holy. It\u2019s a good time to remember how holy life is, even in a world where there are wars and pandemics.<\/p>\n
Liturgical Christians around the world honor \u201call saints day\u201d by reciting the names of the holy saints of God throughout the centuries.<\/p>\n
Rather than glorifying death, Halloween is a time we can celebrate life, remembering the lives of our loved ones and the heroes of the faith. The dead can inspire the living to truly live.<\/p>\n
While we don\u2019t need more gore and blood\u2026 there\u2019s something sweet about being able to laugh at death and fear and remind ourselves that there is something more powerful than death itself.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s something Halloween gives us permission to do, especially in light of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. We know the dead can rise again and that death has lost its sting.<\/p>\n
On Halloween, one of my favorite things to do is bring out some photos of dead people, saints, loved ones, heroes of the faith. And I talk to our kids about what Halloween can really mean.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about zombies, but it IS about the living dead. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, so can we.So, this Halloween, let\u2019s find some creative ways to remember that death doesn\u2019t win\u2026 and let us remember those who have passed on to the other side.<\/p>\n
Be sure to remember how holy \u2013 how \u201challowed\u201d \u2013 life is.<\/p>\n
Embrace those you love, count the things you have to be thankful for\u2026 and remember that people can rise from the dead\u2026<\/p>\n
Oh death, Thou art dead!Happy Halloween.<\/p>\n
RLC welcomes and encourages individuals who engage in critical thinking at the intersection of faith and justice to contribute to our blog. The views and opinions expressed by our blog authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of RLC, its staff, members, or officers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before there was \u201cHalloween\u201d, there was \u201cAll Hallows\u2019 Eve\u201d \u2014 and All Saints Day. For hundreds of years, before jack-o-lanterns and zombies and candy corn, Christians around the world have remembered the dead, the saints, the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. Halloween comes from the same root word as \u201challowed\u201d or \u201chalo\u201d,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[119,284,241,240,310],"class_list":["post-8731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-christians","tag-halloween","tag-letter","tag-red","tag-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}