Saying Boo! to Halloween

Most of America’s kids may dress up for trick-or-treating on Halloween, but 16-year-old Kyle Guinn has better things to do.

He’s staying home with his parents.

“I don’t believe we should celebrate Hallow’s Eve,” the Aliso Niguel High School sophomore said. “I’ve seen movies about witchcraft, and I don’t think kids my age should be out trying to stir up stuff. Smashing jack-o’-lanterns, kids think that’s cool, and I don’t see why.”

Kyle, a member of Calvary Chapel Laguna Niguel, is practicing what his evangelical church preaches. The Calvary chapels have joined a growing chorus of conservative Christians complaining about what they say is a celebration of Halloween’s pagan roots. Some even believe the increasing popularity of the holiday, coming at the turn of the millennium, is a sign that the apocalypse is near.

On the Internet, anti-Halloween forces are being rebutted by secular observers and even some so-called neo-pagans, who belittle fundamentalists’ concerns that the holiday is an opportunity for satanic practices. In a lengthy Web treatise, neo-pagan Isaac Bonewits writes: “Some Christian fundamentalists say loudly and publicly that we Druids, witches and other neo-pagans kidnap children, sacrifice babies, poison or booby-trap Halloween treats, drink blood and hold orgies at Halloween. . . . In almost 30 years of my attending Samhain/Halloween rites, and discussing them with other Neo-pagans, not one of them has included an orgy--darn it!”

But churches around the country are preparing alternative ways for their young members to have Halloween fun--and doing some religious outreach at the same time.

“Churches that are providing an alternative to Halloween see it as a pagan ritual, and so they really want to provide a substitute experience,” said Donald E. Miller, a religion professor and executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC. “And in many ways, I think it’s understandable and legitimate.”

Kyle is planning to participate in what is billed as Southern California’s biggest such event--the X-treme Alternative Halloween Concert at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday night. The free event is being hosted by Chuck Smith, senior pastor and founder of the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and will feature Christian bands the Insyderz, Switchfoot and Plumb. “We’re going to be giving away a lot of free merchandise and raffles for surfboards, wetsuits, T-shirts, sandals, and all kinds of stuff we can really bless the kids with,” said Roger Wing, the chapel’s assistant pastor.

The concert is expected to draw more than 5,000 teens in Southern California and thousands more to Webcasts in six cities around the country, including Philadelphia and San Jose.

“We’re hoping to get a lot of non-Christian kids to come,” Wing said. “The objective of this is not to have kids focus on Halloween as it’s become, something of a very pagan origin, but to turn it around. Let’s focus on the gospel message of Jesus Christ.”

Ancient Past

Halloween’s reputation stems from its pagan origins as an ancient Druid holiday marking the night before the new year, when the lord of death collected souls. On that day, he would decide which animals the evil would inhabit in their next life--the good would be reincarnated as humans.

As time passed, the Roman Catholic Church marked it as All Souls’--or All Hallow’s--Day, followed by All Saint’s Day on Nov. 1.

“That’s where our focus lies. The rest is frivolity,” said the Rev. Gregory Coiro, media relations director for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “It’s like Mardi Gras before Ash Wednesday, something frivolous before you get to something serious.”

So mainstream Christians are likely to be unruffled by ghosts and goblins--which happen to decorate the halls of the archdiocese offices, Coiro said.

“It’s funny because I was thinking, what if some of these people who make a big deal about Halloween saw the headquarters of the local Catholic Church?” Coiro said. “They’d be totally aghast. We don’t take it as seriously as other people in terms of the ghastly and ghostly overtones.”

A Pentecostal church in suburban Denver has taken a very serious approach to the holiday. Keenan Roberts, associate pastor of the Abundant Life Christian Center, has written and directed “Hell House,” a seven-scene morality play staged throughout the church for 12 nights in October.

Each room has a different scene of teenagers paying the wages of sins such as drugging, drinking and sexual promiscuity. Roberts’ house also preaches against abortion and homosexuality, which brought out 20 pro-gay protesters on opening night.

Roberts, whose church has sold Hell House how-to kits to more than 400 churches around the country and abroad, is undaunted by the demonstration. “Protesting ‘Hell House’ is chic in Denver,” he said.

In a very different way, the nation’s retailers also have been taking the holiday quite seriously in recent years as its orientation has shifted from costumed children going door to door to elaborate parties for adults. Last year, the National Retail Federation said Halloween generated $2.5 billion in related sales, second only to Christmas.

But the marketing effort still doesn’t draw in everyone. Rabbi David Lapin of the orthodox Pacific Jewish Center in Venice said Halloween has little meaning for him or his family.

“It has no place in Jewish culture, but Judaism doesn’t have a line on it,” he said. “For kids to get dressed up and collect candy, I don’t have an issue with that. I think it’s just an excuse for fun, but it really doesn’t have any meaning that would make it worthy of celebration.”

Irene Lacher can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].