On Saturday afternoon, the bell rang. My mom opened the door, and I stood behind her. I got the fright of my life: Standing in front of me was a 6-year-old girl, wearing a clown mask with a clown outfit.
For a moment, my mom and I were confused. What on earth was going on?
Then a voice behind her said, ‘It’s Halloween. She’s my granddaughter, and her mom said she must knock on doors for candy.’
The voice was her grandmother, standing a few meters away from her. She looked incredibly uncomfortable throughout the whole scene. I could see that she did not support this endeavor in any way.
I quickly went to the kitchen to see if we had any candy. We gave the little girl some sweets, and off she went. The whole scene had been very bizarre and my mom and I were a bit shaken by the whole thing.
I find it very odd that Halloween is trying to squirm its way into South African traditions and celebrations. Halloween is the one thing we have never done before, along with Thanksgiving (which is 100% American history and will not catch on in SA). But Halloween? It seems like it’s adamant to creep into the yearly celebrations of this country.
On social media, some people have been making their voices heard regarding this topic. On Kingfisher FM, the following was posted:
‘If we want to save our country from evil, perhaps we should stop joining hands with Satan to celebrate Halloween.
By all means, enjoy the beautiful autumn God created, but can we please stop dedicating a day (or a MONTH) to worshipping the devil?
Don’t think it’s that serious? Here’s what the founder of the church of Satan has to say:
‘I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.’
We think it’s all fun and games, but what is this partnership with evil-doing to our country on a spiritual level?
The Israelites were having a lot of fun too when worshipping the golden calf.
We dress up our infants and children and bring them to parties. We feed them heaps of sugar and we wonder why they get sick about 3-5 days later with a terrible cold. We teach them a little fear is fun, and then on Sunday teach them God says ‘fear not.’
I believe this year it’s especially critical that we don’t invite Satan in. It has a serious impact on our fight against darkness. There’s just too much at stake. This is a spiritual war. Don’t join the enemy’s army.’
This makes me think of how we celebrate Christmas and Easter; Christmas is filled with trees and Santa Claus, while Easter is celebrated with bunnies and eggs. In the beginning, when this started to happen, people protested. Some Christians don’t celebrate it up to this day. But others do, saying it’s harmless and all in good fun.
These days, it’s even more vital to ‘abstain from all appearances of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:22). The days are evil, and we need to be wary of what – or who – we celebrate.
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