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Halloween: Harmless Fun or Not? A Noahide Perspective
At the end of October, the supermarket turns orange. Pumpkins appear next to the apples, and skeletons and cobwebs hang in the shop windows. I was asked to write about Halloween, and the question behind it is this: may a Ben/Bat Noach take part?
Halloween is celebrated on October 31, mainly in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is also gaining popularity in the Netherlands and other countries. To answer the question properly, we first need to look at where the holiday comes from and how it is celebrated today.
Where does it come from?
The roots lie in Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival that marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on this day the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead was temporarily thinner. That is why the festival revolved around spirits, protection and rituals.1
The name Halloween came later, from All Hallows’ Eve: the evening before All Saints’ Day. This is a Christian, specifically Catholic, holiday on which the saints are commemorated. In the Netherlands, it is still customary at some cemeteries to remember the dead and light candles.2
Is it still idolatry?
From a Noahide perspective, this is the first question. If Halloween is a religious festival, then taking part is not permitted because of the prohibition of idolatry.
The fact that many people today celebrate Halloween without consciously thinking about its religious origins does not necessarily remove the problem. A Noahide does not only have to ask what a particular person intends by participating, but also what the celebration itself represents and where it comes from.
This is an important distinction. A practice can lose much of its original religious meaning in popular culture while still retaining its historical connection with a religious festival. From a cautious Noahide perspective, that is a reason to avoid the celebration rather than to assume that it has become completely neutral.
For that reason, I would not say simply that “the religious content has disappeared, and with it the objection of idolatry.” The disappearance of conscious religious intent does not automatically make participation appropriate. When a celebration has its roots in religious practices involving spirits and the dead, there is good reason for a Noahide to keep his distance.
The same applies to the candles at the cemetery. For most people, this is a form of remembrance without religious meaning. Nevertheless, a Noahide should be careful with customs that have a religious origin or religious associations. The safest approach is to distinguish ordinary acts of remembrance from participation in a religious ceremony or practice.
What has Halloween become?
If it isn’t about idolatry, is it simply a harmless party? But even apart from the question of idolatry, we have to look at what Halloween has become today. We see jack-o’-lanterns, games, bonfires and costume traditions. The last of these is taking up more and more space.
And these are not ordinary costume parties. The costumes have to be as scary as possible. People play the dead, display horrific wounds, or dress up as mass murderers. It can never be gruesome enough, all to give others a pleasant thrill of fear.
This has little to do with children going trick-or-treating anymore. It has become a commercialized way of getting used to gruesomeness.
So even if someone were to conclude that the prohibition of idolatry does not apply to every modern Halloween activity, there are still serious reasons for a Noahide to avoid the celebration. We should not only ask whether something is technically forbidden, but also whether it is a practice we want to embrace and encourage.
Are you allowed to frighten someone?
This raises the question of whether you may frighten someone, especially to this degree.
The first thing that comes to mind is the prohibition of murder. The wounds people portray are mostly “fatal” wounds, and some costumes depict killers. Of course, it is not real murder, but a Noahide should not be involved in normalizing something that cannot be justified. Murder and violence are turned into entertainment here.
In addition, Jewish law regards deliberately causing fear in another person as a problem under certain circumstances. The Rambam mentions it as an example in Hilchot De’ot 7:3. That does not mean every form of frightening someone is forbidden. On Halloween, people know what to expect, because being scared is the whole point. But that does not settle the question of what it does to us to treat violence and death as entertainment.
There is therefore an important difference between asking whether every frightening Halloween activity is technically forbidden and asking whether it is appropriate for a Noahide to participate in a culture of entertainment built around fear, death and violence. Even where there is no direct prohibition, we should be careful about what we normalize and what we teach our children to enjoy.
And the children?
What stands out is that children are exposed to this gruesomeness as well. Perhaps they find it exciting and fun themselves. But we must sincerely ask whether it is good for their emotional development.
Research shows that very frightening images and scary media can cause fear reactions, sleep problems and other negative emotions in children. Younger children are especially sensitive. As a parent or educator, you carry responsibility for this.3
This gives another reason not to dismiss the issue as harmless fun. Even if children experience Halloween as a game, adults still have a responsibility to consider what kind of images, themes and behavior they are encouraging.
Modesty, alcohol and vandalism
There are two more practical points. Many costumes are not modest, and a lot of alcohol is often consumed at the parties. This easily leads to inappropriate behavior and sometimes to vandalism. That, too, does not fit the way of life we strive for as Noahides.
These concerns reinforce the conclusion. Even if one were to set aside the question of Halloween’s religious origins, there is no need for a Noahide to participate in a celebration that is so often associated with immodesty, excessive alcohol consumption, violence, frightening others and destructive behavior.
Conclusion
Halloween has clear roots in pre-Christian religious practices and was later connected with a Christian religious observance. Even though many people today celebrate it without intending any religious worship, that does not necessarily mean that a Noahide should participate. When a celebration has an idolatrous or religious origin, avoiding it is a reasonable and cautious approach.
In addition, the way Halloween is commonly celebrated today raises independent concerns:
- It has religious and idolatrous roots that give a Noahide reason to avoid the celebration.
- It turns violence, injury and death into entertainment and can normalize them.
- It can expose children to frightening and disturbing imagery.
- It often goes hand in hand with immodesty, excessive alcohol consumption and inappropriate behavior.
- It can sometimes be associated with vandalism and other forms of destructive behavior.
The important point is that we do not have to prove that every Halloween activity is technically forbidden before deciding not to participate. A Noahide can choose to avoid a celebration because of its origins, its associations and the values it promotes.
A celebration does not have to be forbidden for us to leave it alone. Sometimes the question is not only, “Is it allowed?” but “What am I choosing to participate in, and does it fit the way of life I want to live as a Noahide?”
Angelique Sijbolts
Nous remercions le rabbin Tani Burton pour ses commentaires.
notes de bas de page
- https://source.museum.ie/en-IE/News/2023/Ghost-turnips,-pucas,-fortune-telling-and-evil-abd ↩︎
- ttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/101029-halloween-costumes-ideas-history-science-nation ↩︎
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hcre.12069?utm
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