By: Jai Neville (’23), Staff Writer
To say no would not be unreasonable.
Western traditions and the way they are practiced isolate Black people from participating, even encouraging violence against them. And Halloween is included.
Halloween can be traced back 2,000 years to the Celtics in Europe. The festival of Samhain was the first iteration of Halloween. Tradition holds that the veil between the spirit and the physical would be thin at this time, and the living would sacrifice animals and light the communal bonfire celebrating harvest season.
The holiday is heavily influenced by pagan symbolism. However, inaccurate portrayals of Samhain as god of the dead lead many Christian groups to demonize the practice altogether. Ironically, the Church is who maintained the tradition in the West, turning it into a secular holiday and commercially profitable time of year.
Contrary to popular belief, the foundational ingredients of Christianity can be traced back to the Afro-Asiatic city of Alexandria. African practices of Christianity pre-date European influence by over 1000 years. The rise of Constantinople in 330 AD brought Christianity to the West, and its texts were rewritten to justify their imperialism and paint them as direct descendants of God.
The arrival of colonists in the Americans marks the point in which Christianity and Western culture became synonymous. Once again, these texts were rewritten to state that God predetermined Africans as slaves. This new form of Christianity was used a tool to justify slavery, convert enslaved peoples, and force their obedience to their white masters. The enslaved Africans knew this unnatural form of worship went against what they knew Christianity to be. They bravely reclaimed the religion as one that would liberate them from enslavement and restore their love and faith in themselves.
Western societies continued to take African traditions and incorporated them into Western culture. These ‘new’ traditions would then be used against them, further instilling distrust between African-Americans and Western culture. This includes the celebration of the Harvest Month, which we know as Halloween. Numerous Black Christians have abandoned the practice of Halloween. To many, it represents satanism, demonic spirits, and taking praise from God. This association of Halloween and evil among Black Christians is linked to Western traditions removing the influence of Black people and inserting a culture of terror and wickedness. It has proven safer to modify traditions to fit Black culture or to write them out altogether.
Concerns of the aestheticization of ‘evil’ led many Black Christians to redefine Halloween celebration. Many churches hold trunk-or-treat events where children dress as biblical characters and receive candy from parents and other church-goers. Revival night is a popular form of celebration where the churches hold their lively service dedicated to the reformation and revival of God.
It is unlikely that Halloween will cease to be associated with demonic spirits. But, Black celebration will continue to evolve in ways that the community feels safe and energized by practicing it. It’s what we do best.
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