Unholy Halloween: what’s the history?

Gary Clayton  |  Features
Date posted:  1 Nov 2021
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Unholy Halloween: what’s the history?

Photo by Seungju Lee on Unsplash

The road to hell, in a quote generally attributed to Samuel Johnson or St Bernard of Clairvaux, is paved with good intentions.

Whether you’re a UK believer organising a ‘Light Party’, an evangelical Christian running a ‘hell house’1 in America, an avid trick-or-treater pounding the streets, or one of the 11,766 people in England and Wales identifying as Wiccans in the 2011 Census, Halloween is an issue that’s hard to avoid.

While some Christians have nothing to do with Halloween and others seek to provide wholesome alternatives to trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples or wearing demonically inappropriate costumes, others claim it’s a bit of ‘harmless fun’ or try to reclaim it as a supposedly Christian festival.

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