![](https://brewminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/101622-13-Religion.jpg)
A significant number of evangelicals have been waging a war against Halloween for some time now.
![](https://brewminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PhilZuckerman100.jpg)
By Dr. Phil Zuckerman
Professor of Sociology & Secular Studies
Associate Dean of Faculty
Pitzer College
When I was 5 years old, I was a wizard for Halloween. My babysitter, Megalie, made my costume: a pointy hat adorned with starts and planets and a lushly purple robe with wide sagging sleeves. I loved it. And ever since that night 40 years ago, Halloween has been my favorite holiday.
My soul is expanded when I walk through my neighborhood at night, seeing people out and about in costumes with flashlights and glowsticks, trick-or-treating. My spirit is tingled by all the scary lawn decorations. I love the elaborate haunted houses, the “fun size” snickers bars, the pungent aroma of pumpkin innards, the laughter of Vincent Price, the spooky stories, the witches, the dead leaves, the Fall.
But, unfortunately, millions of my fellow Americans hate Halloween. They despise it. And they are working hard to snuff it out.
To be sure, most Christians in America enjoy Halloween. But a significant minority of them — primarily Evangelical Christians — have been waging a war against Halloween for some time now. They urge their fellow citizens to abandon trick-or-treating, to eschew spooky costumes, to resist the lure of jack-o-lanterns and instead attend “Harvest Festivals” on church grounds. To these pious souls, bobbing for apples is kosher, but not wearing a skeleton getup. They even lobby public schools — sometimes successfully — to ban the wearing of costumes on October 31. And of course, Pat Robertson routinely rants about the Druidic/Satanic evils of the holiday.
But what underlies this simmering hatred of Halloween, at root? I mean, after all, if you think about it, Halloween and Fundamentalist Christianity actually have a lot in common.