What's Wrong with Halloween?

Photo by Sanam Petri

By Naeem Siddiqi

Each year on October 31st, millions of North American children roam the streets of their neighbourhoods after dark. They dress up in costumes and go “trick or treating” – knocking on neighbours doors for some free candy. Some people decorate their homes. Most use pumpkins and other fall colour décor, while others go for the more ghoulish options like skeletons and cobwebs. Halloween is one of the most popular childrens events in North America, but is controversial in the Muslim community (as with some Evangelical Christian and Orthodox Jewish ones). Around this time, you also begin to see posts on mosque bulletin boards listing reasons why this is something we need to protect our children from.

Is Halloween haram, or is this just another negative knee jerk reaction to a harmless diversion?

If you go through these rulings, you’ll find that they are mostly based on the same reasonings--namely the pagan history of Halloween, imitating ‘others’and bid’ah. The following is a discussion of these reasons, and why they don’t measure up.

Halloween has pagan roots

Absolutely correct. Halloween's roots lie in a Celtic festival, Samhain, celebrated in northern Europe millennia ago. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. The Celts believed that on Samhain, the souls of the dead returned to their former homes to be entertained by the living. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. They also paraded in the streets making noises to scare the evil spirits away. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter. Some also believe Halloween to be a Fall festival to highlight the beginning of winter.

Later, the Christian church co-opted the event (as it did with Easter and Christmas - the pagan Mid-winter and autumn festivals). According to legend, Pope Gregory III decreed in the eighth century that the Feast of All Saints (previously celebrated in May) be moved to November 1--the dedication day of All Saints Chapel at St. Peter's Basilica. The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, "All Hallows Even," or "Hallowe’en." Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas

The reasoning given is that since Halloween has pagan roots, it must be haram. But if people thousands, even hundreds of years ago celebrated Halloween for pagan reasons, does it mean that those who do so today do it for the same reasons ? This goes into the question of niyyah (intention). Hundreds of years ago, those who celebrated this start of winter may have had pagan reasons for doing so, but today Halloween has no religious significance. If my neighbours 3 year old child dresses up in a cowboy costume, it does not make him a devil worshipper or a pagan. Halloween is now a generic, secular North American event.

You could even say that is it part of North American culture. Muslims in the “East” have had no issues adapting to the halal cultural practices, dress and other behavioural norms of their native lands in Asia, Africa or the Middle East, even though much of that culture also has pagan roots, or is rooted in religions other than Islam. The Indo-Pakistani culture for example, is a blend of Hindu, Persian, Turkish and Arab customs. Yet today, much of it has no connection with religion – a Hindu from India is culturally fairly similar to a Muslim from India. One suspects that the opinion against Halloween is a knee jerk reaction because it is “Western” culture as opposed to the multitude of Eastern customs and rituals that are practiced by Muslims without a similar reaction.

One can certainly argue that dressing up as the devil (shaytan) is not something young Muslims should be encouraged to do. But as long as they use costumes that are not inspired by evil or horror, there should be no issues with young Muslim kids dressing up and going Trick or Treating.

Halloween is Bid’ah (Innovation)

Bad Bid’ah has traditionally been associated with innovations in worship. Cultural or secular traditions, like Halloween, have no religious dimension and therefore the concept of Bid’ah does not apply here. In any case, how can a cultural tradition that spans centuries be an innovation ? Is it considered so solely because it wasn’t practiced in Arab, Indian or other historically majority Muslim regions ?

From an Islamic perspective, North American culture should not be treated any different from West African or Malaysian or Arab culture as long as it does not violate any tenet of Islam or involve ibadah (worship).

“Whoever imitates a nation is one of them”

Another reason cited by those who oppose Halloween is the prohibition against imitating “others”. The oft used hadith “Whoever imitates a nation is one of them!" (Abu Da'oud) has been used to declare all sorts of things as ‘haram’ or unislamic – from western suits, ties and birthdays, to anything else that was the irritant du jour for any particular imam. In general however, there is a running theme of using this hadith to declare clearly western originated practices as unlawful.

The question that should be asked is : who is “us” and who is “them”.

If it was OK for Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis to develop rich, vibrant Muslim communities with unique cultures, why is it not possible for North American Muslims to do the same ? “We” are “them”. In fact, for Caucasian and other Canadian and American born Muslims, this is their culture. It does not compromise our Islamic values whether we dress, talk and eat like Europeans or Pakistanis or Arabs. How is it wrong then to adapt the cultural practices of a community as long as it is not haram ? Indo Pakistani culture is rich with traditions and customs that have Hindu origins. Similarly, Arab culture has pre-Islamic history – yet we don’t usually see fatwas against those cultural practices.

What is the difference between having a birthday cake in the West and guests sprinkling rose water on the hands of the bride and groom in Malaysia, as part of a traditional Malay Muslim ceremony, or Pakistani Muslims having Henna or “ubtan” ceremonies as part of the wedding celebrations. None of these have any religious dimension – they are all nothing more than cultural practices.

Therefore in the North American context, it would be perfectly natural for young Amina or young Ahmad to dress up on Halloween. They are North American Muslims and are not imitating “others”.

Orthodox Jews and some Christians are also against Halloween

What is forbidden or allowed for Muslims is not dependant on Jewish or Christian rulings. This point is not only irrelevant, it contradicts the “Whoever imitates a nation is one of them” logic. In addition, other than the most Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christian, most of the Jewish and Christian population does not have any issues with Halloween.

Halloween teaches kids to beg

This is one of the more ridiculous reasons given for why Halloween is bad. It states that kids going door to door asking for candy teaches them to beg. Obviously there is no evidence to support any of this, in particular, the absence of rampant robberies in North America.

As a comparison, one of the traditions found in Pakistani weddings is something called ‘joota churai’, or ‘shoe stealing’. It involves the sisters of the bride (usually the younger ones) attempting to grab and then hide the groom’s shoes. They then approach the groom who has the option of searching for his shoes (usually a fruitless task) or negotiating a ransom to get them back. Its an entirely good humored exercise. Similarly, when the groom brings his new bride back to his house for the first time, his sisters will block the door. Again, the negotiations begin and when a price is agreed upon, the sisters let the groom and his bride enter.

Would anyone accuse Pakistanis of teaching their kids to kidnap or rob by citing these traditions ? How then can kid collecting free candy from their neighbours be associating with begging with any seriousness.

Naeem Siddiqi lives in Markham, Ontario.