Recently, I’ve been curious about the background of the Halloween tradition. Given its name, I’ve never quite understood what it was really about. The root word hallow means to make holy, to sanctify, to set apart for God. While the costumes, candy, dunking for apples and carving of pumpkins may be fun, our celebrations often do not make clear what (if anything) is being hallowed. My research revealed that the holiday itself is as confused as I was. It does not have a simple heritage, but evolved from the combination of a variety of Christian and non-Christian traditions. It contains a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I doubt that I am alone in my confusion. I suspect that many others also have no idea what they should be setting apart for God on that day. The emphasis of modern celebrations clearly reflects more of the non-Christian traditions, and because we have lost sight of or are unfamiliar with the intent, many of us fail to fulfill the godly purpose in the Christian portion of the tradition.
While I considered those thoughts, Deuteronomy 14:22 and 23 came to mind. This passage begins with an instruction that could easily be paraphrased—“Be sure to hallow a tithe of all you produce each year”—and the passage ends by explaining the purpose: “so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.” Reflecting on this passage, I realized that our reverence for the Lord is enhanced as we hallow our offertory gifts to Him. As I think about offertory giving in our churches today, I wonder how often givers consider their gifts as holy, sanctified, specifically set apart for God. I wonder if our approach to giving helps us to learn to reverence the Lord. I wonder, if as with Halloween, many of us have lost sight of or are unfamiliar with the intent and therefore fail to fulfill God’s intended purpose for our giving.
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