Do Jews Celebrate Halloween? - Learning & Values

Question:

Do Jews celebrate Halloween? I know its origins aren't very "Jewish," but I'm worried that my kids will feel left out if they can't go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Answer:

Let me tell you about a wonderful Jewish holiday: once a year, our children dress up as sages, princesses, heroes and clowns. They drop by the homes of our community, visit the infirm and the aged, spreading joy and laughter. They bring gifts of food and drink and collect tzedakah (charity) for the needy.

You guessed it--it's called Purim, when it's customary to send mishloach manot--gifts of food--to one's friends and even more gifts to those in hard times.

Flip it over (October instead of March, demanding instead of giving, scaring instead of rejoicing, demons instead of sages, etc.) and you have Halloween. There you have it: a choice of one of two messages you can give to your children. I call that a choice, because one of the beautiful things about kids is that, unlike adults, they don't do too well receiving two conflicting messages at once.

I know how hard it is to be different, but as Jews, we have been doing just that for most of our 3,800 years. Since Abraham and Sarah broke away from the Sumerian cult of gods and demons, we have lived amongst other peoples while being very different from them. And we dramatically changed the world by being that way.

That's a proud and nurturing role for any child: To be a leader and not a follower, to be a model of what should be rather than of what is.

Make your kids feel that they are the vanguard. They belong to a people who have been entrusted with the mission to be a light to the nations--not an ominous light inside a pumpkin, but a light that stands out and above and shows everyone where to go. Forget about Halloween and wait for Purim to turn the neighborhood upside down!

By Tzvi Freeman

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, a senior editor at Chabad.org, also heads our Ask The Rabbi team. He is the author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth. To subscribe to regular updates of Rabbi Freeman's writing, visit Freeman Files subscription.

More articles by Tzvi Freeman | RSS

The content on this page is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org, and is produced by Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with the copyright policy.

E-mail

Sort By:

NewestOldest

January 12, 2013

Halloween

Halloween is an obsession with death & demons. All you have to do is ride around and look at all the images in peoples yards. How anyone could think this is wholesome and helpful for children is beyond me.

Steve
Hopewell, VA

October 31, 2012

The way Halloween is celebrated here, it's simply an American custom. It may have various religious roots, but at this point these are quite lost on children, and on adults too unless they're looking for them. If you want to raise your kids with strictly Jewish customs, make aliyah and raise your kids in Israel. If you're living here, you're participating in American life and that includes harmless (and fun) American customs, like Halloween, which if done well is a pleasant way for children and their accompanying parents to go around meeting and greeting their neighbors. My parents let us participate in Halloween. My brother and I grew up to be very deeply connected and identified Jews. We associated Judaism with positive things, not deprivation. A lot of the kids we grew up with, whose parents were more constricting of them in the name of Judaism, left the faith altogether as adults.

Gaye Fadraye
Roslyn Heights, NY

October 30, 2012

Rabbi Tzvi is just being nice.

The answer is no. Plain and simple, no. Same as we don't hunt for Easter eggs.

Karen Joyce Chaya Fradle Kleinman Bell
Riverside, CA, USA
jewishriverside.com

October 30, 2012

The Halloween being celebrated these days has nothing to do with the pagan Samhain nor the Christian All Saints day. The way it is celebrated just makes it a fun day for kids (and adults) to dress up and have fun all together. I don't see why Jews can't participate except for the fact the candy might not be kosher... If you say you don't want to celebrate a non Jewish 'Holiday' then that is fine, but don't use religious excuses. Halloween is not religious, it's fun And a great way to meet the neighbors!

Jeroen van der Tuin

October 30, 2012

I wish that...

people would respect that my light is OFF

Calvin T
Round Rock, TX

January 12, 2012

Halloween is also idol worship and is..

Forbidden in the torah according to consorting with witches. There is a religion called Wiccan, and Halloween is their holy day. They absolutely celebrate it as being holy. My suggestion, if you don't want to be worshipping a witches holy day, is to keep your porch light DARK and do not allow your children to go around the neighborhood begging for treats, with the phrase that they will do a trick on someone if they don't get a treat. What kind of lesson is that to teach a child? It's like blackmail, anyway. The Christians borrowed this holy day from Wiccans/idol worshippers and changed the name to "All Hollows Eve".

Karen Joyce Chaya Fradle Kleinman Bell
Riverside, CA, USA
jewishriverside.com

January 3, 2012

Halloween

Adam, Silver Spring, MD, says, " spelling G"-"d isn't about offending G-d, it's about respect. I don't call my father by his name out of respect, and shouldn't I treat my Heavenly Father likewise? The "-" reminds me of Whom I'm writing about. "
But note that you don't stick a hyphen in the word "father" ("f-ther"? "fat-her"?). That's because "father" is not your father's name, any more than "God" is God's name. We just never say or write God's actual four-letter name, so there's simply no reason to act as if the three-letter English word "god" is the Name. Do French Jews pop a hyphen into the word "dieu"?
On Halloween: We lived in a college town when my daughter was 12, and she reported to me about an neighbor family, :They say they're Christians, but they don't celebrate Christmas, they don't celebrate Halloween..." They turned out to be Jehovah's Witnesses, and told me, "Well, we certainly don't celebrate Halloween!"
They had no problem not participating. Why should we

Fruma
Delray Beach, Florida

November 4, 2011

Randy, maybe if you looked at the things you do have instead of those you don't, you will find the fun. I love sitting out in the sukkah on Sukkot, you can see the stars and enjoy the company of different people. We sat in our shul's sukkah this year and met two families and had a blast. And passover is my absolute favorite holiday, everything is new and clean and fresh and the food always tastes better. So stop complaining and see things for what they are, it will get you much further in life than sulking about Halloween. And might I remind you that on Halloween, it's cold, a little dangerous (taking candy from strangers), expensive between costumes and candy, and frankly a bit overrated.

Anonymous
Briarwood, NY
chabadaz.com

November 4, 2011

Halloween

Randy, my point was we really don't Halloween to have fun.......

Anonymous
Pikesville

November 1, 2011

Halloween

Oh, sure, Ellie, Jewish holidays are fun. Rosh HaShanah, six hours of praying is a lot of fun. Sukkot, with wind, rain, and bugs, and viruses. Are we having fun yet? Passover, with lousy food is a blast, especially after waiting hours to eat. Purim is great if you get drunk. The same goes for Simchat Torah, but frankly walking around with apples on a stick is just real exciting. What is so fun about Shavuot other than yizkor and cheesecake? The only 3 I can think of as fun are Hannukah, Tu B' Shevat, and Lag B'Omer. Tu B'Av used to be fun.

Randy H. farb
Flint, MI

Show all comments

Load next 50