How to use Halloween as a springboard to talk about Jesus with Muslims
Many churches with Muslim communities on their doorstep offer English language classes or English Conversation groups and find that these activities open the door to engaging with their neighbours. Not only are they a way of meeting felt needs, but the relationships which are built between the Christians and Muslims involved are mutually valued.
In our English Conversation class, held weekly in our church premises, we make use of opportunities to create space for faith conversations to occur around the cycle of the religious calendar – Christmas, Easter, Harvest, Ramadan, Eid ul Fitr, Eid Mawlid…. and Hallowe’en; the latter being rooted in faith tradition but now has a whole consumer industry around it.
Walk into any supermarket in October and you are confronted with an array of witches’ hats and broomsticks, ghoulish masks and vampire teeth, flying bats for table decorations and black spiders to lace around the kids’ bedrooms. This is a daily reality for us all, and can be disturbing. In our classes, over the last 5 years, we’ve taken to spending a whole class session in this month on the topic of Hallowe’en, as outlined below for those interested.
We very briefly explain the tradition of trick or treat so that people to whom this is new won’t confuse groups of children or teenagers knocking on their door, dressed in “spirit clothes” (as one class member once described) with Islamophobic or racist attacks; and we suggest some possible responses.
This is followed by an exercise showing a group of 10-12 images of pumpkins and Hallowe’en paraphernalia or activities, from which we elicit vocabulary and practise learning how to use the words in sentences.
We then go on to ask what we think about this “festival”. Christian and Muslim parents alike can find solidarity in the annoyance of being subject to pester power from their children; and, more importantly, a sense of confusion as to why the dark side of life is being celebrated.
This tends to open up a great discussion on whether the powers of evil are true or just imaginary as those celebrating Hallowe’en appear to view them. Many students will express a sense of dismay and incredulity that evil spirits are both being emulated and ridiculed. Muslim women, in particular, are very aware of the power of the supernatural realm where both good and evil, blessing and curse can be invoked[1]. The concept of this being made light of is incomprehensible. “It’s not funny, it’s dangerous!” said one last year. We can agree.
Further questions can be raised within the context of conversation such as what do we need protecting from? How do we ensure protection? Who gives blessing? How can it be gained? We have found that this conversation leads well into the opportunity to tell a story of a power encounter with Jesus. We have developed some story cards on Jesus meeting Legion, the man beset by evil spirits and the greater authority (recognized by the spirits themselves) held by Jesus which secured the man’s freedom from demon possession[2].
As Christians, we have found such stories are well received and sometimes result in either more questions being asked about Jesus or enable personal testimony to be shared. So, instead of allowing the spirit of this world[3] to cause anxiety and confusion, I want to encourage ESOL teachers and English Conversation class facilitators to confront this deception which would settle on and fetishize the dark and instead, speak of the One who is Light and brings the blessing of freedom from fear.
Miriam Williams is a member of a Mahabba group and has many years of experience as an ESOL teacher and an English Conversation class facilitator where all the participants are from a Muslim background.
Halloween links & references
Related articles on Halloween & Muslims
What do our Muslim friends make of Hallowe’en? Read our article with ideas on how to talk to Muslims about Halloween and find links to other blog posts about Halloween from Mahabba members’ experiences.