This year, Brits are forecast to spend over 700 million pounds on Halloween. This spending has been increasing for the last decade. A large chunk of this amount goes to sweets and other food for trick-or-treating and parties, but more and more is spent on ‘decorations’ too. And that’s what’s greatly puzzled me.

Death is not talked about openly in our culture and billions are spent to postpone it, yet this month homes and gardens are surrounded by grim reapers, skeletons and tombstones. Many people don’t believe in God or the supernatural, yet ‘haunted’ houses and ghosts are suddenly very common. Anxiety and fear of what the future holds have been increasing for many years, yet this time of year the scary movies and frightening ‘decorations’ come out. You can’t go grocery shopping without bumping into a freaky clown or spiderwebs (ironically found side by side with Christmas decorations that nowadays appear when summer is hardly gone).

Perhaps it’s simply another reason to dress up and have a party, when autumn comes and we’re keen to revive the joys of the summer holidays. Perhaps it’s the power of advertising, online trends, and fear of missing out which makes us buy more stuff. But could it also be a sign of real spiritual forces at work, driving us away from the light and into the darkness?

For if you think about it, there isn’t anything to ‘celebrate’ about Halloween, is there?! These are the very things we dread and avoid all year long. Wouldn’t you rather celebrate light, goodness, life?

The Bible tells us the good news of the eternal God, our Maker, and his Son. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John’s Gospel, chapter 1 verses 4-5). And that shining didn’t happen only somewhere far away in the heavens; remote and irrelevant. For “the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (verse 9). This true light, Jesus Christ, lived in this world, among people like you and me! And He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Don’t you long for light in the darkness of this world? This world is broken and dark enough as it is – no need for all those scary and dark things this Halloween. What we need is light. Light that conquers the darkness. Light that brings joyful celebration. If you want that too, look to Jesus; read his words in the Bible. For “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Surely, that is worth celebrating!?

This column also appeared in the Newark Advertiser in October 2026, and was written by Klaas-Jan Gunnink