Every Halloween resurrects an annual debate among Christians: Should we celebrate Halloween? This year is no different. For some, Halloween is harmless fun. For others, it’s an excuse to celebrate darkness, sketchy costumes, evil, and death.

For Christians, the essential question about Halloween is whether we are loving God and our neighbors, and proclaiming what is true about Christ’s victory over evil. A helpful video in the What Would You Say? series offers insights that every Christian should know (and what your kids need to know) about Halloween.

First, what is often claimed about the history of Halloween is wrong. Some people claim Halloween comes from a pagan festival called Samhain, when Druids of old would commit human sacrifice under a full moon. But according to historians, and even many modern pagans, most of that story is made up. In fact, no detailed records of Samhain or other Celtic festivals survived, so we know very little about it. And the way modern pagans practice is more of an imaginative reconstruction that has little in common with Halloween historically, other than occurring at harvest time.

A more accurate explanation for the date and name of Halloween, and even its emphasis on the dead, is the Christian feast, All Saints Day, which was celebrated on November 1. This day was also known as “All Hallows,” so the night before (October 31) came to be known as “All Hallows Eve,” or “Hallow’een.” At some point, traditions like dressing up and going door to door to collect treats developed. In England, the idea of a night of mischief probably came not from Halloween, but from Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.

It wasn’t until the late 1700s that Halloween lost its Christian associations and took more of the ghoulish, plastic, teeth-rotting form that we know today. It’s not a coincidence that most of the day’s transformation happened in America and, like what we now think of as “Santa Claus,” that it had so much to do with selling merchandise. As it turns out, all the witches and jack-o-lanterns and spider webs and skeletons have commercial, not historical, origins. Halloween has more to do with department stores than with Druids.

Even if Halloween isn’t a revival of an ancient paganism, that doesn’t mean it’s morally innocent. Many sinful and destructive practices have become associated with Halloween over the years, including sexually provocative costumes, drunkenness, drug abuse, and vandalism. These are as wrong on October 31 as any other night, and Christians are right to avoid them.

There’s also the general ugliness that’s often present on Halloween. Imitations of murder and mutilation are disgusting and rude, and those are not things to decorate with. We age-restrict those kinds of images on television, but for some reason it is culturally acceptable to display the same images on front porches.

Halloween is no excuse to engage in destructive and sinful activities. Christians aren’t granted a day off from the first Great Commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And gross, gory, or excessively scary imagery is not a way to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

No matter what we do or how we celebrate, Jesus was clear that these two commandments should govern all our behavior. Halloween is not a valid excuse to ignore them.

Christians should ask, Why are we celebrating a defeated foe? In Colossians 2, Paul proclaims that Christ has “disarmed the powers and authorities.” In fact, He “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” In His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus has defeated Satan and his hosts.

There are real forces of spiritual darkness, but according to the Bible, they are in retreat. Their power was permanently broken when Christ rose from the dead. We need no longer fear death because Christ has destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” His fate is sealed, and life has the last word.

Any message that Christians send, including with our celebrations, should proclaim the victory of Jesus, rather than glorify evil, death, or darkness. Paul offered guidance on the right way to celebrate when he wrote to the Philippians, “[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Christians should always consider what our celebrations say about evil, and the Savior who triumphed over it. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong to enjoy Halloween, or even perhaps to mock the forces of evil. However, it does mean that the love of God and neighbor should guide our fun, and that we should do everything we can to tell the truth about who has won.

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