It's a bit early but I want to get the head start on thinking about an event that has grown into a $2.5 billion industry. Fright night party numbers are exceeded only by Super Bowl Sunday and New Year's Eve, and it ranks in the top five sales days for beer. Some pundits like our own Richard Berryman point to the boom in Halloween parties to say here's proof that we have lost the sense of connection that our church life used to bring to families. We don't do church, but we sure know how to have fun on the big calendar times. Others say a resurgence in family values is why Halloween is growing in popularity. Parents want to do things with their kids, boomers like to hang on to the memories of childhood and retailers are only too happy to provide the scary stuff that gobbles up our spending.

What I remember best about Halloween is the friendly faces behind door after door, folks who would ooh and ahh at my costumes of rabbits, panda's, grandmother, or lion. Now here's the confession of how things have changed; my own children have not yet had the privilege of trick or treating. I feel aghast mentioning it in public, but it's time to talk about another side of Halloween, the growing separation that is occurring between people of life changing faith and the events of Oct. 31.

Many dedicated Christians celebrate Halloween with delight, but in your neighbourhoods and families you've probably noticed that there always the curious few who have begun to rethink the festival. While it may be uncomfortable to watch someone flex their convictions for or against Halloween, it really is a healthy exercise of thoughtful faith and we need to give each other the allowances to think through why we do what we do.

Here's the pro's and cons as they work out in the world around me. When people shut the door on Halloween, it's because they wrestle with an increasing uneasiness that evil isn't very funny. They see the ghosts, the bloody spikes coming out of someone's head, the rattling tombstones and conclude the spiritual reality being decorated is incompatible with their beliefs. They go back to the roots of the holiday, a Druid festival which feared the spirits of the dead, and say why bother with celebrating a fear based focus.

Those from beliefs in Wiccan celebrate Oct. 29 to Oct. 31st as the high holiday of Samhain. Black, they believe, signifies remembrance of loved ones that have passed over to the other world. A former witch told me Oct. 31st was big on her calendar, she remembered it as a day for satanic sacrifice to celebrate Satan's birthday. Many Christians catch wind of dark mysteries associated with Halloween and simply check out of anything to do with it.

That motivates some churches to run diversions for families on the 31st. They host Hallelujah nites, Family Festivals, and some even create a Judgement House instead of a Haunted Horror House. Whatever the tactic, the naysayers on Halloween are thought of as pretty fanatical.

For most who participate in Halloween, the ghoulish images represent nothing deeper than the plastic they are printed on. It's a time of innocent fun, a time to get to know the neighbourhood and thrill the kids with a fantasy identity. They could argue it wasn't the Druids and demonology that brought on this holiday, it was the Irish, who in fact were the first to bring the lighted jack-o-lantern to North America. Lighten up, they say, don't be such a kill joy.

The difference in opinions on Halloween is actually a fascinating return to the earliest events of how Christians tackled the pagan celebrations on their calendars.

The forces of faith have tried to reshape Halloween before, but as retailers will tell you, it's still very healthy. But the ideas for or against the holiday are simply freedom of religion at work. If processing that is creating conflict over what's a Christian to do about Halloween, that's okay, meaningful faith never promised to be comfortable.