All Hallows Eve
Once again, America gears up for the modern celebration of All Hallows Eve or as we commonly know it as Halloween. I remember when we went out with our friends, going from door to door amassing as much candy and fruit as we could get. And we ate about half of it on the way home.
We wore costumes intended to put fear in the hearts of those we met. The costumes were skeletons, devils, fairies, bats, werewolves, and other various animals. We would knock on the doors of the prospective victims of our terror and say, “Trick or Treat” and be rewarded with a fake scream and some candy. As we got older the candy bags faded away and the practical jokes begun. TPing trees and cars were one of the favorite pranks. We egged the cars and houses (not one of my prouder moments). Eventually, I wearied of the pranks and quit going altogether.
Today, the holiday has gone from going house to attending Fall Festivals and Trunk ‘N Treat events. This transformation of the celebration is due in part to psychotic individuals who would lace fruit and candy with drugs and razor blades and other unhealthy things. The change was necessary to maintain safety for all participants.
I attended a church that set up Trunk ‘N Treat events for two years and was successful. The members of the church would decorate their cars with various non-scary themes and pass out candy to the kids who came by. Food was provided and there were games they could play.
Origins of Halloween. We know that the holiday has its origins in Samhain or the Druid celebration of the Harvest and the end of summer. They also characterize it as a time when the spirit world would crossover into the living world. They believed these spirits were mischievous, causing trouble and sometimes crop damage. They also believed that these spirits would make it easier for the Druids to make predictions about the future. This was important to a person living in a volatile world. The people would start bonfires, comprising crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The people also wore animal skins to help fool the spirits.
The Druids, Celtic priests, ruled through occult terror and human sacrifices for centuries. They were deemed kings of occult practitioners and were known for worshipping evil spirits and offering human sacrifices to their demon gods.
The Celtic peoples lived in what we now know as Britain, Ireland, France, and Spain. The Romans completed their conquest of the Celtic peoples circa 43 A.D. The Romans gained a considerable amount of their culture from the peoples they conquered. During their four-century occupation of the Celtic lands, the Romans combined two of their festivals with Samhain. The first of these was Feralia, which is a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The other was a day the Romans honored Pomona, a Roman goddess of fruits and trees.
In 609 A.D... Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to honor the Christian Martyrs and thus establishing All Martyrs Day in the Western church. Later, Pope Gregory III included all deceased saints and moved the celebration from 13 May to 1 November.
By the 9th century, Christianity had spread to Celtic lands and eventually blended with and undermined their older rites. In 1000 A.D. the church made 2 November All Souls Day to honor the dead. They celebrated all Souls Day in the fashion of Samhain with bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. All Saints’ Day was called All-hallows and Samhain, which was celebrated the night before All-hallows was called All Hallows Eve, which soon became Halloween.
Halloween Comes to America. There was very scattered celebration of Halloween in the northern colonies due to the strong Protestant belief regimen. The southern colonies were more relaxed; therefore, Halloween celebrations were more commonplace.
In the southern colonies the European Halloween traditions assimilated Native American traditions and a distinctly American Halloween celebration emerged. The first events included “play parties” which were public events to celebrate the harvest. People would gather and tell stories of the dead, read each other’s fortunes, sing, and dance. The celebrations included the telling of ghost stories and general mischief making. By the middle of the 19th century, autumn festivals were common, but Halloween was not celebrated everywhere.
Between 1845-1852 some two million Irish immigrants arrived in America, to escape the Irish Potato Famine. They brought with them their Halloween traditions, and Halloween became a more celebrated event.
Some European Halloween traditions include Dooking (Scottish bobbing for apples), fireworks, games, mischief, and Pulchi, an Irish fortune telling game. Naughty children and not evil spirits, as believed in the past, caused most shenanigans folks encountered.
Trick or Treat in America. Borrowing from the European traditions, Americans began dressing up in costumes and to go from door to door asking for money or food. This practice eventually developed into our modern-day trick or treat praxis.
In the late 19th century, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a more community-oriented event. The purpose was to remove the more devilish elements from the celebration, such as ghost stories, pranks, and witchcraft. By the turn of the century, Halloween parties for adults and children were commonplace. These parties comprised games, food of the season, and festive costumes.
Modern Celebrations. By the 1920’s and 1930’s Halloween had become a more secular and community celebration. The activities included parades and town wide parties.
By the 1950’s Halloween had evolved into holiday with the focus on young people. With the baby boomers the traditional town celebrations moved into the classroom and homes. Between the 1920’s and 1950’s came the revival of traditional “trick or treating.”
Is Halloween a Christian Holiday? Clearly, Halloween is rooted in the pagan rituals of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Little is known about how the Satanists celebrate Halloween but Anton LeVay, founder of the Church of Satan, stated that Halloween was one the important holidays of the year for Satanists.
Margista Blanche Barton, a former high priestess of the Church of Satan, said of this holiday; “Halloween is traditionally a time when the obscure portal into the realms of darkness, death and the supernatural is thrown open.”
Wiccans, whose members are practitioners of witchcraft and nature worship, also celebrate Halloween as a major holiday.
Therefore, the answer to this question is no, it is not a Christian holiday.
Conclusion. You cannot be a Christian and celebrate Halloween, you cannot play on both sides of the street:
1 Corinthians 10:21 (KJV) Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
The devil is come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). He does not have your best interests at heart:
1 Peter 5:8 (KJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
As innocent as it may seem Halloween celebrations are snares created by the devil to lure you from God. The costumes of skeletons, black cats, monsters, pentagrams, etc. are satanic symbols.
2 Corinthians 11:14 (KJV) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Satan is a liar (John 8:44), a master of deceit. He can make things appear good when they are in fact bad (Genesis 3:4-6) and lead you down a path of misery. The bible warns about getting involved with the works of darkness:
Ephesians 5:11 (KJV) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
While Satan got Anton LeVay and Aleister Crowley he does not have to get you. The bible says:
Ecclesiastes 7:20 (KJV) For there isnot a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Romans 3:23 (KJV) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 6:23 (KJV) For the wages of sin isdeath; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Revelation 21:8 (KJV) But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
The aforementioned verses present a grim end for us all. However, God is not willing that any should perish so he gave us a solution to our sin problem:
John 3:16 (KJV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9 (KJV) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:10 (KJV) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:13 (KJV) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And he promised you eternal life:
John 6:37 (KJV) All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
1 John 5:13 (KJV) These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
It is my sincere hope that you will seriously consider your eternal destiny and choose Jesus Christ as your saviour and have eternal life in heaven.
