What about Halloween?

Halloween Today

Halloween is seen today as an innocent time to dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, decorate homes with spooky items, go to spook houses, watch horror movies, hold Halloween parties, have bonfires, and wrap houses.

Many are unaware that these customs are rooted in pagan religious practices observed since before the time of Christ.

A Brief History of Halloween

Halloween was known as “Samhain” by the Celts (Gaelic people)

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. The Gaels are an ethnic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man in northwestern Europe.

Normally it is held on November 1st but begins on the evening of October 31st.

Samhain survived the “Christianization” of Britain

During the 9th century AD, in an attempt to “Christianize” the event, the western church moved its observance of All Saints Day from May to November 1st.

All Saints Day was a holiday to honor the saints.

2) This day was called All Hallows Day.

3) The day before was called All Hallows’ Eve or “Hallow-een”.

The Celtic customs associated with Samhain or Halloween were brought to America primarily by Irish immigrants in the mid-1800’s.

Folklorists used the name “Samhain” to the Gaelic “Halloween” costumes up until the 19th century.

Two-Fold Purpose for Samhain

Give proper respect to the spirit world

Assert their own rights to life and prosperity in the physical one

Since the late 1800’s Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain or something based upon it and regarded it as a religious holiday.

Religious Ceremonies of the “Druids”

The Druids were the priestly caste of the Celts

Protect crops, herds, and flocks from demonic influence

Appease supernatural powers

Animal and human sacrifices sometimes played a part

Sacrifices provided a means of divination

Sacrifices provided for the appeasement of “spirits” or “fairies”

Common Samhain Beliefs

That the veil between the spirit and natural world is thinnest.

That “spirits” or “fairies” roamed the earth.

That it was a time to honor the dead. Dead relatives were even thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Places were set at the dinner table and at the fire to welcome them. It was thought that such hospitality could bestow blessing.

That by dressing in Samhain costumes they could confuse the evil spirits who were sent to plague them

That by placing jack-o-lanterns on the porches they could scare away evil spirits

That though setting out gifts they could appease evil spirits (“Trick or treat”)

That through bonfires they could communication with the dead (hearth spirits)

Fire from these ritual bonfires was customarily taken home to light Samhain fires in the hearths to unite the region

People would roast two hazelnuts in the Samhain fire. One represented them while the other the person they desired. If the nuts jumped toward each other it was a good match.

Animal sacrifices: Animals were roasted on the bonfire for feasting

Bobbing for apples. Apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and with immortality. Biting into one was a sign of a lucky year.

Divination: Fortune telling, séances, appeasing evil spirits, etc.

Modern Day Witches and Satanists

Present day Satanists and witches still consider Halloween to be the ideal time of the year to

Cast certain spells

See into the future

Communicate with dead friend and relatives

Sacrifices celebrate both life and death

For Witches and Wiccans

The “gods” are cosmic forces, or manifestations of man’s own nature and characteristics

Communion with the dead, divination, feasting, humor, and affirmation of life are still important

Recognition of the coming reign of the Lord of Misrule—especially for Satanists

Three Main Holidays for Satanists

Personal birthdays

Walpurgis Night (April 30)

Halloween (October 31)

Common Christian Responses to Halloween

Abstaining from any involvement in the holiday.

Honoring the “Christianized” version through memorializing deceased saints.

Offering Alternatives

“Harvest-Fest” or “Hallelujah Night” events where people dress like Bible characters and have games that are not associated with Halloween.

“Hell House” events to counter spook house events. In “Hell House” events, people are taken through a series of depictions of death and hell.

“Heaven House” events to depict Bible stories and what heaven will be like.

Evangelizing the Lost: Open outreach and evangelism to inform people of the roots of Halloween and to share the gospel.

Intercession and Spiritual Warfare

Whatever the response, Christians must be guided by certain principles.

Principles that Should Guide a Christian Response

The Commands of Scripture

Deuteronomy 18:9–14 NKJV

“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.

God hates any involvement of His people in the pagan practices.

This would clearly include pagan practices associated with Halloween.

It was because of these practices that God judged the pagan nations.

Yield Personal Liberty

Dismissing the pagan origins of Halloween does not make it harmless.

Our assertion that we do not believe in Samhain does not make it harmless for us or our children, especially when we continue to imitate the practices associated with Samhain.

1 Corinthians 6:12 NKJV

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Guiding questions regarding personal liberty:

Does our involvement bring us closer to Jesus?

Does our involvement edify our lives in Christ?

Does our involvement cause others to be offended or misguided?

Does our involvement testify of our allegiance and fidelity toward God?

Does our involvement help us maintain a clear conscience toward God?

Avoid any involvement with demons

1 Corinthians 10:19–22 NKJV

What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

Participating with pagan practices opens the door to demonic activity that leads to deception, oppression, and destruction.

Lay aside every hindrance to our spiritual progress.

Hebrews 12:1 NKJV

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Any involvement with pagan rituals, even if done in a lighthearted way, can be weights and even sin in our lives. These things are hindrances to our complete focus on Jesus and the work He has called us to do in this life.

Shine as a Witness to the Light

Ephesians 5:8–14 NKJV

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

Our association with light is to expose the works of darkness rather than to participate with them.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 NKJV

Abstain from every form of evil.

We are to be His instruments of enlightenment.

God has called all men to repent

Acts 17:29–31 NKJV

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

We may have walked in pagan practices while in our time of ignorance, but when God enlightens our hearts to the truth, we are to repent.

Response to the Word

Repent of your ignorance in times past

Yield your will to God’s will

Avoid any involvement with pagan practices

Be true to God’s word

Be a witness to those who still walk in darkness