Every year on October 31st, Halloween is celebrated. People participate in activities such as trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, wearing costumes, and decorating their homes and offices with skeletons, witches, ghosts, and similar things.
Before Christians participate in it, we ought to look into its origins. It appears to be a fun holiday, so what could be wrong with it?
Halloween’s origins date back to an ancient 2,000 year old Celtic festival called Samhain. The Celts lived mostly in modern day Ireland, the UK, and northern France. It was the celebration of their new year, November 1st.
It represented the end of the harvest and the beginning of the cold dark winter. They associated this time with human death. The Celts believed on this day before the new year, that the boundary between the realm of the living and the dead was blurred. On this night, they celebrated Samhain and believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
People prepared offerings that were left outside villages and fields for spirits. Ghosts of ancestors were also thought to cross into the world of the living, and the Celtic people would dress as animals and monsters as decoys so evil spirits would not be tempted to kidnap the ghosts of their ancestors.
By the time of the Middle Ages, Samhain evolved. Carved turnips called jack-o-lanterns were lit with an embedded coal to protect from spirits and witches. Later Irish tradition changed these to pumpkins.
Trick-or-treating is derived from ancient Irish and Scottish practices in the nights leading up to Samhain. In Ireland, people put on costumes and went door-to-door and singing songs to the dead. Cakes were given as payment.
As Christianity spread to pagan Celtic communities, Church leaders attempted to reframe Samhain as a Christian celebration.
The pagan elements of Samhain remained despite attempts by the Catholic church to Christianize it and October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. It contained much of the traditional pagan practices before being adopted in 19th century America through Irish immigrants bringing their traditions to their new land.
Today, Halloween seems innocent with children dressing in costumes of princesses and Superman and people putting out jack-o-lanterns. However, if we look into the origins of Halloween, we can see how today’s practices are derived from paganism, the worship and honouring of the dead, communicating with spirits — all of which are demonic activity.
A confirmation of the demonic nature of Halloween can be seen in today’s practice of witchcraft. Modern witches believe that Halloween is a day when spirits are released and they participate in the worship of Samhain (the lord of death). Followers of Wicca, the religion of witches, believe Halloween is the day to embrace the evil and dark side of the spiritual world.
With this understanding, it should be clear that for us Christians, we should have nothing to do with the evil that is Halloween and not be deceived by the innocent appearance it takes on today. This is an opportunity for us Christians to shine our light in this dark world and show that we’re different. We should also teach our children to not fear their classmates and pressure from their teachers, and stand up for their faith in Christ!
“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” – 1 Cor 10:21
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” – Eph 5:11
“Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” – 1 Thess 5:21-22