Ok I am getting blasted with Halloween questions. Lots of books have been written about the origins of Halloween and lots of christian material some based on truth and some based on myth. Last year I wrote an article dealing with this discussion. Here is a look at the actual origin of Halloween and my recommendations about it. I know I am about to offend people on both sides of the argument but rather than getting angry, hurt or offended I ask you to pray. Please understand since the 1600s those involved in witchcraft do consider this day a high holiday. It is also to understand Wiccans since the 1800s consider this a high holiday as well. Wiccans do not worship Satan they worship the earth and a universal god not unlike Hindus. They believe October 31 as well as Easter and several other times of the year as days of high spiritual vortices when the universal good is more powerful. Here it is.... To Halloween or not to Halloween? Each year this discussion comes up. I don’t think it is as easy a question to answer as some might assume. Every year some Christians send their children out in costumes to collect candy from people in their neighborhood. Does anyone really understand the meaning of this holiday? Are people sitting in their homes months before thinking of ways to demonize children? To most people this holiday is about dressing in a costume and giving or receiving candy. It has no more tie to the Irish druidic festival then we understand about “boxing day”. There is a lot of information about the origins of Halloween or it’s real name “All Hallow’s Eve”. Some denominations celebrate this time of year as a day to remember the saints who have gone on before us. In my opinion comparing what we call Halloween to the Druid festival is like comparing our celebration of Christmas to the Roman festival of Saturnalia. I am always looking for truth with these subjects rather than popular folklore. The day – There was a minor festival in Ireland that was celebrated by the Druids however keep in mind that the Druids celebrated holidays based on moon cycles just like the Jews and most religions. Halloween falls on October 31st because All Saints day was established by Pope Gregory III (734 AD) on November 1 to celebrate the dedication of All Saints chapel in St. Peters in Rome. At the end of the first millennium, Odilo the abbot of Cluny in France created a holiday for those in purgatory called All Souls Day. Dedicated as a day specifically to pray for those supposedly held in between heaven and hell. In the 14th and 15th century when the bubonic plague was overrunning Europe, Catholics wanting to recognize their own mortality developed dances and would act out scenes of people in all stages of life being lead to the grave so they would dress in costumes of the stages of life, kings, peasants, knights, musicians, angels, demons, satan, and death. In Ireland the Catholics recognized there was a day to honor the dead in heaven and one for those in purgatory but none for the dead in hell. So they began a day to remind those in hell they were not forgotten. They would run from house to house and cemetery banging pots to scare away the demonic and honor the dead. They did not dress in costumes to do this. The Catholic church did not recognize the “all damned day” It wasn’t until the 1700’s when Catholics from France and Ireland mingled with each other here in the colonies, that the idea of dressing up and going from house to house for tricks was combined. What about witches and jack-o-lanterns? The greeting card industry in the 1800”s added the witches to their cards to add to the ghoulishness of the holiday as well as pumpkins. Pumpkins are an American vegetable native to this continent so the druids would not have had them. Halloween was virtually an unknown holiday in most of the world until recent history. What about the wiccans and their worship on the 31st. Hopefully you can see that they really do not fit into the origins of this holiday. Like the druids, and most other religions, the basis for much of their celebration is based on the moon. Wiccans believe there is a spiritual vortex, on October 31st that gathers greater strength from mother earth. Wiccans are about earth and man worship they do not worship Satan. To little children this day is about wearing a costume and receiving candy not about any of this darker meaning. All that being said, do I recommend celebrating Halloween? Here is what I recommend. Gather with a group of friends who are choosing not to celebrate this day. If you want, allow your children to dress up in a costume, God created our creativity and He created all things good. Ask them to come up with a costume that reflects a hero someone they can look up too. There are lots of reasons to celebrate God’s goodness in the fall, the harvest is in, the air is crisp. Go to cornstalk maze and enjoy the harvest. Drink apple cider, make caramel or candy apples. Carve pumpkins with things that celebrate life and joy. We are to have life and have it abundantly. Roast the pumpkin seeds, eat pumpkin pie. Praying for the dead does nothing but celebrating the lives of those around us and even those who have gone on before us is something we rarely do and it is good for our children to understand that life is valuable and the heritage they have in their families here and gone. One of my biggest problems with Halloween is that we are told in scripture to be salt and light. We are told to think on these things whatever is lovely, pure, noble, good report Philippians 4:8. I don’t see monsters, zombies, or some of the other costumes that are promoted lining up with this idea. I also have a practical problem. What other time of year would people trust their children to receive “treats” from strangers or near strangers? I must add this too because I am mainly addressing trick or treating with little ones in this discussion. Beyond that is a very dark side to this holiday. Some of the things of Halloween like séances, use of Ouija boards and dabbling in the macabre, occult, and demonic are blatantly anti-Christ. My second problem is with those who, in Christ’s name sit in judgment, besmirch others because they allow their children to “trick or treat”. Paul talks about a problem where some, thought it was worshiping demons to eat meat offered to idols and others did not have the same problem. He said not to sit in judgment but when around those who are offended don’t do it (1 Corinthians 8:4-13). People sending their children out to trick or treat are not worshipping Satan they may be Christians who simply have not been convicted about this and we need to be patient, loving and caring about it. In other words we must act like Jesus always.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 19:51:10 +0000
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