Is Halloween a good holiday for Christians?
Well I think the first thing anyone has to do if they care about what the Lord thinks is to investigate it. If you don’t care what the Lord thinks, don’t. However, if you don’t care about what the Lord thinks as a Christian, you have big problems according to God’s Word.
The first thing we need to know about Halloween is that it has a history to look at.
It appears the Celts in Ireland had two main feasts a year. One around May and one around November 1st. The one around November 1st was called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). The Celts believed at this time period the natural and the super-natural had the barrier removed. So the dead spirits were allowed to roam at this time.
Celtic priests were called Druids. They were the ones in charge of trying to keep the evil spirits away and did so by doing sacrifices of crops and animals, sometimes humans, to ward off the spirits. They gathered up the bones and did bone fires, which is where we get bonfires today. So the original origins have an occultist trying to scare away the dead. The Celts were not Christians. In fact when the Catholic Church was trying cover up pagan holidays they created All Saints Day on November 1st to combat Samhain. All Saints Day was supposed to honor the passed on Saints of the past, I guess like a memorial day of sorts.
It appears the Romans took over the Celts and added their own touches. They had a pagan festival in which they honored Pomona their goddess of the fruit and trees. It is believed this is where bobbing for apples were added into the mix.
Trick or Treat probably has a few origins but the ones that are most troubling are related to Samhain. When one looks today at what’s involved in Halloween it makes sense.
The dead that were roaming around could be friendly loved ones, but then again they could be evil spirits that meant to do harm. Some villagers would dress up in demonic costumes so they would blend in with the unfriendly spirits, also they would pass out fruits and nuts to gain favor with them so they would possibly leave them alone.
We talked about the bone fires, bobbing for apples, but how about the jack o’ lantern? It appears that turnips and beets were used to make faces in originally celebrating Samhain but America had a lot of pumpkins for the using. I have heard both the faces were used to scare away evil dead spirits, but I have also heard that they can be a house for those to embody for a short period of time also. It was so they could look out of since they had no body.
Black Cats, Bats, other creatures of the night all are believed to have interaction with the dead.
Other groups of the occult love Halloween. Witches, Satanists, etc., if It’s not their favorite holiday it’s one of them.
What does the Bible have to say about these things?
When God had the Israelites take over the Promised Land He gave them a warning.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 – 9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.
God doesn’t have a sense of humor when it comes to evil. As a fallen race we want to believe he does or doesn’t really care about it. Tomorrow let’s read on to what He also says.