The modern images and themes of Halloween include children dressing up in costumes, getting candy from their neighbors, and enjoying activities like bobbing for apples, carving pumpkins, or visiting a "haunted house." For some reason, most people love being frightened, as long as they know it's "safe." So the media and the marketplace join forces to create entertainments designed to be scary or creepy or spooky. Christians who have never learned the history of Halloween, or thought through the implications of participating in it, should think carefully about the following facts.
God calls witchcraft, sorcery, spell-casting, and similar practices "abomination" in Deuteronomy 18:12. The word abomination means something detestable, abhorrent, and dangerous. Other things called abomination in Scripture are incest, prostitution, sodomy, adultery, and sacrificing children by fire.
Many passages in the Bible command God's people to avoid the appearance of evil, and to keep separate from the wicked ways of the world. "Abstain from all appearance of evil," (1 Thess. 5:22). Keep yourself "from being polluted by the world," (James 1:27). "Do not love the world or anything in the world," (1 John 2:15). The devil uses fear as a weapon against many people to cripple their faith, or to make them afraid of trusting God. Why should Christians glorify fear, a central theme in Halloween?
The history of Halloween goes back 2000 years ago to the ancient Celtic peoples who inhabited what we now call Britain and Ireland. "The Celts, and their priests, the Druids, celebrated Samhain, a festival that marked the eve of the Celtic New Year, which began on November 1." During Samhain, the doorway between the living and the dead (believed to exist after the body had died) was open, allowing communication between the living and the dead. Many modern Halloween customs come from rituals associated with Samhain, such as trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples, and carving Jack-o-lanterns. Samhain was incorporated into Christianity as "All Hallows' Eve" (the short form of which became halloween), the evening before All Saints' Day, an alternative to the pagan Celtic practice of worshiping the dead. In the Middle Ages, pagan customs and witchcraft flourished, and Halloween became an important day for casting spells and other forms of spiritualistic wickedness.(1)
There is really nothing holy about this so-called holiday (a holiday, by definition, is a holy-day). And it cannot be argued that it is harmless fun, either, considering the amount of evil activity that goes on in Satanic cults, in the broadcast media, and among modern witches and other pagans. This is why I believe Christians should have nothing to do with it.
1. see http://www.seii.com/ccn/cults/issu37.txt and http://www.mshiltonj.com/thebridge/holidays/samhain.shtml
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Jim Miles
10/17/96