Christians celebrate a variety of pagan holidays including Christmas, new years, thanks giving, valentines day, Easter, mardi gras, and etc. Halloween should be ignored by most Christians for its spooky activities. Honoring the dead is not a Biblical doctrine, it’s a pagan tradition. Halloween today is celebrated as a children’s holiday with candy, silly decorations, costumes and games. People often don’t think about why they celebrate a holiday because of how “innocent” it seems and how much fun they might be having. Nonetheless, Christians specifically should steer clear of this holiday. It is a very dark, and witchy holiday originating from the Celts of ancient Europe. Surprisingly the traditions of the Celts still remain the same today as they were back then.
First and foremost the Biblical text is against something called necromancy, sorcery and witchcraft. Halloween is a holiday that possesses all of these activities in one especially necromancy.
Verses About Mediums
Exodus 22:18 “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 “There shalt not be found among you any one that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord:and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
As you can see from the scripture above, The Most High God hates any form of communicating with the unseen (aside from him and his angels in prayer). Unfortunately Halloween is a holiday that portrays all of these abominable acts. How and why is the question. How is dressing up in costumes a form of necromancy? Are children getting candy from strangers really evil? The short answer is yes to both questions but we need to review the history of this holiday to understand why.
The Celts
Most of our American holidays originate from the ancient Celtic traditions. The Celts were responsible for holidays such as spring equinox (Easter), May Day (Beltane), Yule (christmas), Summer solstice, and Samhain (halloween). These holidays venerated the earth, solar system, elements and spirits. They are also used in Wiccan religion today where they cast spells on these Celtic holy days. The Celtic traditions spread from Scandinavia to most of western Europe when the Romans tried to conquer them. Romans then incorporated some of their traditions into their religion. The Celtic holidays survived to this day from their children who conquered America. Many of us celebrate all of these ancient holidays unknowingly in slightly different ways than the former. Nonetheless the holidays are still the same.
How Christians Preserved Halloween
After the infusion of Celtic traditions and Roman religion, early Christianity fussed to their traditions as well. Specifically the Roman Catholic Church (Pope Gregory the 3rd) thought it was appropriate to mix worldly traditions with Christian teachings, thus “Christianizing” many pagan holidays. Easter became Christ Passover and resurrection day, Yule became Christmas for Christ birthday and Samhain became All Souls/Saints day for the Christians who died. The Roman Catholic kept a lot of the decorations and traditional foods and themes of these holidays. These holidays are also practiced in Wiccan as the “wheel of the year”. It is a high witchy holiday for casting spells and communicating to spirits of all kinds.
Samhain and Halloween
Samhain is pronounced Sawin which is the most popular out of the Celtic holidays since it is also a New year festival for them celebrated on October 31st. Also known as a pagan or witches New year. It is the end of Summer and the beginning of winter. At this time of year it is said that the barriers between the spiritual world and the physical world are thin allowing for people to communicate with their dead ancestors or loved ones. Typically this holiday is full of Necromancy which is the art of speaking to the dead through supernatural means. This Holiday is a 5 day long harvest and feast where they carved into pumpkins, baked food and made treats for children and ancestors.
Bonfires, Bugs, and Bats
As the nights grew longer and the days shorter, artificial warmth was needed. Bon fires were lit for warmth and celebrations. It gave them light during the night when the sun would usually stile in the sky. Sometimes these bonfires would attract bugs and since bats eat bugs, bats were often seen around the fire. There were ritual fire dances done and at the end each person would take some of the fire back home with them on a torch.
Costumes and Trick or Treat
It is a custom for the Celts for children and adults to wear costumes or masks and go door to door collecting baked treats. They wear costumes to ward off malicious spirits and so the children don’t get kidnapped. Treats and baskets were made after the harvest and given out primarily to the children but also left outside in a basket for wandering spirits to eat. All this was done to appease the evil spirits and welcome ancestors.
Jack O’Lantern
The famous pumpkin has been used for centuries in the Samhain/ Halloween tradition. It is usually a scary face carved into the hollow squash. But why? Apparently, in old Celtic traditions the pumpkin squash was used to scare off the malicious harvest spirits or gods. These Jack O’lanterns were placed in the fields as the heads of “scare crows”. Sometimes the jack O’ lanterns were put outside one’s porch with a candle in it to keep the spirits away from their homes.
Conclusion
Samhain was brought over to the Americas from the Irish. Before this the land was inhabited by puritan’s who went against the Roman Catholic Church and traditions. Samhain eventually became what we know today as Halloween. Although named differently it is still the same traditions and meanings. Modern witches celebrate halloween in their festivals and use it to communicate with the dead. All these activities are under the cluster of mediumship that its forbidden in the Biblical text.
The highest God will not accept any other holy days a holy accept his own. The one thing Christians need to realize is that there are no references to Halloween or Samhain in the Biblical Text. The Bible doesn’t even have the word “Halloween” in it, therefore it cannot be a Christian holiday. Paganism cannot be converted into Christianity like the Roman Catholics have done. Although the traditions of Samhain or Halloween may seem simple and innocent but it is connected to witchcraft.
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