Trick or Treat

Why We at Grace and Truth Ministries, Do Not Participate in “Halloween”

Trick or Treat! These words seem harmless when coming from a group of small children knocking at our doors on October 31st dressed as ghosts, princesses, or ax murderers. Many of us grew up practicing the same ritual, every year dressing up as fictive characters, homemade or store bought. We ran around swinging pumpkin shaped buckets, grocery bags, and even pillowcases to stuff with candies and goodies from our neighbors and local stores. Most of us never thought about the origin of this gleeful night as children and many of us have not thought about it as adults.

Those of us that have heard stories about the “real” Halloween often don’t see a connection to our lives today. Even if as Christians we choose not to participate we have not developed an understanding as to why, “we just don’t celebrate Halloween”. The bible admonishes us in Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all they getting get understanding.

Historical Perspective

Halloween's origins date back to an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The festival would last for 3 days. It is the modern name for Samhain (pronounced sow-in), an ancient Celtic holy day. The Celts (pronounced Kelts), who lived over 2,000 years ago BC in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1st. After the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, unpredictable dark winter.

The Druids were the learned class among the Celts. They were religious priests who also acted as judges, lawmakers, poets, scholars, and scientists. Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids.

To commemorate the event, Druids, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred), build huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

On this night, all the hearth fires in Ireland were extinguished and then re-lit from the central fire of the Druids. The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the "dark half" of the year. The re-kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring. When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

There is little evidence of the often recited version of the “All Hallows’ Evening”, when the Druids alleged to go door to door taking virgins from their homes to be sacrificed to Satan. There is however, a general agreement that the Celts did in fact practice some form of ritual human sacrifice or human execution, this is alleged as having been limited to criminals, prisoners-of-war, or volunteers.

Holiness *pertains to the quality of life that God intends for us to live. Although living a Holy life includes living a morally sound life, it does not end there. To live a Holy life is to live a life as God would as demonstrated in the life that Jesus lived. The bible gives us a couple of clear indications as to why we should live not only morally pure lives but Holy lives as well; because He is Holy (Leviticus 19:2, 21:8) and because without it we cannot see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

In the Celtic belief system, turning points, such as the time between one day and the next, the meeting of sea and shore, or the turning of one year into the next were seen as magical times. The turning of the year was the most potent of these times. This was the time when the "veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest and the dead could communicate with the living. Celts were pagans, not Satanists, who had not heard the gospel and practiced a holiday containing fairies, elves, and rituals. Satanists are in rebellion against God. They believe in demons, evil spirits, and perform ritual sacrifice of people including children to the devil. Of course, from a Christian standpoint both are in serious error. These belief systems and activities were religious in nature (of course, the religion I am referring to is the Celtic faith of the ancient Druids and Satanism rather than Christianity). Over the years, many attributes of these two religions have become interwoven, particularly regarding the development of Halloween in America.

Conquered with Christian Influence

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

As a result of their efforts to wipe out "pagan" holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations within the rituals. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship. By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.

The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the Eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

When All Saints' Day moved to November 1, many of the pagan Samhain traditions were brought into the holy day's activities. This may have helped bring descendents of the ancient Celts into Christianity, but it created some problems for the church. Much of the Samhain traditions centered on the supernatural and spirit world, ideas that do not have much of a place in Christianity. Recognizing saints, who were by definition dead, covered a lot of the same ground, but the creepy and supernatural aspects like the dead spirits walking the earth again at midnight certainly was not part of Christianity.

Coming to America

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there. In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about evil spirits, pranks, and witchcraft, which were rampant within the communities.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations again in many communities. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born.

Symbols of Halloween

Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic day of the dead.

Trick-or-treating: Roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate the souls of the dead, fairies, witches, and demons. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming, from which the practice of evolved.

Jack-o-Lantern (Pumpkins): Traditionally, the lantern was carved from a turnip, potato, or beet and lit with a burning lump of coal or a candle. These lanterns represented the souls of the departed loved ones and were placed in windows or set on porches to welcome the deceased. They also served as protection against malevolent sprits or goblins freed from the dead. Turnips and gourds were not as readily available in the Americas so the pumpkin was used and found to be quite an adequate replacement. The pumpkin jack-o-lantern has been an essential part of Halloween celebrations since the Victorian days and today is a universal symbol of Halloween.

Halloween costumes: There is little primary documentation of masking or costuming in America before the twentieth century. Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in America in the early 1900s, as often for adults as for children. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States. What sets Halloween costumes apart from costumes for other celebrations or days of dressing up is that they are often designed to imitate supernatural and scary beings. Costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. There are also costumes of pop culture figures like presidents, or film, television, and cartoon characters. Another popular trend is for women (and in some cases, men) to use Halloween as an excuse to wear particularly revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise.

Modern Day Halloween

Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday. Ironically, the number one holiday is Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Costumes, candy, parties, haunted houses, and decorations are some of the publicly recognized commodities for the holiday. There is also a multi-billion dollar market for Halloween that is much less public. This market is utilized by patrons that celebrate the holiday in the historical manners and those that participate in satanic rituals and beliefs, celebrating satan.

It is often described as the “Kid’s holiday”, just harmless fun for everyone to bring out the “kid” within themselves. After all, you do not have to dress up as anything demonic or evil. You can be a princess, hero, or a harmless “M & M”. You can even dress up as a “Saint” and participate in alternative activities such as “Harvest or Hallelujah Night”. However, When looking at the present day celebration of Halloween the over all theme is still one of darkness, death, fear, threats, destruction, and evil. You are encouraged to dress up your children as murderers and monsters, and all types of worldly characters, send them out into the street in the darkness to reenact the Druids' practice of worshipping ungodly things and beliefs, such as “tricking” spirits if they did not give “treats” of a good crop or winter. The word "trick" carries with it a tragic and sometimes deadly meaning. Webster defines "trick" as "...something designed to swindle."

Have you noticed how costumes and masks are getting generally more bloody, gory, and depraved each year? Unfortunately, the gruesome and grotesque and the occult are increasingly glorified in American society, not only on Halloween, but throughout the year in horror movies and in television programs.

People, particularly our young, act far differently on Halloween Eve and Halloween day. Parents encourage their children to embrace images that on the other 364 days of the year are accepted as evil and scary. Behaviors like talking to and accepting candy from strangers is “fun” on one day of the year, otherwise it is strictly forbidden by “protective” parents. There is increased vandalism and random acts of violence. What makes people decide to egg somebody’s house on Halloween rather than another day? What makes people think its ok to set fires in their neighborhoods? The fact that it is accepted and almost anticipated. And so they join the bandwagon, fearing fewer repercussions because of the “viable” defense, it was probably one of those devil worshippers out there, and “what do you expect, it’s Halloween!”

The October 31st holiday that we today know as Halloween has strong roots in paganism and is closely connected with worship of the Enemy of this world, Satan. It is a holiday that generally glorifies the dark things of this world, rather than the light of Jesus Christ. Harvest parties which are often ordained by churches or Christian schools tend to assume that "our children need something to take the place of Halloween, since they don’t get to participate in the secular and pagan celebrations. It suggests that our kids are missing out on something; and indeed they are, if we allow them to spend Halloween in celebration.

Halloween is a day originating with unbelievers and is maintained in a spirit of ungodliness. Scripture does not speak at all about Halloween, but it does give us some principles on which we can make a decision. We should not participate in activities that condone via the modernization of a “holiday” the behaviors that God deems abominations.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12: {9}"When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. {10} "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, {11} "or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. {12} "For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.

Romans 12:1-2: I beseech you therefore bretheren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. {2} And, be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

2 Corinthians 6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

2 Corinthians 6:15: And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

2 Corinthians 6:17: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Romans 14:16: Let not then your good be evil spoken of

Romans 12:19: Let us therefore follow after the things which make peace, and things wherein one may edify another.

Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way the he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Do not let Satan neutralize your Christian walk, by mixing with it pagan or satanic practices.

Resources

Christian Answers Network www.ChristianAnswers.Net
Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry www.carm.org
Colorado Christian News, October 1995
Daniel F. Castle
www.featherlessbiped.com/halloween/hallows.htm
History.com
www.halloweenmagazine.com/history.htm
www.holidays.net/halloween/story.htm
Isaac Bonewits www.neopagan.net
www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html
Mt. Sinai Solid Rock Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith
http://savedbyhisblood.wordpress.com/
The World Book Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
Zynovia Y. Hetherington, MSW