<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: Dr. Mike Jones<\/p>\n
I. Introduction<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Every year when October rolls around the signs of Halloween candy, Halloween costumes, Halloween party favors, Halloween greeting cards, Halloween decorations, scary soundtracks and lighting effects, ghoulish make-up, pumpkins, bundled corn stalks and other paraphernalia<\/span><\/p>\n Halloween is an American tradition that grows in importance every year, despite cruel incidents in the past.\u00a0 And this celebration is not just observed in the United States: in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the Philippines October 31st is Halloween; in England, November 5th is a Halloween-type celebration, in Mexico, November 2nd is “The Festival of the Dead” to remember deceased family members and friends (in Texas this festival is called “All Soul’s Day”).\u00a0 In Catholic countries, especially those of southern Europe and Latin America, All Saints’ Day (November 1st) and All Soul’s Day (November 2nd) are observed as important religious holidays.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n II. History and Practice<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The roots of Halloween can be traced back more than 2,000 years to Celts in Europe! They were polytheistic, worshiping a variety of gods of nature, and also their own ancestors. religious celebrations were held\u00a0 <\/span>winter, the season of dark, on November 1st (Samhain, pronounced “sow in.\u00a0 Samhain began on November Eve, or the evening of October 31st<\/sup> (because the Celtic day began at night), a “festival of the dead,”<\/span><\/p>\n On the eve of Samhain (October 31st<\/sup>) the Celts believed that the gates separating the living and the dead were opened, which allowed evil spirits and the souls of the previous year’s dead to return to the earth, and enabled the living to contact the spirit world, and particularly the gods.\u00a0 Some sources say that October 31st<\/sup> was the time when Saman, the Lord of Death, sentenced the wicked to twelve months of afterlife as a lowly animal, and called the wicked souls of those who had died within the previous twelve months to come out of the bodies of animals they had been condemned to inhabit.\u00a0 On that night Saman judged good souls to twelve months of afterlife as humans.\u00a0 This powerful god, who looked like \u201cThe Grim Reaper,\u201d would allow the spirits of deceased ancestors to return to earth for a brief visits to their families if sacrifices of food and gifts were offered to him.\u00a0 Returning spirits could be malevolent, though\u2014harming crops and animals, and troubling families by stealing babies\u2014so people would dress up as “spirits,” with masks and animal skins, to either fool wandering spirits into mistaking them as one of their own (and thus leaving them alone) or to lead the demonic spirits to the edge of town (thus preserving the safety of the town).\u00a0 People would also appease the evil spirits by leaving gifts of the finest food outside their homes, and such gifts were also left outside to nourish the souls of their departed relatives who had returned.\u00a0 As well, they lit fires outside of their towns to draw evil spirits to the fire\u2019s warmth and away from their dwellings.\u00a0 In later times they would place carved turnip lanterns in their windows or carry them around their villages warnings to spirits that they could become lost souls.<\/span><\/p>\n Halloween customs, along with the original concept of a night devoted to the dead, with ghoulish parades, divination, fire and spirit magic.<\/span><\/p>\n Christianity spread fourth centuries it did not fully eradicate these pagan practices.\u00a0 Pagans began to be instructed in Christian truth, but only a religious thought was the result.\u00a0 Samhain remained a primary pagan festival.\u00a0 Though Catholicism came to Britain through Saint Patrick and others the old Samhain traditions continued, especially by the children.\u00a0 These would act out the Samhain appeasement of evil spirits by dressing-up as “spirits” and going house to house demanding a “treat;” if they were refused, they would perform a “trick” of punishment. \u00a0<\/span>The Catholic Church, using a version of the “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” philosophy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today Halloween is immensely popular among mainstream Americans.\u00a0 In the year 2003, fifty-six percent of all American households participated in Halloween activities. Sales of costumes, masks and other Halloween “stuff” is at an all-time high, totaling, in 2003, $1.5 billion dollars in sales.\u00a0 National Retail Federation, believe more than 50 million households will celebrate Halloween this year.\u00a0 Of that number, they estimate that at least 90% of families with children 12 and under will participate in the holiday.\u00a0 Adults too are showing a strong resurgence of interest in Halloween: roughly seventy percent (66%) of American adults will participate in some Halloween related activity, and they will each spend approximately $100 on the holiday.\u00a0 In fact, most of the money lavished on Halloween is spent by adults between the ages of 25 and 34 \u2013 they see it as innicent.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n What should be the Christian response? If you participate in Halloween you really become a part of a pagan celebration.\u00a0 The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote, in 1CO 10:20 “… the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.”\u00a0 Paul went on to say, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” (1CO 10:21).\u00a0 Christians belong to God and partake of God; they are holy unto God.\u00a0 To involve themselves in Halloween or any other pagan worship is to partake of idolatry.\u00a0 Again Paul wrote in Ephesians, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (EPH 5:11).\u00a0 He used strong language in his admonition: have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness.\u00a0 We are not to celebrate with idolaters and demon. <\/span><\/p>\n Christians may argue that Paul said “everything is permissible” for a Christian (1CO 10:23).\u00a0Paul continued in 1CO 10:22, “Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”\u00a0 God will judge us if we wantonly provoke His jealousy.<\/span><\/p>\n (Adapted from\u00a0 Should Christians Celebrate\/Participate in Halloween?<\/span>; all Scripture references are taken from the KJV unless otherwise noted.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Dr. Mike Jones I. Introduction Every year when October rolls around the signs of Halloween candy, Halloween costumes, Halloween party favors, Halloween greeting cards, Halloween decorations, scary soundtracks and lighting effects, ghoulish make-up, pumpkins, bundled corn stalks and other paraphernalia Halloween is an American tradition that grows in importance every year, despite cruel incidents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingministryofdrmike.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}