🍁 2000 years ago, Ancient Celts and Druid priests celebrated Samhain, dressing as animals and monsters, thinking it would keep evil spirits from kidnapping them while they prayed for the dead.
🍁 As Catholicism spread in the 10th century, the Celts tried to incorporate elements of Samhain into All Saints’ Day (All-Hallows Eve).¹
🍁 Then in the Middle Ages, “souling” was added to the celebration: going door-to-door, promising to pray for dead relatives in exchange for pastries. Eventually, children went door-to-door asking for gifts and food.
🍁 In the 19th century, an Irish myth about the devil led to the display of jack-o'-lanterns, which were supposed to scare away evil spirits.
🍁 When Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the States in the 20th century, it was marked by “vandalism, physical assaults, and sporadic acts of violence.”²
This was also when the Samhain tradition of costumes was revived, and the pagan decorations emphasized death, witches, ghosts, black cats, bad luck, and tricks.
Halloween has an evil theme, and it trivializes evil spirits, witches, and evil symbols, encouraging children to see them as fun and fictional.³
When we read Old Testament passages like Deuteronomy 18:10-12, we realize that paganism has always been sick and disgusting. But the more our world rejects Scripture, the more paganism thrives. That's why we see an increase in the display of evil symbols at Halloween.
If you feel comfortable participating in Halloween, please at least use it as a way to share Christ.⁵
Source: History.com
My thoughts
I’ve had an uneasy feeling about Halloween ever since I became a Christian. I tried to justify it at times, but eventually kept my children from participating. I just couldn’t feel comfortable with what it represents. However, if Christians are able to avoid occult and pagan symbols and costumes (skeletons, ghosts, graves, witches, demons, and other pagan and death decor), it might be considered a Romans 14 “allowed difference.” But I think it would be hard to find neighborhoods or Halloween functions where those symbols are not present. See Handling Non-Essential Differences.
Occultism is on the rise in our world, and Christians should avoid things which promote it, so I'm writing a stronger warning than I have in the past. More than ever before, Christians need to avoid compromise and “come out from them and be separate” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
If we fear that our children won’t “fit in” with other kids if they can’t celebrate Halloween, we should realize that fitting in is the worst thing we could want for our children. And the sooner they learn their need to stand against worldly influences, the better. See You Can Fit In or You Can Follow Jesus.
Many people have tried to tie Christmas to pagan holidays and I've thoroughly researched these claims and found them as conjecture, not fact. Christmas doesn't resemble ancient rituals, involve pagan symbols, or glorify Satan, witches, or demons.
If a person wishes not to celebrate Christmas, this is a genuine Romans 14 difference, and we should respect each other's choices even if we disagree. But unlike Christmas, Halloween has pagan origins and an ever-increasing pagan emphasis, so I encourage you to pray about whether God would have you involved.
And please check out this video by a woman previously involved in the New Age and Occult: Halloween 'Opens Demonic Doors': Ex-Psychic's Dire Warning About Spiritual Dangers.
Please see my other posts regarding Halloween:
3 Ways of Looking at Popular Pagan Practices
Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
Different Ways Christians Handle Halloween
And this video is done by two women who were involved in the occult before they became Christians: We Loved Halloween - Until Our Eyes Were Opened to the Shocking Truth.
If you want to justify your involvement in Halloween, you can find many Christian resources that downplay the dangers and errors, but I encourage you to err on the side of caution instead of compromise.
Footnotes:
1. All Saints' Day was established to honor saints hundreds of years before Celtic practices were added, and All Saints' Day has maintained its original meaning. Halloween is a holiday unto itself.
2. Halloween has always been associated with mischief. In fact, in the 1970s and 1980s, arsonists celebrated the holiday by setting fires. In 1984, Detroit had more than 800 dangerous fires lit for this purpose.
3. Halloween is celebrated by Wiccans: “Wicca, the largest of the modern Pagan, or Neo-Pagan, religions. Its followers, who are called Wiccans, typically identify as witches and draw inspiration largely from the pre-Christian religions of Europe.” (Britannica)
4. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’ And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”
5. Living Waters ministry sells tracts to hand out to trick-or-treaters. For example, see Albert Brainstein and Curved Illusion. They also sell another tract with a jack-o'-lantern on it, but I don't recommend using symbols of Halloween to share the gospel.
BLN
No comments:
Post a Comment