Thoughts on Halloween

Halloween as we celebrate it here in the United Staes has gone through many changes.  In fact, most of the earliest immigrants from Europe who settled the United States were vehemently opposed to such pagan practices.  Those groups such as the Pilgrims, Quakers, Amish, and Puritans were trying to get away from the corruption and worldliness which had entered the Churches of Europe.  So, it was much later with the advent of immigration by the Scottish and the Irish from the middle of the nineteenth century to about 1900, that Halloween in earnest began in the U.S.

Although a relatively recent import to the United States and other parts of the world, Halloweens' origins go back at least two thousands years.  The ancient Celtic tribes believed that on October 31,(Samhain), that there existed a portal allowing the dead to once again walk among us. Many of the practices associated with Halloween today go back to the ancient Celtic attempt to either facilitate communication with, or appeasement of, these spirits.

For example, dressing up in scary costumes was an attempt to avoid detection by evil spirits.  The ghoulish look you wore would make you indistinguishable from the dead and hence these spirits would not harass you.  They might think you were one of them.  Many would carve out turnips, place a candle inside it and place that at the entry of their home to ward off evil spirits.  The Catholic Church tried to stamp out these practices when they reached Ireland with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, they found the people very resistant.  In an effort at damage control, the Church attempted to co-opt these practices by plastering them over with Christian content.

In the Bible we continually see God directing the godly to stamp out all practices of ancient and false religions.  In the third book of the Bible, Leviticus, we can see in chapter 19, verse 31 that it says : "Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God."  The Catholic Church was never able to completely abolish this ancient and false religion and today there is a resurgence or all these practices, if my recent trips to the area are any indication.

While visiting sites associated with Ireland's past, I found a vibrant community of believers and practitioners of Samhain rituals.  Halloween is again thriving in the lands of its' origins and has made vast converts worldwide.  A recent news report describes how Halloween is even infiltrating and combining with "the Day of the Dead" in Mexico City.  The "Day of the Dead" and Halloween both have origins in ancestor worship.  Many festivals around the world celebrate and edify their ancestral past.  Here is a partial list of such events:

Brazil                           Finados                          
Bolivia                         Día de los Natitas          
China                           Ghost Festival      
Japan                           Bon
Korea                          Chuseok, Hankawi
Philippines                  Araw ng mga Patay
Vietnam                       Tet Trung Nguyen

Is this all just innocent fun, or something else?  What does the Bible indicate about such celebrations?    The Bible makes it clear in the Book of Ecclesiastes that we can not contact the dead.  This book attributed to the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon states, " for the living know they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.  Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun"- Ecclesiastes 9:5-6.  So making food for them or believing your ancestors walk the earth after they have passed away is not concordant with Judeo-Christian faith.  Neither is believing that previous inhabitants of your home could haunt it.

So what is a Christian or Jew to do when faced with the massive celebrations of these events in our world.  First of all do not, I repeat do not, surrender any day on your calendar to Satan!  Did I make myself clear believers?  We can not give Satan authority that he does not have.  I have actually known  a number of Christians who would sit in their darken homes, hoping that no mischief would befall them during Halloween.  " I will just go to sleep early.  I can't wait for this day to be over."  Another Christian friend told me she was afraid of teenage boys dressed up in scary costumes.  One big, burly, mighty man of God opinied, " God has every other day of the year, but the devil has Halloween."

These friends helped me to reflect on what my own response to Halloween should be.  These responses seemed to me to fall short of the authority that God has given us in the spiritual realm, after all look at Deuteronomy 28:13 which says : "and the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and be careful to observe them."

I use the day to serve the community by preparing fun and educational gifts to hand out to passing trick-or-treaters. I make handmade goody bags usually featuring colored leaves and tied together with yarn.  Inside these bags I have given out rings, hair ribbons, geodes, pencils and rulers.  I only decorate my home in a cheerful way and resist the urge to make it look like a haunted house.  After all, our house should testify to God Almighty because, " the earth's is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world, and those who dwell therein." Psalm 24:1.