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October 26, 2004
Halloween

I've said it often and I'll say it again, American is more pagan than we care to admit. This Sunday, the last day of October will mark the annual celebration of what I believe to be one of the most disturbing and widely accepted holidays of the year: Halloween. I won't be celebrating, and I have my reasons.

I believe that the origin of everything, but especially holidays is worth knowing and very seriously considering. There is often a lot of symbolism involved in our "commemorations" that we tend to ignore or make excuses for. I count October 31st as one of the biggest cover-ups for Satanic activity to come along since, well, a certain rock music group which shall go unnamed.

I'm not generally one to bore with the facts. A simple "Google" search on the origins of Halloween can bring you this information, but I thought I'd condense it a bit for the sake of the lazy reader like me.

The Origin
You can trace the origins of Halloween back a number of different ways, but most will lead you to a Celtic Festival called "Samhain" which celebrated the changing of seasons and their "new year" on November 1st. The Celts believed that on the eve of their "new year" the boundary between the dead and the living became blurred. On that eve of the "new year" (October 31) they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

On that eve, the Celtic priests (also known as Druids) built huge bonfires and offered crops and animals as sacrifices to Celtic deities. During the "celebration", the participants dressed up in costumes and tried to tell each other's fortunes. When the Romans conquered the Celtic territory, they combined their pagan festivals into one.

Traditions like bobbing for apples find their origin in the worshipping of the Roman goddess of fruit and trees called "Pomona". The symbol of Pomona is the apple (we French speakers know the word for applie is "pomme"). Even the tradition of the "jack-o-lantern" is historically based on a mythological character.

Years passed and with the influence of Catholicism, celebrations evolved into what we now call "All Saints Day" on November 1 or loosely translated from Middle English, "All-hallows". The day before "All Saints Day" was known as "All-hallows Eve" or what we now call "Halloween".

Dressing in Costume
Celebrations were marked by bonfires, parades, and people dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.

The History Channel reports some interesting background on Halloween:

"The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter."

Speaking as a Christian, we are not to make idols of the dead. We honor the dead, but we don't worship the dead. There is only one who gets the "worship" in this deal and it's God. The dead are dead. Let their bodies be in the grave and their souls rest in heaven or hell.

The Origin of Trick-or-Treating
It's been suspected that the act of going from door to door to get candy traces back to the All Saint's day parades when during the festivities, the poor would go around to peoples' houses begging for food. Families who answered the door would give them pastries called "Soul cakes" in return for their promise that they'd pray for family's dead relatives. This practice was eventually given over to children and intended to replace the tradition of leaving out food for "roaming spirits".

Today
Jump to the present. There isn't a lot that has changed from the past. During the 19th century, there was a move to center Halloween on family and community, but the roots and traditions are still visible and prevailing.

It is widely known that Halloween also serves as a time for those involved in the occult to commemorate their own sacred rituals. Covens gather and the worshipping of spirits commences. We often turn our shoulder, but the Wiccans, witchcraft, and demonism are very real and very prevalent in our society. There are many things I'm willing to tolerate and entertain, the occult is not one of them.

Many would argue that the holiday is all in fun and while I agree there are aspects of this celebration that seem harmless, the undertones are not something with which I personally desire to associate myself or my future children. Aside from trick-or-treating, the fruit of this holiday is arguably not heavily weighted towards "community". The abundance of haunted houses, witches, devil, and ghost costumes, séances, scary stories, and the general presence of "death" is not edifying in the least.

I believe people should act according to their convictions. If you choose to celebrate this day by putting your own moral "twist" on it, so be it. But I also believe we're accountable for what we know. Many black Christians know the negative origin and roots of Kwanzaa but choose to celebrate the holiday anyway. I am not one of those people. For those who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ, the connotations of Halloween are not good. The foundation for Halloween is steeped in paganism.

With Americans spending an average of $6.9 billion (not million) to commemorate Halloween, that makes it the second largest commercial holiday of the year. When people ask me what I'm going as for Halloween, I say, "I'm dressing up as the wacky Christian girl who believes the holiday is pagan."

Posted by Ambra at October 26, 2004 11:50 AM

Comments

Hallelujah, sister!
Finally, someone who agrees with me that this is one "holiday" that shouldn't be recognized.

I have always thought it a bit unseemly, too, for kids to beg for candy.

Posted by: Glen at October 26, 2004 12:23 PM

I have to say, amen sister. I am even uncomfortable with the kids dressing up in costume at school. School-based Hall-'o-ween parties seem to me to be state sponsorship of Satanism and Wicca. Let the ACLU put THAT in their pipe and smoke it.

Steve Bragg
DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS--WORLDVIEWS Behind The NEWS

Posted by: Steve Bragg at October 26, 2004 12:25 PM

Does your church do anything, an alternative to trick-or-treat, for the youth? We have a "Fun Night" where we set up a bunch of games and the kids can win trinkets and little prizes (open to the whole neighborhood). When they leave each youngster gets a bag of candy. They are told ahead of time not to come in costume, but we had a few last year show up. It's tempting to keep them out, but I suppose that would defeat the message of Christ. This Sunday evening we are planning for over 250 kids.

There's another church in the area that does something called "The Road to Hell". They tour you through different acted scenes that show the results of drinking, drugs, sex outside of marriage, etc., as a scare tactic. I would be curious to hear your take on whether or not this is a good witnessing tool. I lean towards the "not a good tool" side, but I'm not going to condemn those who try. We serve a God of love, and the "turn or burn" tactics are typically not effective.

Posted by: MarcV at October 26, 2004 12:34 PM

MarcV yes our church does have some sort of Fall Fun Festival as an alternative. It's more like a carnival where kids can come out from the community, go on rides, play games, and lift up the name of Jesus.

I personally don't think this serves as the antithesis to the holiday, but it's certainly a start. I think we should just treat it as any other day, but of course if you're going to tell kids not to participate in something, I suppose you ought to give them a righteous alternative.

Re the "Road to Hell" production. As for scaring the hell out of teenagers (literally I mean), I'm not against that per se. I've seen these types of events done rather tastefully, pointing to God, and I've seen them done not so tastefully. But I tend to lean your direction as seeing it as a good witnessing tool for certain.

Posted by: Ambra Nykol at October 26, 2004 1:35 PM

I must respectfully disagree with you. I think you are taking this way too seriously. I believe its harmless fun for kids. When i was growing up it was such a perfect excuse to throw eggs and shaving cream at other kids and hey I'm a perefctly adjusted, law abiding, suburban Bush voter.
I think that there are a lot worse things in our society than Halloween. I know you can reason that its a slippery slope kind of thing, but I don't see it.

Posted by: joe from jersey at October 26, 2004 2:19 PM

What is more scary than pagans celebrating Halloween, are Christian feining a pseudo-celebration with silly dramas depicting the same thing. Either stand against it or be quiet about it. Just don't pretend you are "kind of" celebrating and put a spin on it.

The most scaried I ever got during trick or treating as a kid was the guy that opened his door and abruptly said he didn't "cheer on the evil ones".

Posted by: Tom at October 26, 2004 3:42 PM

I decided long ago that I would let my children dress up and trick or treat. I was really going against the flow. Most of the children's friends could not go out and trick or treat on 'Satan's birthday'.

I have decided that for us it is a community/cultural/tradional event. In my heart trick or treating has nothing to do with Satan or Witches. It is just fun time to go out in the dark and get tons of free candy.

I was raised with this attitude and have passed it on to the children. They understand that many people believe there is much more to the holiday and that worshiping Satan is, of course, wrong.

I was raised with halloween fun and trick or treating and I love the Lord and it has not been a stumbling block at all for me.

For the same type of reason I allow my children to read Harry Potter. I figure, I grew up watching a scary witch in The Wizard of Oz and for me it was just a movie. I allow them to read Harry Potter. Many of my friends don't read Harry because of the magic...but they love C.S. Lewis and Tolkein...

For us it is about the heart. In our hearts it is just fun. Nothing at all to do with Wiccans or long ago traditions.

We like the candy :o)

What do you think you will do about Santa when you have children?

Posted by: Donna Boucher at October 26, 2004 4:57 PM

I ain't Ambra, but my name starts with A and I have 5 letters, so I'll give it a crack. Plus, I already have a daughter.

First, halloween...I just don't fool with it. Nor do I like the idea of substitute halloween from churches. If there's nothing to see here, then keep it moving. I don't see any church groups doing a pseudo Ramadan, so why do halloween?

As far as my daughter, no halloween, no Santa Claus for her. Mommy and Daddy work too hard to give the credit to some fictive creature. Plus, I wasn't raised that way, and neither was her mom, which makes it very easy.

Posted by: avery at October 26, 2004 5:20 PM

Good question Donna.

I think with my children, I will be honest with them from the get-go. No Santa Claus in our household. Growing up, my parents didn't entertain the idea of a Santa Claus. When we got presents, it said "from mommy and daddy". I never felt like I was missing out on anything at all. In fact, I was such a big mouth, they had to muzzle me so that I wasn't going around telling all the other 5 year-olds at my pre-school that Santa Claus wasn't real.

I respect your decision for your household re: Halloween.

Posted by: Ambra Nykol at October 26, 2004 5:23 PM

I have to say that I agree with Donna on this one, however unpopular that opinion may be among Christians. I was raised in a community where trick-or-treating was nothing more than a good fun way to visit the neighbors and have fun playing dress-up. We never egged a house or TP'd someone's yard. When I have kids, I plan on letting them have fun with Halloween, but also explaining its roots and why we won't do things like dress as witches or visit haunted houses. I agree that it is a matter of heart, and if your heart isn't celebrating wickedness, instead promoting community, then I see no problem.

I also plan to explain to my future kids about the origin of Christmas and why we celebrate it on December 25th when Jesus was most likely born several months earlier. I will tell them that there is no Santa, but also teach them to respect the fact that many other children believe in him and to not spoil it for them.

Posted by: Bun-Girl at October 27, 2004 9:40 AM

Halloween is fun. And I resent that the religious right keeps trying to strip all the fun out of this country with their ridiculously puritan ways. I'm not a Christian and I don't want people telling me that I have to live within a set of ideals that I find decidedly hypocritical.

Posted by: flaime at October 27, 2004 10:05 AM

Welp Bun Girl and Joe, everyone's entitled to their own convictions. I shared mine.

flaime: Who's the religious right? And it's a good thing you feel the way you do because nowhere in this post was anyone trying to tell you how to live.

The things we take personally these days......

Posted by: Ambra Nykol at October 27, 2004 10:11 AM

Unfortunately many traditions have pagan roots, even supposedly Christian ones. Santa Claus springs from traditions around the Norse god Odin. Christmas is celebrated on the same day (or near the day) as the Roman festival Saturnalia and the tradition of exchanging gifts also probably originates from this festival. The list goes on: the Easter Bunny, the day we celebrate Easter, Easter eggs, Christmas trees, etc. In fact Puritans and many modern Christians have set out to purge Christianity from these traditions- Puritans didn't even celebrate Christmas as far as I know. This has been unsuccessful and largely a waste of time because these customs are not taken seriously as a threat because they have pretty much lost their pagan meanings. Catholic churches in early Christian times in fact used Halloween as a tool- following it up with All Saint's day to remind people to celebrate the good and recognize evil. I feel that Halloween, though it has a pagan origin, has really becomes a day of dressing up and eating candy for 99.9% of those who celebrate it. The .01% who have pagan festivals and such are those who give it a bad name. In many ways the pagan origins of Christmas are worse because people don't recognize they exist and they've really infused Christmas with way too many material based traditions. Imagine if Christmas was a day to celebrate the heavenly gift of Christ and not worldly gifts and decorations. I think that would be much better.

Posted by: Melissa at October 27, 2004 3:43 PM

I've felt increasingly leary of Halloween over the years. Just the idea of dressing the kids up like zombies or demons and sending them out to beg the neighbors for candy seems strange plus the undertones of Halloween bother me. Yes, I do like scary movies and yes I own most of Stephen King's books but somehow the celebration of Halloween seems to have gotten out of hand. Too many people are dead serious about it and that seems creepy-- and not in a good way.

Posted by: kimberley at October 27, 2004 7:15 PM

It's candy people, candy. And as for origins, well, the original Catholic Mass was almost directly ripped from the rituals of Mithras, a Roman God.

Posted by: Jordan at October 29, 2004 2:42 AM

Melissa's post should be considered seriously. If you don't take part in Halloweeen, why take part in Christmas?

Posted by: DarkStar at October 30, 2004 2:15 PM

Darkstar I agree that Christians shouldn't really be celebrating that either quite honestly.

We should be celebrating Biblical holidays...some varian on Hannukah, Passover, Fest of Unleavened bread, etc.

I'd argue that the one difference with Christmas is that the focus is on Christ (regardless of whether or not his b-day is dec 25th and what a idolic pine tree has to do with it)...Halloween is in no way honoring Christ but is in fact explict in its tribute to death, ghosts, witchcraft, etc.

Posted by: Ambra at October 30, 2004 2:30 PM