I grew up in a no non-sense, God-fearing, Bible-reading home and, as an adult, I appreciate it because I see the effects and the advantages it has given me. However, as a child, I hated every minute of it and never understood what all the fuss was about.
Halloween was no exception to this. All throughout my school years, my friends would go to school and dress up, pass out candy and parade around the school having fun – but I wasn’t allowed to. Matter-of-fact, my mother would pull us out of school for the day and instead she would buy us one bag of candy of our choice and we were allowed to watch wholesome, ABC Family-type movies all day.
In grade school and middle school I was questioned by the other kids and it was difficult for me to put into words exactly why my mother was doing it, but as I got older I understood and I’m grateful. My mother had taught us that Halloween was a pagan holiday filled with occult rituals and, as Christians, we shouldn’t be a part of that. In high school I studied this out for myself, discovering my mother was 100% right and I went on to teach about it to younger children so they understood this truth also.
Now, as a disclaimer, if you celebrate Halloween I really don’t care. I don’t think worse or better of you. It’s your choice; your life is your life that you have to answer for. But as I was trained as a child, I will continue to remove myself completely from any and all celebrations for this “holiday”. I don’t look down anyone, I just simply remove myself.
But you’re not celebrating with evil intentions, right? I believe that, but it makes no difference. Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, was originally celebrated by the Celtics and Druids as a feast to celebrate the dead. It’s the one day where they believe the dead walk among us. Many of our holidays are close to pagan holidays such as the pagan festival of Yule, which is celebrated on December 21st, to worship and offer human sacrifices to the god Ogdin to grant them gifts during the winter months when there was no harvest to pull from. Our Christmas is on December 25th, where we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus as the one true gift that we need. The church, to balance the scales of evil, insitituted Christmas to pay honor and celebration to our God even though Jesus probably wasn’t born on December 25th. Unfortunately, there is no Christian instituted holiday for Halloween. In addition, it is celebrated by Christians on the EXACT night as the pagans celebrate. Does that seem like a good idea?
The pagans celebrate by dressing up in costumes to ward off the spirits to trick them. Typically they dress as a person who has died taking on their character, as with any costume. They would carve faces into pumpkins to ward off evil spirits and use bonfires for human and animal sacrifice to the god Samhain. The original name for bonfire is bone-fire, for this reason. Over time, as with all things, languages changed and Bonfire sounds nicer. Trick-or-Treat has it’s origin in “souling” where poor people would come to your door sing and pray for the dead and receive cakes or sweets from wealthier families. In addition, “mumming” was also popular where people would perform antics to make you laugh to receive a treat, if no treat was awarded, a trick was then performed. The Halloween game Bobbing For Apples is actually a pagan ritual for love where the first to bite the apple would be the first to marry.
If you were to come across a wiccan website, which I have while doing research on the “holiday”, you’ll see how excited they are about this day. This is their day. They look forward to this day as a child gets excited for Christmas. In preparation for this day you’ll see that they make sure to prepare:
Black altar cloth
Scrying mirror or bowl of water
Four white pillar candles for the four quarters
One gold taper candle for the God
One silver taper candle for the Goddess
One black candle
Natural bowl (shell, horn, seed pod, etc)
Slice of bread
Apple cider
Any ritual tools you normally use
Most would usually wear black during this rite
And these are the prayers they recite:
“I call upon the spirits of the North, that they join my Circle and bring word of the dead, and take my words to them! Welcome, spirits of Air!”
“I offer this sustenance to those who have passed before me, this bread of the earth and air, and this drink of the water and fire. With the union of the two, they become whole and I offer it to my ancestors, to the Gods and Goddesses who would have it.”
If you’d like to see it for yourself: http://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/samhainrit.htm
And, if you were to Google “Samhain images” you’ll see that there’s nothing “friendly” or “cute” about this holiday.
It’s these reasons that I don’t agree with celebrating this holiday for myself. I understand that, for many, there are no evil intentions and “the children love it” or “it’s all in good fun”. But for me, there’s a lot of “fun” things that I shouldn’t do. Not everything “fun” is beneficial. But you don’t want the kids to “feel left out”, although, I was “left out” and stronger for it, able to defend my faith and what I believe when no one else will stand with me. You may think I’m being old-fashioned or too strict and I should use this day to show God – but I am showing God in the best way I know how, I keep myself set apart ( 2 Corinthians 6:17: Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”)
Maybe if this “holiday” was on a different day, and celebrated with rituals centered around God, I wouldn’t see an issue – but a holiday centered around evil, darkness and fear on the actual day satanists and witches celebrate it to worship the god of the dead is nothing I want to be a part of.
Becoming Invincible 