Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? (Part 2)
Published October 31, 2009 by Pastor Adam Gislason
Great Adventure Ministries

The Origins of Halloween

You see, whether we like it or not, we must accept the fact that Halloween is not just some made-up holiday. Matter of fact, if you do your homework, you will find that Halloween is part of the ancient pagan religion of the Celtics which originated in Ireland and Britain.


It’s a religion that is heavily involved with the spiritual realm and many, many pagan gods. This ancient “new age” religion has four Major High Holy Days (or festivals) each year.


And one of the festivals is called Samhain (sow-en). Now when you look at the word Samhain (sow-en) on paper, it looks like it’s pronounced “Samhain” spelled S-a-m-h-a-i-n.


Do you ever remember growing up hearing somebody say, “Where in the Samhain are you going?” I use to say it to impress all my buddies. “Where in the Samhain are you going?” That was the “politically correct” way to say it in the church, because nobody in church would be caught dead saying the word “hell.”


The funny thing is, I, along with a lot of other people, we are actually mispronouncing the word. Samhain is actually pronounced “sow-en”, with “sow” rhyming with cow. Samhain is celebrated every year on November 1st.


It is considered to be one of the most important celebrations as it is thought to mark the beginning of the Celtic New Year. According to the Celtic religion, the day before Samhain (October 31) is the last day of summer (and last day of the year) and the day after Samhain is the first day of the winter (and the first day of the new year). Follow?


And since Samhain is considered to be “between” the seasons or years, it is considered to be a very special time. The Celtics believe Samhain is a time when the division between the spiritual and physical realm becomes very thin, when hostile supernatural forces are active and spirits are free to wander as they choose.

Several traditions have arisen with the celebration of Samhain. One of these is “trick or treat.” While the origins are not clear, there are few legends that have come down to us over the years.

The first legend is that when beggars would come to the door, people would give food in return for blessings from spirits of the dead. Failure to supply treats would result in demonic retaliation.

A similar second legend said that beggars would go from village to village begging for “soul cakes” made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.

A third legend has it that since the fairies were abroad on this night, an offering of food or milk was frequently left for them on the steps of the house so that the homeowner could gain the blessings of the “good folk” for the coming year.

Now I don’t know about you, but this third legend has an amazing similarity to the current false teachings in some parts of the church today regarding giving “seed” money to get a “harvest” of blessings for yourself. Many of the households would also leave out a “supper” for the spirits of the departed.

One thing that I have come to know in studying church history over the years is that Satan doesn’t have any new tricks. He just keeps re-packaging his old ones.

Another Halloween tradition is the “jack-o-lantern.” It also has two legends that surround its beginnings. One such legend states that originally the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns as representations of the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead.

However, when the Irish immigrated to America guess what? They couldn’t find many turnips to carve into jack-o-lanterns, but they did find an abundance of pumpkins.

The other legend has it that a man named Jack tricked Satan into a tree and trapped him there. After making a deal with the devil to let him go, Jack went on his way. He eventually died and the story goes, he was not allowed in heaven or hell and so was doomed to wander between the two realms.

The story concludes with the devil giving Jack an ember from the flames of hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed out turnip.

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, the jack-o-lantern is a symbol of a damned soul. Candlelit pumpkins/skulls at a home signifies that the occupants were sympathetic to Satan and therefore received mercy from spirits and trick or treaters on their Halloween rounds.

The tradition of dressing up in demonic costumes came from the idea of trying to blend in with the evil spirits so that they wouldn’t recognize you-so that they would just “pass you by.”

The tradition of “bobbing for apples” is derived from a Celtic pagan marriage custom. A lot of marriage divinations had to do with apples. In Celtic tradition, the fruit was associated with female deities who controlled the ways of love.

One of the most popular divinations was for young unmarried people to try to bite into an apple floating in water or hanging from a string. This is something like the bouquet toss that still plays a part today in wedding receptions. The first person to bite into the apple would be the next one to marry.

The tradition of bonfires is perhaps the most sickening of all practices where human sacrifices occurred at midnight. Both adults and children would be thrown into huge fires while the celebrants danced around them in demonic fits of abandon. By morning, only the bones and ashes would remain.

And so that’s where we get the word bonfire from-it actually comes from the root word “bone.” So as you invite people over to your house in the future, no more bonefires. Camfires only!

Black cats were thought to be the re-incarnation of the evil dead and were thought to be possessed with supernatural power and knowledge.

Broomsticks and witches hats were objects that when used in witchcraft supposedly transformed the sexual energy released during orgasm into psychic energy. And speaking of witches…

Witches, warlocks and witchcraft are dominant themes of today’s Halloween. Witches and warlocks generally believe themselves to be followers of the ancient religion called Wicca. This is a religion which worships nature and is an attempt to return to worshipping ancient Norse, Greek or Celtic gods and goddesses.

And whether you want to believe this or not, the Wicca religion is growing incredibly in the United States today. According to some sources, Wicca is currently the fastest growing spiritual path in the United States.

Wicca witches are currently allowed to practice their pagan rituals on United States military bases. Fort Hood gave official sanction to the first Wiccan group by giving them a place to conduct their rituals, endorsing their selection of a priestess and providing them with an Army chaplain. That’s the fruit folks that we are seeing in this country from the “Freedom of Religion.”

So that’s just some of the origins of Halloween. Once again, I would encourage you to spend $20 and an hour of your time to watch “Halloween: Trick or Treat” for more in depth information. You can purchase a copy of this video at http://www.chistiananswers.net.