I. Introduction
II. “Halloween”
III. Get 'em While They're Young
IV. The Offense
Figure 1 The Halloween Offense Censored
The history behind what we know today as Halloween is a convoluted affair. It appears to begin with a Celtic season-festival-tradition steeped in fear, ignorance, superstition, the occult, and worse, if that be possible, as one looks at it from the vantage point of other locales in Europe that observed the same festival in a more gruesome manner [1]. Somehow, or maybe better said, for some reason a holy day of the Roman Catholic Church commemorating the faithful saints departed landed on the day of this festival; it was later moved one day hence to dissociate the commemoration with the pagan festival. Thus moved was born what is literally the eve of the day that commemorates the saints or “hallows”—“Hallows' Eve,” which eve of course falls on the day of the pagan festival.
This pulpit is interested in:
The word “Halloween,” some background
The children and Halloween
The offense toward God through this occasion.
Halloween as we know it today probably derives from a Celtic festival—“Samhain” (literally: “summer's end,” but by association: “festival of the dead”), which marked the end of the harvest season and the onset of the darkness and dead of winter [2].
The word Halloween is a contracted form of [All] “Hallows' Evening.” Halloween is observed on October thirty-first, the day before All Saints' Day (All Hallows' Day), a day set apart for commemoration of all the faithful departed, which was originally observed October thirty-first through November first ( as was Samhain), but was moved to November first in the eighth century by Pope Gregory III to dissociate it with the pagan Samhain. Moreover, Halloween is observed two days or perhaps a few more before All Souls' Day, originally a day set apart for commemoration of the faithful departed in so-called “Purgatory.” These three observances in the aggregate comprise what is known as the Allhallowtide (this is a puzzling confluence/history—the influences and connections that is), each being a major observance in certain segments of non-Reformed, Western Christianity (“Allhallowtide,” “Halloween,” two sources, Mershman, “All Saints' Day,” Mershman, “All Souls' Day,” “Purgatory,” three sources [also Hanna here], “Samhain”).
Halloween as we know it today appears quite innocent enough: candy—free no less, costumes, late evening fun, make believe, parties, and so on—the stuff of kids' dreams. Just “good 'ol fun,” right? A mind not yet fully matured would see it that way more than likely. The bits and pieces that make up the occasion, be they as they may, are all just part of the “good 'ol mix” to such a mind. And there's the rub. Suppose a young one has been attending Sunday School. Learning biblical truths. Now they go out on Halloween, part of the “good 'ol mix,” rubbing shoulders with the macabre in guise, laughing and joking and having a good 'ol time with the same, or with devils and witches and sorcerers in guise, or ghosts, goblins, and so forth. But hey, no big deal, is the message that is sent to them—everybody is having a good time, these things are just, well, make believe; harmless, the stuff of entertainment; it's just play time, that's all. As you can see, the Sunday School lessons have been put to a sham. If the Bible teaches that young one about the seriousness of the sin that issues from and attends the macabre, the occult, superstition, and so forth (Deu 18:9-11 for example; Halloween trivializes this), and warns repeatedly that Satan and devils are God's enemy and ours, a certain biblical “edge” is lost for God when fun is poked at these things; when these things can be taken lightly, even found amusing and fun as phony make believe harmless things—certainly in an immature mind. How Satan must love this very thing—he, not wishing to be taken seriously; so that he can seriously get busy and destroy the precious things of God; he has exactly what he wants here; it could hardly be framed more conveniently for him. And the immature mind is especially his delight, getting a toehold there, so he can more seriously rip and tear later. God's people must not be a part of this! Let us, His own, find alternatives that glorify God and reinforce the biblical truths we preach and teach. There are much more difficult things in life than to find such alternatives, and if we can put ourselves to doing the former, by God's grace we can do the latter.
It is the responsibility of the head of the household—the dad or single mom—in prayerful concert with their Overlord Jesus, and in solidarity with their spouse if there be one, to thus 'lay down the law' here in their household, and yet at the same time to make the necessary arrangements to lovingly encourage and entertain and uplift their household in some other way on this occasion. There are other options these days, Church-sponsored ones aplenty. One must just pray and ask God to lead and then follow His guidance; He will surely give it.
Aside, please notice that some say Halloween is a great opportunity for young people to witness to those around them—but nay, these same folks that say this (hopefully) would not allow their young ones to go to a 'porn shop' with their homeboy/girl pals thinking after all they might be able to witness to those pals or others there. The problem is an “eye polish” problem in this porn scenario as similarly it is above with guise-centric Halloween—most everywhere the young one looks they come under serious influential attack (Fig. 1). Wisdom says stay away and let God occasion the witness otherwise [3].
Hell breaks loose on Halloween and throws a party, inviting all to join in on the “fun.” It is Samhain, a death celebration party. And who exactly funds this twisted Samhain if you will? Satan, a murderer from the beginning underwrites Samhain (Jhn 8:44). Satan is the lord of death, and Samhain-steeped-Halloween is his party, with lots of eye polish; it “exalts” him; is made to look good, entertaining, fun, innocent, inviting, no big deal. The macabre, darkness, death, disguises, fear, masquerades, the occult, superstition, hell's party. Let him and his keep it. Yea, '...but as for me and my house—we shall serve the Lord at this time...'
The ambiance and essence of Halloween stands against everything God stands for as revealed by His Word, even Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life and Light, Overt, Truth. Thus it is an Offense, a serious one. Halloween is a direct frontal assault directed squarely at Jehovah God; it is executed with all the red-herring-guise and stealth peculiar to the consummate liar who deceives the nations, perched for a kill, opportunistic, snake-like, ruthless, cruel (“Revelation Chapter Thirteen Commentary”).
And is it not sinister that this Offense glaringly unfolds on the eve of a day that seeks to commemorate the precious ones of God, whom He died for, as though making these of naught, trivializing , mocking, by way of this up front affront? You can see how both the Word of God and the Saints of God are targeted; are put in the cross hairs so as to mockingly undermine the same by this occasion (the Word of God and the Saints of God—what can be more precious to Him?). This took some planning and determined, patient, coordinated follow-through—note that it has been so for centuries, where many have wittingly or unwittingly been suckered by Satan to do his bidding, being used as pawns by him to offend Jehovah God here (many do not need to be suckered—they enjoy offending Jehovah God); pawns that once found to be of little or no further utility, are cast aside and worse (but O how our Savior steps into the savage mix looking for such [Luk 19:10]; preventing; protecting; saving; we praise Thee great savior God, even Hero). And my how deeply rooted Halloween is in modern times—the spirit of Samhain is as alive and thriving as ever before, it just looks a little different now; it plays itself out a little different now. But God our Sovereign is not mocked, He knows His informed, faithful own, even if it is just a remnant in its generation. And the rest (the informed unfaithful and/or outright enemies)? They get to spend their eternity with the lord of death—this is no party (“A Letter of Invitation”).
Year after year in these modern times Halloween confronts us with images and drag, guises and costumes and what not that communicate underlying themes that run quite counter to Christian biblical norms. The occasion has become so commonplace, what, introducing the end-of-year holiday season, as to be normative to society in not a few places around the world. But that which is normative to society more often than not runs counter to Christian biblical norms (maybe in part this is what our Lord says here-Luk 16:15). This was a priori a main goal of our pulpit—to uncover and qualify if possible the obvious conflict that exists between the Word of God and Halloween. Thus we sought first to uncover the origins of Halloween as we know it, its roots, with an eye to this conflict, and so the pulpit began by introducing a Celtic season-festival-tradition—Samhain, observed on October thirty-first—which appears to be foundational to Halloween, and already the conflict began to “jump off the page” if you will. Focused on death and the dead, and steeped in fear, ignorance, superstition, the occult, and depending on the locale involving heart-wrenching and very sad season related human-sacrifice-type “appeasing” of the “gods/spirits,” Samhain hands down runs counter to Christian biblical norms. Importantly, insofar as we understand and assess it, the research shows the pagan Samhain to be pattern-and-type-foundational to Halloween as we know it today.
We looked next at the word “Halloween,” and pointed out that a holy day of the Roman Catholic Church commemorating the faithful saints departed somehow landed on the day of the Samhain festival; the commemoration was later moved one day hence to November first to dissociate it with the pagan festival. Thus moved was born what is literally the eve (October thirty-first) of the day that commemorates the saints or “hallows”—“Hallows' Eve.” No conflict here, in fact this move to some degree served to avert conflict with Scripture, but nevertheless occasioned the birth of “Halloween” in common usage—a word that is a contracted form of [All] “Hallows' Evening.” Notice the thoroughgoing influence of Samhain on Halloween as we know it today—it lends pattern and type to Halloween, it probably occasioned somehow (thematically for ministerial purposes?) the fixing of All Hallows' day originally on October thirty-first, and it occasioned the moving of All Hallows' Day one day hence to November first thus giving expression to “Halloween” across the centuries.
We then focused on the children, or young ones, and Halloween; the young ones so impressionable. It was thought that if the Bible teaches the young ones about the seriousness of the sin that issues from and attends the macabre, the occult, superstition, and so forth, and warns repeatedly that Satan and devils are God's enemy and ours, that a certain biblical “edge” is lost for God when fun is poked at these things; when these things are taken lightly, even found amusing and fun as phony make believe harmless things. Thus it is an easy conclusion to say: '...don't let the young ones participate in the secular activities...' We said that it is the responsibility of the dad or single mom in prayerful concert with their Overlord Jesus to 'lay down the law' here in their household, and yet at the same time to make the necessary arrangements to lovingly encourage and entertain and uplift their household in some other way on this occasion (there are other options—Church-sponsored ones aplenty). It was thought that though Halloween might indeed be an opportunity for the young ones to witness for Christ, it is better to let God occasion the witness otherwise—a 'porn shop' scenario example was offered in the main text—wherever the young ones look on this occasion they come under serious influential attack. There is obviously a major difference between they visiting a 'porn shop' and participating in the affairs of Halloween, but our concern is that the degree of psychological and/or spiritual influence and impression is lasting and similarly negative for Christian youths—either way, they are sent false messages about reality, even God's reality, and thus Truth. We all need Truth for Godly maturation, especially our youth.
Against the backdrop of these sundry introductions we discussed last the Halloween offense, the focus of the pulpit. It was thought that what we see in Halloween is a continuation of a death celebration party—Samhain. As said above hell breaks loose on Halloween and throws this party, inviting all to join in on the “fun.” And the lord of death, Satan, a murderer from the beginning, underwrites this; underwrites Samhain-steeped-Halloween. It is his party, it “exalts” him by way of escalating to the fore the things that characterize him. In keeping with this cruel, deceitful, and wicked killer-creature's character, the macabre, darkness, death, disguises, fear, masquerades, the occult, superstition, are made to look good, entertaining, fun, innocent, inviting, no big deal. But needless to say, these characteristically satanic things stand against everything God stands for as revealed by His Word, even Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life and Light, Overt, Truth. Thus Halloween is a serious Offense to our beloved God Jehovah. As said in the main text, we believe Halloween is a direct frontal assault directed squarely at Jehovah God; it is executed with all the red-herring-guise and stealth peculiar to the consummate liar who deceives the nations, perched for a kill. Moreover, we noted that this Offense glaringly unfolds on the eve of a day that seeks to commemorate the precious ones of God, whom He died for, as though making these of naught and by association our great savior God's sacrificial labors, trivializing, mocking. What an Offense, thoroughly glossed over with lots of eye polish.
And finally, what is one to do then when the doorbell rings and the kids, decked out in their guise, come trick-or-treating? Is giving them treats tantamount to participating in the Halloween Offense? No, it is not. At our house we bless them when they come, and as best as possible try to give them wholesome treats, along with what we pray is a very “sweet and wholesome” treat for their and their parents' souls (“JA Witnessing Card”) (!). We love the kids and care for them and would in no wise turn them away or not answer the doorbell.
Well then, come Halloween, let us glorify and honor our beloved God Jehovah.
Praised be your Name great Jehovah God, even LORD; LORD of Life and Light, Overt, Truth. How exceedingly good it is that we have you.
(As best as possible we tried to present a threefold basis for each reference; in this way some of the following references are an interesting comparative read/study in and of themselves.)
“A Letter of Invitation.”
< http://jesusamen.org/aletterofinvitation.html >
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallowtide >
“All Saints' Day.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day >
“All Souls' Day.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls%27_Day >
“Be Holy.”
< http://jesusamen.org/beholy.html >
“Gaels.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaels >
“Halloween.” (“All Hallows' Eve”).
Theopedia.
< http://www.theopedia.com/Halloween >
“Halloween” (”All Hallows' Eve”).
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween >
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 20 Sept. 2014.
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm >
Kirsch, Johann Peter. "The Reformation. "
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 20 Sept. 2014.
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm >
Mershman, Francis. "All Saints' Day."
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20 Sept. 2014.
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm >
Mershman, Francis. "All Souls' Day."
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20 Sept. 2014.
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315b.htm >
Moran, Patrick Francis Cardinal. "St. Patrick."
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 20 Sept. 2014
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm >
“Protestant Reformation.”
Theopedia.
< http://www.theopedia.com/Protestant_Reformation >
“Protestant Reformation.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation >
Theopedia.
< http://www.theopedia.com/Purgatory >
“Purgatory.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory >
“Saint Patrick.”
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick >
Wikipedia.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain >
1. One is reminded of the Greco-Roman mystery religions—Grecian and/or Oriental cults from antiquity, some dating to the third-millennium BC, that drew on ancient mythology (as opposed to a historical figure) and originated as fertility/nature cults attentive to the seasons, which were themselves viewed as the death and rebirth of nature.
2. The ancient tradition has it that at the time of Samhain (the transition between summer and winter at the end of fall on October thirty-first) the doors to the otherworld were “more readily opened” and that spirit beings, some evil, visited the domain of the living. The possible connection to Halloween as we know it in modern times has various possibilities but one may be that the indigenous of the day disguised themselves as evil spirits in hope of escaping notice and harassment by these otherwordly spirits. This tradition was not entirely displaced when Christianity—for example the dedicated labors of Saint Patrick in the fifth-century AD—shone the Light of Christ in the hearts and minds of these people. Forms and degrees of the tradition probably spread through the centuries-long emigrations of the indigenous. In other parts of Europe similar traditions were practiced at or around this time of the year/season-cycle that had, in place of “escape” by way of disguise, gruesome sacrifices to appease the spirits and/or gods, depending on what tradition one follows.
The focus on darkness, death, fear, ignorance of the one true God Jehovah and thus Truth, the occult (divination for example) and superstition—mainstay operatives of Satan—is abundantly clear. Should we in modern times, informed, no less, of the Truth, and thus more accountable, participate at all in such an offense to Jehovah our Lord and Life and Light? No way. If our little ones' feelings are hurt over this, surely we can find in this day and age some other means of encouraging and entertaining them for this one day out of the year. It is precisely for their consummate good that they, highly impressionable, abstain from this disgusting offense directed squarely at Jehovah God by Satan through people, even through God's people (God forbid).
3. It is true that the Halloween eye polish is ubiquitous on this occasion, but there is a major difference between endorsing the offensive themes by participating on the one hand, and being innocently exposed to the ubiquity in the course of carrying out one's necessary daily affairs on the other. The young ones we influence recognize this and tuck away mentally our disposition here.