HALLOWEEN

The following is a portion of the text from a tract one of my kids got from his teacher while attending the Awana program. The tract is published by the Faith, Prayer and Tract League, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The front of the tract shows two kids talking. One of them is asking the other, "Say, why don't you make this a REAL Halloween? Do you know when Halloween started? Did you know that once it was a Holy evening? A long time ago the church decided (emphasis mine) to celebrate All Saints Day on November 1 every year. It was a special day to help those who love Jesus remember the saints (people who loved Jesus so much, they gave their lives to help others).

The evening before this very important day was called a hallowed or holy evening - a little like Christmas Eve. People were asked to use the time to get ready to remember the saints who loved Jesus.

During this hallowed evening (Halloween), the poor could go to the homes of those who loved Jesus and ask for food. If you loved Jesus, you would bake some special cakes and put a candle in the window to welcome the poor.

It was a special time for those who loved Jesus. Children would watch by the window - waiting for a poor family to come and ask for food. Mothers would try to send them to bed, but every time they heard another knock on the door, they would sneak to the window to see who came.

But some people didn't like those who followed Jesus. To tease them, they began dressing up like witches, devils and ghosts, knocking on the doors of those who followed Jesus and frightening the children. It was a cruel thing to do - especially taking a holy evening and turning it into something evil."

This all sounds very sweet and innocent and it would be very nice if all the true facts weren’t known. There is no way it can be “nice” because of, “A long time ago the church decided.” The World Book says, “In the 700’s the Roman Catholic Church names November 1 as All Saints’ day. The old pagan customs and the Christian feast day were combined into the Halloween festival.” The both, interesting and scary part about the above tract is, it is handed out by Protestant churches to justify a pagan holiday that was transposed into a Christian holiday by the Roman Catholics. A lot of very ungodly things traditionally used in the pagan celebrations were practiced many years before the church combined them into Halloween. The Halloween of today is a lot different that it was back in the fifties. There seems to be a lot less witches, etc.

I would also like to further quote in part from the World Book Encyclopedia concerning HALLOWEEN. "Halloween is a festival celebrated on October 31. Its name means hallowed or holy evening because it takes place the day before All Saints Day..... Many superstitions and symbols are connected with Halloween. The Irish have a tale about the origin of the jack-o'-lanterns. They say that a man named Jack was unable to enter heaven because of his miserliness. He could not enter hell because he played practical jokes on the devil. So he had to walk the earth with his lantern until judgment day.

The Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britain, believed that on Halloween, ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches, and elves came out to harm people. They thought that the cat was sacred and believed that cats had once been human beings but were changed as a punishment for evil deeds. From these Druidic beliefs comes the present-day use of witches, ghosts, and cats in Halloween festivities.”

A further definition of "All Saints Day" from the World Book says, "All Saints Day is a holy day observed by many Christians (emphasis mine) on November 1. It honors all Christian saints, especially those who do not have days named for them. It was first celebrated on May 13, A.D. 610, as the Feast of All Holy Martyrs, when the Emperor Phocas gave the ancient Roman temple of the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV as a church. Gradually the feast was extended to commemorate all saints, in addition to those who had given their lives for their faith. In the Roman Catholic Church, All Saints' Day is a holy day of obligation, when Catholics are required to attend Mass and to refrain from all unnecessary servile work."

At this point I would like to add some details from an article that was in the October 1975 issue of Back to the Bible's YOUNG AMBASSADOR, page 36. The article was entitled "SCARING PEOPLE FOR PROFIT." The article tells about the organization, what its purposes are, how much money they raised, and tells about the SPOOK HOUSE. In the middle of the article it asked the all important question: "How can something as secular-sounding as a Halloween fun house be authorized by an organization, which claims to be interested in spiritual growth?" After explaining and justifying their actions, the final paragraph asks, "A PAGAN HOLIDAY LIKE HALLOWEEN BEING USED TO HONOR JESUS CHRIST? WHY NOT? HE CAN USE ANYTHING AS LONG AS IT'S DEDICATED TO HIM-EVEN A FUN HOUSE." (Emphasis mine) I don't know about you, but that kind of talk SCARES me. That word "ANYTHING", opens up a whole lot of possibilities of different ways to commit apostasy. It seems to me when these kinds of things start happening, we're getting pretty far from Paul's admonition to "PREACH THE WORD." One of the reasons of justification for the spook house was that people that won't come to church would come to a spook house. This is my whole point, if we would be ONE on ONE witnesses, like the Bible teaches us to be, we wouldn't have to stoop to the world's means of reaching the lost. Romans 3:8 asks the question, “Let us do evil that good may come?” I don't think so.

First of all, you can clearly see that "All Saints Day" is an invention of and was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. It is also clear to see that it was celebrated before the reformation. The fact that it is still celebrated by the vast majority of Protestant churches proves my contention that the breakaway was only partial. These celebrations had no part in the beginnings of the true Christian Church.

I think it's a pretty sad thing that we Christians have gone from inside the house where we were being spooked and teased, to outside where we have joined the non-Christians in their harassment of us. The many superstitions and symbols used to celebrate this festival should have no part in the lives of Christians not to mention being involved in church activities. I don't think that true Bible believing Christians should be celebrating or teaching these traditions to subsequent generations. It isn't very becoming for Christians to use even subtle forms of terrorism or extortion such as; Trick or Treat! It is very un-Christian.

In a newsletter (Oct. 1994) from Chick publications was an interesting article concerning the Druids. According to the letter, "It is impossible to separate Halloween from the druids because they originated the "holiday." "Greek and Roman writings about the Druids dwell heavily on their frequent and barbaric human sacrifices...use of magic...to lay curses...kill by use of spells, and create magical obstacles."

October 31st was celebrated by the Druids with many human sacrifices...honoring...Samhain, the lord of the dead. Halloween was not widely celebrated in the U.S. until about 1900." (I wonder how immigration had to do with the spread of the holiday in this country?)

I think the blending of paganism and Christianity has been done against the divine will of God. The fact that He has allowed it should not be construed as an endorsement for His people to take part. When we celebrate paganism in the name of Christ we are showing that we don't know the difference between the Holy and the profane. Ezk. 22:26.

Re: Canadian call in show. CKLW 800 AM, Windsor, Ontario, on 10-28-98.

The subject was a result of a Catholic school in the Thunder Bay area of Canada, banning the Halloween celebration. They said, it did not conform to its religious beliefs, which is strange considering it was their mother church that started it many years ago. Let’s praise them and chalk it up to spiritual growth.

This radio talk show took up the topic and it seemed that most of the callers thought that the school was going too far. However a lot of those same people that called in didn’t want to have their kids dressing up like witches, ghosts and devils. They wanted them to be something more harmless and innocent. As the years go by, people get hardened to God’s rules and warnings. Deut. 18:9-12, says, “witchcraft is an abomination unto the Lord.” I think that is why a lot Christians basically shy away from anything that could be traced to witches, black cats or the Druids and their worship of other gods, including animal and human sacrifice. They want to have all the fun with none of the Biblical condemnation that comes with it.

It is the druid’s day - why would we, as Christians want to intrude into their celebration in the first place? Let’s have a little integrity. Considering their history, why would we want to give the druids anything? All we have done is change costumes; we still celebrate the same ungodly celebration.

The above mentioned statement from the World Book, “All Saints Day is a holy day observed by many Christians (emphasis mine) on November 1”, is really an indictment of all Protestant Christians that partake in this celebration. Catholics are the only ones who should be celebrating this (and even they shouldn’t) because their church started it. The trouble is, they have such fun doing it, that it attracts others (Christian and non-Christian) into joining in.

If I was to dress in the hood and robe of the KKK because I thought it looked neat and kind of spooky, not meaning to endorse or promote the KKK organization in any way, would anyone that celebrates Halloween feel good about my “choice” of garb? The Bible says (1Th 5:22) we are to avoid all appearance of evil. Is there anything more evil than sacrificing humans to the gods or even blind prejudice? Why would we, in any way want to sanitize those people and what they have done in the past? The Druids would leave a pumpkin at the door of someone that lost a family member (to the sacrifice) thereby signifying that they would lose no one else. Is that of any real comfort to those who lost a loved one? What about the neighbor that may be next?

Concerning the Jack O lantern, that Jack had to carry around the earth for playing tricks on the devil, do we really want to participate in passing along fables such as that. Those of you that have no idea of what I am speaking, are a prime example of the insanity of celebrating something we don’t know the origin of. Just because we are ignorant of the true origin, it doesn’t excuse us from doing something that is wrong, such as the KKK costume.

The three major (so called Christian) holidays promote nothing that has any value to God. It is something we do to feel good or have fun. Where does it end? Do we have to have a major celebration every quarter, every month every week, or every day to be happy? When do we tell ourselves and our kids, enough is enough? The social pressure makes it like we’re keeping up with the Jones’. We don’t want our kids feelings to be hurt so we let them join in the fun even if offends God.

When people celebrate anything loud enough and long enough, it will attract attention and eventual participation whether it is Mardi Gras or the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. The media and commercial interests are responsible for the hype that helps create and maintain interest by the people. Disney movies and fast food promotions and the Super Bowl are other examples. They get everybody hyped up about a product enough to cause tug-of-wars and fights over Beanie Babies, and others to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on event tickets. They create demand by hype rather than need. The promoters of those holidays don’t care who it offends (God or man) as long as they get their money. We can blame it on them, but “we the people” are really at fault.

We are celebrating and glorifying evil instead of good; we are promoting mammon over God. If these activities offend God, then He can offend us with various forms and types of government which include first ladies that communicate with other first ladies long since dead and others consult the stars.

We Christians have done the same thing with swearing. Instead of the hard words - we use “gosh,” or “gosh darn,” or “gowl darn,” or “gee,” or “golly,” etc. We clean it up so-as-to not offend God but does it really work?

One of the callers to the Canadian Talk show named Jeremy, said that his taking part in Halloween was a recognition of evil and was his way of thumbing his nose at it rather than considering it participation. Denial is not a river in Egypt. Call it what you will, you are still taking part.

We are at least, giving creditability and recognition, and at most, giving aid and comfort to a group of people that deserve it the least. Today, people are ignorant of where the traditions come from and who started them. In light of the truth, the people may be considered willfully ignorant.

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