The Celts lived more than two thousand years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and northern France. Their new year began on November 1. The festival that began the previous evening honored Samhain, the Celtic lord of death. The Celts believed that Samhain allowed the souls of the dead to return to their earthly homes for that evening. On the evening of the festival, the Druids, or Celtic priests, ordered the people to put out their hearth fires. The Druids then built a huge new year’s bonfire and burned animals, crops, and possibly even humans as sacrifices. Then each family relit its hearth fire from the new year’s fire. During the celebration, people sometimes wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They told fortunes about the coming year by examining the remains of the animals that had been sacrificed.
The Romans conquered the Celts in AD 43, and two Roman autumn festivals were combined with the Celtic festival of Samhain. One of them, called Feralia, was held in late October to honor the dead. The other festival honored Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.
Many customs of the Celts survived even after the people became Christians. In the 800′s, the Catholic church established All Saints’ Day on November 1, so that people could continue to celebrate the festival they had celebrated before becoming Christians. The mass said on this day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before became known as All Hallow e’en, or Halloween. The people made the old pagan customs part of this Christian holy day. The church later began to honor the dead on November 2, which became known as All Souls’ Day.
Traditions:
Certain fortunetelling methods began in Europe and became an important part of Halloween. They were used to predict things like if someone were to become married, become rich, never marry, or die within the year. Today, some people use such fortunetelling techniques as cardreading or palmistry in addition to the traditional Halloween methods.
Ghosts were believed to roam the earth on Halloween, and if you did not give them something, they would play tricks on you. This superstition led some pranksters to dress in costume and go “trick or treating”. Beggers were quite active on Halloween. In England, poor people went a-souling (begging). They received pastries called soul-cakes in exchange for promising to say prayers for the dead(!).
Celts in England and Ireland once made jack-o’-lanterns out of beets, potatoes, and turnips. When the custom reached America, pumpkins began to be used.
It was believed that witches gathered to worship Satan on Halloween. Scottish Celts built huge bonfires on hillsides to drive witches and evil spirits away. Witches nowadays celebrate four witchcraft festivals- called Witches’ Sabbaths- a year, one in each season. The most important festival occurs on Halloween.
Should Christians celebrate Halloween?
Halloween is of pagan origin and is permeated with pagan and even Satanic customs. It is shocking to see Satan use Halloween to deceive people into viewing the occult as harmless and even practicing occult activities. We are warned not to love the world (1 John 2:15) or its pagan customs (Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10-12). So what’s wrong with running around with a paper bag and getting free candy? We are to avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Remember, we imitate God (Ephesians 5:1). Since we are to be holy (Leviticus 20:7, 1 Peter 1:15-16), I believe it is clear that this is one festival we should stay away from.
Recent Comments