Oh now I’ve done it. I’ve touched the sacred calf. I can hear the gasps of shock as you read the title of this post.

October 31st, spooky decorations, candy, and cute little kids dressed up in costumes, all wrapped up in a nice little package known as Halloween. What’s wrong with any of those things? I’m glad you asked. Let’s take a deeper look into some of the history of these sweet little traditions.

October 31st

Historically October 31st was believed by the Celts to be a time when the souls of the dead roamed the earth. It was known as the Feast of Samhein, or sometimes the Night of the Dead. The change of seasons opened a sort of portal to the spirit world, they believed. On this night, the souls of the dead would seek refuge in their former homes, to warm themselves by the fire. With so many demons and spirits roaming freely and seeking to enter homes, the Celts would perform rituals to protect themselves.

•They built large bonfires. This was meant to accomplish two different things. First it was meant to offer the spirits and demons someplace else to warm themselves so that they wouldn’t come into the homes of the Celts.

•Secondly, the Celts believed that on this night, October 31st, they would be able to see into the future if they performed a blood ritual. These large bonfires they formed were used to accomplish this purpose. Every year a human or animal was sacrificed in these bonfires. They believed that they would be able to see a glimpse into the future, by watching the sacrificed victim die and journey to the “spirit world”.

Costumes

Seemingly harmless, right? All the cute little kids dressed up as their favorite super hero or princess. What could be wrong with that? Of course we won’t mention all the terrible, vile costumes that are also popular, like witches, goblins, zombies, and other demonic creatures.

Because the Celts believed that the spirits of the dead and other non-human spirit creatures prowled freely on the night of the dead, they began to disguise themselves as horrifying creatures in order to scare the spirits and demons away. It was believed that the prowling spirits would kidnap children and even adults sometimes and take them to the underworld.

Gruesome costumes were created to trick the demons into thinking that the people were spirits, so they wouldn’t steal them.

Trick-or-Treating

In order to appease the demons and spirits who were trying to come into their houses, the Celts would make something they called soul cakes. These would be left out on the doorsteps of the houses in hopes that the spirits would take the cakes and leave the house alone. This is where the tradition of trick-or-treating comes from.

Jack-O-Lanterns

This is something we’ve all seen, isn’t it? Every year thousands of carved pumpkins decorate the doorsteps and pathways of houses across America. Traditionally carved to appear like a face, they grin back at onlookers with a glow from the candle placed inside them. It seems pretty harmless on the outside, doesn’t it? What could be wrong with cutting some holes in a pumpkin and sticking a candle inside? What most people don’t realize is that the innocent looking grinning pumpkins, are steeped in paganism.

The origin of jack-o-lanterns began in Ireland in the 1600s. Ireland was predominately influenced by the Celts. Like we previously talked about, the change of season in the autumn was believed by the Celts to be a time of spirits. The tradition of carving jack-o-lanterns, started as a result of an old belief they followed.

It was said that once there was a man named Stingy Jack. He wanted to be the best in the world at his trade. The Devil offered Jack an exchange—he would grant Jack the power to be the best in the world for seven years, in exchange for his soul. Jack accepted the trade. During the course of these seven years, Jack was visited by the apostle Peter who offered him three wishes. Jack wished that he had the ability to tell someone to climb any tree and that person wouldn’t be able to get out of the tree until Jack said they could. He wished the same thing in regard to his chair and his coin purse. The three wishes were granted. When the Devil came for his soul, Jack tricked him into climbing a tree. He only let him down once the Devil had promised to give him seven more years before taking his soul. The Devil agreed.

Eventually after tricking the devil time after time when he came for Jack’s soul, Jack died. When he got to Heaven’s gates, Peter refused to let Jack enter. Likewise at the gates of Hell, Satan denied Jack entrance and threw him out. As he was thrown out, Jack grabbed an ember and placed it in a carved out turnip he had been eating, remembering that Hell’s fire is eternal, so the ember would never be extinguished. From that day on, Jack’s soul was forced to roam the earth forever with his odd looking lantern.

This legend was fully believed by the Druids and Celts, and every year around the time of the Festival of the Dead, they would carve turnips and gourds with horrifying faces in order to scare away the spirits that they believed were roaming the earth.

Doesn’t sound so innocent anymore, does it?

Spooky Decorations

Ok. Let me just say this, why would any believer enjoy scary things? These decorations all center around death, defeat, blood, and fear. Our enemy is the author of fear and death. The Bible tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Fear is sin! Why would we purposely set ourselves up for failure by surrounding ourselves with terrifying things? Isn’t that feeding fear? Making provision for the flesh?

Darkness is not of God. In both the old and new testaments, we are admonished to flee darkness. In the book of Proverbs we find that darkness is described as the path that wicked men walk.

“The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.”

~Proverbs 4:19

The same chapter tells us, “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”

I’m not sure how much more clear God’s Word has to be. That which is of the darkness cannot be of the light. As believers, we have absolutely no business participating in the works of evil and darkness. Proverbs tells us to avoid it at all costs. Jumping into the New Testament, Paul tells the church at Ephesus,

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

~Ephesians 5:8-11

This filthy, vileness surrounding Halloween is what God saved us out of! We were held captive by the chains of darkness and evil. Christ brought us out of that. We no longer have to serve sin. Why would we willingly go back to it?

Halloween Today

Apart from the obvious dark origins of this perverted holiday, let’s look at what it is in modern day. Did you know that crime rates spike by absurdly high rates on Halloween?

•Kidnappings, murders, and other violent crime goes up by 50% on Halloween night.

•Property Crimes spike by 60% on Halloween night.

•Car accident fatalities rise by 40% due to drinking and drug use.

•You can find the testimonies of former witches and warlocks who were in some of the deepest parts of satanic worship, and they will tell you that Halloween is the highest “holy” day in their religion. I challenge you to look up some of their testimonies. One woman who used to be into satanism, testified of the fact that human sacrifices do still take place on Halloween—and yes, even in America!

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Let me say this. It appalls me how many churches participate in Halloween in various capacities. Why are you dragging the name of Christ through that filth? Trying to Christianize Halloween, is like trying to mix oil and water. It can’t happen! I’ve seen some “churches” who make plays off the name of the Holy Ghost in order to make it fit into their Halloween celebration. I guess they think that it is “christianizing” Halloween. I’ll tell you what it is. It’s blasphemy pure and simple. If you want to participate in a vile holiday with these origins, that’s on you (and make no mistake, you will be held accountable for that), but don’t you dare drag the names of Christ into it. That is mockery and blasphemy.

It’s imperative that we as believers aren’t blinded by the lies and darkness of this world. We’re called to be separate—to be holy as Christ is Holy.

I strongly advise all of you to do further research into Halloween. Unfortunately this post couldn’t cover every reason why believers shouldn’t participate in Halloween, but I hope that it at least gave you food for thought.

I leave you with a final quote to think on:

“I’m glad Christians let their kids worship the Devil at least one night out of the year.” ~Anton LaVey, Founder of the church of Satan

That pretty much clearly shows us that Halloween is not something any believer should have anything to do with. That includes trying to “christianize” it. We are children of The KING. We are no longer under the power of darkness.

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” ~1 John 4:4

~A. M. Watson

Hebrews 13:8