First, Halloween is not a Biblical festival. We can trace its roots from pagan origin.
It is an annual holiday observed on October 31 and has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. Later it was associated in Christian holiday – All Saints’ Day, and has become a largely secular celebration.
Common activities in Halloween include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes, attending costume parties, carving jack-o-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or frightening tales and watching horror films.
Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)”.
The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly “summer’s end”.
A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced Kálan Gái av).
The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year”.
The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworldbecame thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off.
It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.
Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.
Another common practice was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.
The name ‘Halloween’ and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.
If we don’t know yet, early Christian teachings were mixed with paganteachings. This is the reason why many beliefs practiced today by many so called Christians have pagan roots and very non-Biblical. Therefore, we can say that we have been tricked by these false traditions and many people do not realize it.
Today, many people are practicing and doing things which are very contradicting to what the Bible is saying. The Bible says “See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
Practices and Beliefs that are not Biblical must not be a part of Christian life. It is not allowed. They are cheats and empty deceits coming from the devil himself.Satan’s deceits are working in many areas of our lives, especially in our beliefs. The logic is simple, if Satan can put lies in our beliefs, then we will not be pure. He has blinded many people so that the true beliefs and practices can’t be seen.The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.(2 Corinthians 4:4)
If we are real Christians, we will read and follow what the Bible is telling us.
Are we allowing ourselves to be tricked? We hope not.
