🚫🚫¿Where does Halloween come from? - ¿Can a Christian celebrate it?🚫🚫
Halloween is celebrated by millions of people as a fun time for children, to dress up in costumes of all kinds and to go outside to go door to door asking for sweets. But this time is also a time of witches, demons, goblins and ghosts. While some see Halloween as a harmless fun time; on the other hand, others see it as a frightful night of demonic inspiration that must be avoided.
As Christians, there is a lot of debate about whether or not we should participate in Halloween. Is it OK to go out and ask for "trick-or-treating"? Can we dress our children with disguises of the dead, sorcerers, etc., on that day? If we do this, are we participating in a demonic party? In order to make a decision, let's first look at the origins of this party.
🚫🚫The Origins of Halloween🚫🚫
The word Halloween is derived from the expression "The Eve of the Sanctified", which is celebrated on October 31, which marks the end of summer in northeastern Europe. The festival of "Todos los Santos," or "El Día de los Santificados," is celebrated the following day, on November 1; being then, Halloween on the eve of All Saints' Day.
Apparently the origins of Halloween can be traced back to ancient Ireland and Scotland around the time of Christ. On October 31, the Celts celebrated the end of summer. This was important for them, since it was the time when the animal herders would take these to their stables and pens to prepare them to withstand the harsh winter. This was also the time to harvest the crops. This annual change of season and lifestyle was characterized by the celebration of a pagan festival called "Samhain" or "End of Summer".
In this era there was much superstition associated with this time of change which included the belief in fairies and that the spirits of the dead wandered in search of bodies to inhabit. Because the living did not want to be possessed by the spirits, they wore disguises and paraded through the streets making a lot of noise to confuse and frighten the spirits away. In addition, for the Celts the new year began on November 1st. Therefore, it was believed that Samhain's day was not part of either the year that passed or the year that began; and because of this, chaos originated, which governed that day. As a result of this, people often joked with each other.
changing only the name to November 1 and turning it into the "Eve of All Saints" where they honor all the saints of the Catholic Church who do not have a party of their own in the liturgical calendar. A later custom developed among the people, who, on November 2, would go door to door asking for small cakes in exchange for the promise that prayers would be said for some of the dead relatives in each family. From this custom arose the belief that the dead were in purgatory before they went to heaven and that the prayers of the living could influence God's decision. This is where "The Feast of the Faithful Dead" originated. This could have been the driving force behind the idea of the "Trick-or-Treat": This phrase is used by children anywhere in the world when they walk in disguised streets of their neighborhoods asking for sweets from door to door. The meaning of this phrase is and which is ignored by the parents is: "Trick or treat." In other words: What do you want: a trick or spell of magic / witchcraft / or the occult or a deal?).
🚫🚫The True Origin of the Pumpkin🚫🚫
Apparently "Jack the Lantern" ("Jack-O-Lantern") comes from the Irish folklore which is about a man named Jack, the stingy, who had an encounter with the devil in a tavern on one of his nights of drunkenness . Jack offered his soul to the devil to drink the last drink and for the devil to pay for Jack's drinks; to what the devil accepted, becoming a coin with which Jack would pay his drinks. But Jack did not pay for the drinks, keeping the coin and putting it in his pocket with a silver cross, thus preventing the devil from returning to his original form until he promised not to ask for his soul in ten years. The devil had no choice but to accept the deal.
After ten years, the devil and Jack met again to settle their account. But Jack once again tricked the devil when he asked him to take an apple from the tree before taking it away. To what the devil agreed. When the devil climbed the tree, Jack quickly made a cross on the tree, preventing the devil from going down and taking away his soul. Once again, he took out the promise that he would never take his soul and the devil, he had no choice but to accept.
After the death of Jack and when he arrives at hell, a place that corresponded to him for being a drunkard and swindler, the devil did not let him in, reminding him that since he had not been able to take his soul, it was now his turn to go back the same way. Where did it come. Like this one, it was dark and cold and you could not see anything, from hell itself the devil threw a burning coal, which Jack placed in a turnip that he had emptied so that it did not go out on the way back. Now, Jack wanders aimlessly with his flashlight for all eternity.
At first, the Irish used turnips, but when they arrived in the United States, they realized that the pumpkins were bigger than the turnips. For this reason, the custom arose to empty the pumpkins carving them for the night of Halloween and introducing an ember or candle inside for illumination. With the passage of time, the idea was added that black cats had reincarnated spirits with prophetic abilities.
We can see then that the origins of Halloween are a mixture of Celtic pagan rituals full of superstition and the early traditions that the Catholic Church added to many of these pagan superstitions.
¿What the Bible says about Halloween?
- It does not say anything about the celebration of these days. But the Bible does talk about the occult, the fables, the witchcraft, the deception, etc.
- Exodus 22:18: "You will not let the sorceress live."
- Deuteronomy 18: 10-12: "Let no man be found in you who causes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, nor any who practices divination, nor doomsayer, nor sorcerer, nor sorcerer, nor enchantress, nor fortune-teller, nor magician, nor who consults the dead. 12 For whosoever doeth these things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations, Jehovah thy God, cast these nations out from before thee.
The Bible clearly speaks negatively about occult practices, spirits and witches condemning not only practices but those who engage in them. As Christians we have nothing to do with the occult or follow pagan customs of any kind. The Tarot, contacting the dead, séances, lucky charms, etc., go against the Word of God and can affect a Christian communion with God and open the Christian to demonic activities of oppression. Most Christians know this and should avoid this kind of activity. Remember that these are pagan customs in which the Lord was not glorified and as Christians we should avoid them