Halloween's History And The Bible

What is the origin of Halloween? Is it ok to have festivals celebrating the harvest ? Are pumpkins okay?

Can anything bad happen to us if we celebrate these things? What does the Bible say about Halloween? Let’s talk about that.

A man was going to Halloween party one night dressed in a devil’s costume. On the way to the party it started to rain and storm, so he decided to take shelter in the nearest building. Which just happened to be a church where a revival meeting was taking place. As soon as he walked through the door everyone turned around to see who was coming in late. When they saw him, they began to scream and scatter like a covey of quail.

One lady got caught in her pew and fell down in the midst of all the confusion. The man decided to go check on her and make sure she was okay. He slowly made his way over to where she was. With him standing there looking down at her the lady said, "Satan, I’ve been a member of this church for over 30 years, but I want you to know that I’ve really been on your side the whole time!" from Sermon Central.

Did you know 1/4th of all the candy sold each year in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween? In 2019, the U.S. spent almost 9 billion dollars on Halloween. On top of that, they spent another ½ billion on costumes for their pets.

I thought it would be interesting this year to not only talk about the evils of Halloween, but to talk about the history of it. I think we all know it is an evil holiday under any name, and that includes if you call it a Celebration of the Harvest, etc.

So let’s talk about the history of Halloween. The information I’ll be sharing with you is from History.com, Smithsonian Magazine and Wikipedia. I’m going to paraphrase the best parts of what I found.

Wikipedia says Halloween a/k/a Allhalloween, All Hallow’s Eve or All Saint’s Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on the 31st of October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.

All Saint’s Day a/k/a All Hallow’s Day, Hallowmas, the Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honor of all the saints, known and unknown.

History.com states Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the U.K. and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to damaging crops and causing trouble, Celts thought the presence of spirits from the other world made it easier for the druids (the Celtic priests) to make predictions. These prophecies comforted them in the long dark winter months.

On the event, Druids built huge bonfires where they gathered to burn crops and sacrificed animals to the Celtic deities. During this, they wore costumes, usually animal heads and skins, and tried to predict each others’ futures.

The druids believed that during Samhain – the correct pronunciation of which is Sah’-win but I will be pronouncing it Samhain anyhow…the mystic veil separating the dead from the living opened up and that those spirits were looking for a body to possess. The Celts were afraid, so they would costume as evil spirits and ghosts themselves.

The Druids performed horrifying human sacrifices including children, and performed other vile rituals during Samhain. Samhain was the original Halloween and it was a “covenant with hell and death.”

According to Nicholas Rogers, the Druids would drink their victims blood and eat their flesh.

There is a poem that talks about sacrificing the first born which records that children were sacrificed each Samhain.

Later on they would relight the fires in their hearths from the bonfires, believing that would protect them during the upcoming winter months.

By 43 A.D. the Roman Empire had taken over the biggest part of the Celtic territory. Over the course of the 400 years they ruled the Celts, two Roman holidays were combined with the Celtic Samhain., Feralia in late October which commemorated the passing of the dead and a day that honored the Roman goddess of fruit & trees, Pomona which may explain how bobbing for apples came to be associated with Halloween.