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.
The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of strong Protestant beliefs. It was more accepted in Maryland and the southern colonies.
As the beliefs & customs of ancient times began to mesh with American Indian beliefs, a distinct American version of Halloween was born. Some of the first celebrations were public events celebrating the harvest where neighbors told ghost stories and stories about the dead, danced, sang and predicted each other’s futures.
Halloween celebrations in Colonial times included telling ghost stories and making mischief. By the mid-19th century, Halloween was not celebrated everywhere in the country, but annual autumn festivities were pretty common.
In the second half of the 19th century, people in America began to dress up and go door to door asking for food or money, eventually leading to the trick or treating tradition we see today. In that time, apparently young women thought they could foretell their future husbands by doing tricks involving yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
At the turn of the century, Halloween moved more towards community or neighborhood get-togethers and became less about witches, ghosts and pulling pranks. Then Halloween parties with games, food and costumes began.
At that time, there was a strong move to remove the demonic elements from Halloween.
In the 1920’s-30’s, Halloween became a secular community holiday with parades and town-wide Halloween parties, but vandalism began to plague the celebrations in many communities.
By 1950, trick or treating became the preferred way to celebrate and helped prevent vandalism.
Today, American $8 billion annually on Halloween, which makes it the 2nd largest commercial holiday after Christmas.
Trick or Treating probably dates back to the early All Souls Day parades in England when poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called Soul Cakes in return for the promise to pray for their dead relatives.
The practice of begging for soul cakes was called Souling and the people doing it were called Soulers. The churches encouraged Souling over leaving food and wine for roaming spirits.
Costuming during Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and very frightening time. Food ran low and the short days of winter were full of constant worry.
On Halloween, it was believed that ghosts came back to the earth and people believed they would encounter them if they left their houses. The costumes were supposed to make them believe they were also ghosts and therefore leave them alone. People would put bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from trying to come in.
In 18th century Ireland, it is said a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to whoever found it.
In one version of a legend in Scotland, fortune tellers recommended an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and toss the nuts into the fireplace (the nuts, not the gentlemen). The nut that burned to ashes was said to represent her future husband. In other versions of the legend, the nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.
Another legend says if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween, she would dream about her future husband.
Young women also tossed apple peels over their shoulders and tried to read their future husbands’ initials in the way they landed, or tried to read their futures in egg yolks floating in water, or stood before mirrors in dark rooms holding candles and expecting to see their husbands faces over their shoulders. (How creepy is that??)
At some Halloween parties, guest hunted for burrs or bobbed for apples and the winners were believed would be the first to marry.
Former 25 year satanic high priest John Ramirez, now a CHRISTIAN, praise Jesus!, strongly warns against celebrating Halloween in ANY form, calling it The Devil’s Holiday. He says in videos on youtube that for instance putting pumpkins in front of your door are associated with a particular demon in Santeria. He said those pumpkins are an invitation to those demons to come in.
John Ramirez says one of the biggest things the devil taught him was when he said “I love when Christians celebrate my holiday! Then they become intertwined with darkness.” He said it does not matter if you are in your Bible every day, if you celebrate Halloween, it brings a 4 or 5 generation curse in your life. And he said the devil knows each generation teaches the next generation to also celebrate it.
And there are churches holding “Harvest Celebrations” to replace Halloween, and that brings a curse on the church. He said we should celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, not any kind of Halloween or Halloween substitution. Why would Christians ever take something of satan and put the Name of Jesus on it?
John says costuming for Halloween opens you up to unbelievable attacks because it is changing your identity in the same way the devil tempted Adam and Eve to change theirs.
We’re supposed to bring the world into the church, not bring the world into the church, Ramirez says and he is SO right.
Anton Lavey who started the church of satan thanks Christians for celebrating satan one day every year and the reason is because Halloween gives satan legal right in your life to come in and destroy.
Ramirez says when he was a Satanist, he would start preparing a week ahead of time for the biggest witchcraft of the year which he would do on Halloween.
I can testify that witches celebrate Halloween and cast their biggest spells of the whole year that night because I also used to do that before I became a Christian. Witches are the reigning Queens of Halloween, yall.
He says Satanists pray over Halloween candy and costumes. That means we become cursed whenever we eat the candy or wear those costumes. That ain’t good, yall.
1 Peter 5:8
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
John Ramirez calls Christians to repent for celebrating Halloween under any name.
1 Thes 5:22 - Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Tom Sanguinet, former high priest in the Celtic tradition of Wicca (witchcraft) said in 2018 "The modern holiday we call Halloween has its origins in the full moon closest to November 1, the witches’ New Year. It was a time when the "spirits" (demons) were supposed to be at their peak power” He went on to say, "Halloween is purely and absolutely evil, and there is nothing we ever have or will do that would make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus."
In the book “Occult Conceit” the author says on page 190, "The candlelit pumpkin or skull served as a signal to mark those farms and homes that were sympathetic to the Satanists and thus deserving of mercy when the terror or, today("trick or treat") of the night began."
Further, an old edition of The World Book Encyclopedia says, "The apparently harmless lighted pumpkin face of the Jack-O-Lantern is an ancient symbol of a damned soul."
Ephesians 5:11. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Romans 12:2: 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
There is not a single thing celebrating Halloween that honors the Lord, yall.
1 Corinthians 10:20
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
Halloween emphasizes fear, death, cemeteries, mummies,witchcraft, murder, torture, violence, blood, guts and gore. It even glorifies it!
Romans 12:21 21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
I have no problem admitting to you all that I HATE this time of year. I detest Halloween and all its decorations. I know many people just love to do those, but as a former witch, I know what they represent and I can’t like anything about it. I won’t even buy candy that comes in a Halloween package. Now after researching for this show I understand why it repulsed me so much.
For weeks now, the stores have been stocking up their candy aisles and filling shelves with decorations and costumes. Halloween is a big money maker for the retail sector – 2nd only to Christmas. If my children were still small, they would be upset with me because I would teach them the truth about Halloween. I would plead with them to never let their children celebrate it, but to teach them the truth, too.
TV schedules will be filled with scary movies all through Halloween. Those movies allow dark demonic forces to enter your home when you view them.
Its easy to do nothing about things like Halloween. Just keep going along with the crowd so you can fit in – so you can be socially acceptable, so no one gets offended. Right?
And WHO, pray tell, do we honor when we do THAT. I’ll tell you who. Satan. Because you sure aren’t honoring the Lord.
Every day we make hundreds of choices. With each one, we decide who we will honor with our words, thoughts and behaviors. Is there any one of you who believes that dressing like a devil or other evil entity honors Him??? Because if you believe it does, you have learned nothing from any of my teachings. Those things DISHONOR Him.
Why do you call Him Lord and do not the things that He says?
In his book Celebration of the Disciplines, Richard Foster says, "Why allow Halloween to be a pagan holiday in commemoration of the powers of darkness? Fill the house or church with light; sing and celebrate the victory of Christ over darkness." From SermonCentral
I wanted to do this podcast to share with yall the honest truth about Halloween. Now that you have heard, you know what you should do.
We are told to turn away from sin. The Lord tells us in the Word how to handle these situations.
James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
evil images, place to the devil, conform to world
• Evil Images – story about a police officer in Oklahoma and the CD cover – I can’t remember what was going on, but the Lord told me it was an image in a room upstairs his son had stayed in.
• We are not supposed to give place to the devil
• According to John Ramirez and he would know, there are satanic curses on the candy AND the costumes.
• Romans 12:2 - 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
• When you celebrate Halloween under any name, including fall harvest, etc., you are opening a door to the devil to come into your life and wreak havoc.
At the end of the day, Halloween should come with a warning label, but it doesn’t. The Word of God, however, makes it clear that we are to have nothing to do with the works of darkness. Those who do WILL reap consequences, especially in this end time when more than ever, we should be trying to do what is right.
You know, its human nature to think if we sin there is plenty of time to repent, but that is a lie from satan. Especially now in this time. We don’t but that Halloween this year could be that dark night when many souls wake up in Hell. Make your choices wisely.
