Origin of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back two thousand years to the Celtic New Year festival of "Samhain" (pronounced sow-in) named after their god of the dead. (If it's been a while since World History class, the Celts occupied England, Ireland and northern France.) Samhain was also one of the four high days (sabbats) of witchcraft or, more accurately, Wicca.

On the night before the November 1 new year, Celts believed that Samhain and the dead would roam the earth causing all kinds of trouble. So the Celtic priests, Druids, would demand that all light be extinguished on Halloween night and sacrifices be made to prevent trouble.

To avoid "tricks," the villagers would bake up "treats" to appease the dead. They would also dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade to the outskirts of town hoping the departed souls would follow them out of town.

After sacrifices, villagers would carry the fire, thought to be sacred, back to their homes in carved out vegetable shells.

In the eighth century Pope Gregory II moved the church festival honoring martyrs of "All Saints" to November 1 as a Christian alternative to the Celtic New Year celebrations. "All Hallow's Eve" or "Halloween" means the "evening of holy persons" and was to be used in spiritual preparation for All Saints Day.

(Halloween is not the only holiday based on pagan origins. See also my commentaries on Christmas and Easter.)

So, what should a Christian do?

The Apostle Paul deals with these kinds of issues when he addresses meat offered to pagan idols. Is this wrong for the Christian—who doesn't believe in the false gods to whom the meat was offered— to eat meat offered to idols? Here's Paul's advice:

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall (1 Corinthians 8:4-13).

Don't worry about the ancient association of these holidays with paganism since we know there are no gods of sun and death, and that the dead don't roam the earth. You're not appeasing Samhain when you go "trick-or-treating" or sacrificing to the gods by carving a jack-o-lantern. But if your family or friends have reservations about these things, don't encourage them to do something they feel is "sinful."

At least that's my opinion among the nearly one thousand other perspectives.

Copyright © 2005 James N. Watkins

Related sites
Our annual Halloween look at all things creepy (demons, ghosts, Harry Potter, psychics, and more)

Comments

Jim, that's a good question. That's like, 'should Christians read Harry Potter books?' ... you get a mixed bag of answers on these questions. Personally, I think it's harmless, but some take Scripture to the fullest extent. Perhaps, it should be that way. Don't know, for sure. Carolyn Hayes (September 2009)

Jim, THANK YOU for a very balanced perspective. I agree with what you've written. I think when we get too worked up about whether a holiday has pagan origins, we are giving too much power to something that we know to be false. Certainly if someone is convicted not to celebrate a holiday because of its origin, that's a personal leading from the Spirit. For me and my house, we will serve the Lord, and give Him the glory by enjoying the fellowship of friends and family during our family traditions of "trick-'r-treating" and "Trunk-r-Treat" at church. Mary Schneider (September 2009)

Jim, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and not dilute our belief with some worldly tradition. We will be held accountable for every idle word. That's in the Word. Paul Cronenberger (September 2009)

We did not encourage our children to participate in the dark side o f Halloween --- but we did let them know it was an opportunity to remind others of the light we find in Christ -- they helped prepare treat bags with the verse from 1 John -- Jesus is the Light and in Him is no darkness at all. Great time to talk about fear and God's comfort. There is also a wonderful way to use pumpkin carving as a visual for God clearing out our "yuuky" and shining through us. Carve a cross in the back side of the pumpkin -- good conversation starter. Lettie Kirkpatrick Burress (September 2009)

I like your take on this. We always loved handing out goodies to our little neighbors and celebrating a fall festival of some kind. Meat sacrificed to idols is such a good explanation, and it totally removes the power of the dark side. Kathy Nickerson (September 2009)

I can't imagine any Christian celebrating Halloween! Patty David (September 2009)

I don't think it's a celebration. I think it's an event for children (and with supervisor for these days) is okay. I'm a Christian. Maybe it should be called another 'name' to make others feel better about it. Carolyn Hayes (September 2009)

We'd do the candy and costumes thing with neighbors we knew ...but we never let the kids dress up as "horror" things such as witches or ghosts. Just fun costumes to keep it simple and more oriented toward fun, harvest, and even then Reformation Day! :) Linda M Au (September 2009)

Great Article Jim! We carved the name Jesus in our pumpkin and let the "light shine" within by candle. Had pumpkin on stand outside on Halloween night to be a witness. We attached scripture to our candy treats with verses about Jesus being the light of the world. There's always opportunities to share our faith and the good news. Jody Borman Moreen (September 2009)

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