Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Several years ago, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit that my family should not be participating in Halloween. My husband & I prayed about it and we sat our children down to tell them. We told them that Halloween was a holiday that was practiced by pagans to worship their false gods, and then the Catholic Church leaders had tried to appease the pagans by allowing them to continue to celebrate this holiday, but giving it a more Christian slant. We also told them that many witches who belong to the Wiccan religion practice pagan rituals on Halloween, as well as Satan worshipers. We showed them verses in the Bible that said that witchcraft, sorcery, and evil spirits are a abomination to God. We also discussed the verses about being a light to the world and not trying to imitate the darkness. I told them to think about how God probably feels about having His children participate in Halloween. They were totally convinced that this was NOT something that God would want them to do. Since then, they have never expressed disappointment over not getting to participate in this event. But they are very confused as to why other Christians would choose to. Consider these things...

Christians who celebrate Halloween use the reasoning that their children are part of this world and they want them to be accepted. This usually goes along with the belief that Halloween is not real anyway so what difference does it make if we celebrate it or not. I can sympathize with wanting to be accepted. However, as a follower of Messiah Jesus, we must die to the flesh.The flesh is the part of us that is demanding to be accepted. We do not let our teenage children engage in many behaviors just because they are acceptable in the world today, so why would we worry about their not being accepted because they do not celebrate a demonic holiday? We must provide the light, not enter into the darkness.

What is it about Halloween that is so enticing to many Christians? Why, after being delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, are they so eager to run back to the kingdom of darkness? Why do so many churches/denominations sponsor Halloween parties and festivals? The situation is very puzzling. Jesus brought light into the world. He came that we might have eternal life. Most Christians whole-heartily embrace these Scriptural facts. Yet, once a year, many of them turn their focus to Satan and his kingdom, all the while denying that it really actually means anything.


Let us examine and see if the celebration of Halloween is really 'innocent'. We will also look at whether Christians should be involved in it. Whether we like it or not, we must accept the fact that Halloween is not just some made-up holiday. Halloween is part of the ancient religion of the Celtics. This is a pagan religion, originating in Ireland and Britain, which is heavily involved with the spiritual realm and many pagan gods. This ancient ("new-age") religion has four Major High Holy Days, or festivals, each year. One of them, Samhain (pronounced "sow-en", with "sow" rhyming with cow), is celebrated on November 1. It is considered to be one of the most important celebrations as it is thought to mark the beginning of the Celtic New Year. According to the Celtic religion, the day before Samhain (October 31) is the last day of summer (and last day of the year) and the day after Samhain is the first day of the winter (and the first day of the new year). Since Samhain is considered to be "between" the seasons or years, it is considered to be a very special time. The Celtics believe Samhain is a time when the division between the spiritual and physical realm becomes very thin, when hostile supernatural forces are active and spirits are free to wander as they choose. Several traditions have arisen with the celebration of Samhain. One of these is "trick or treat". While the origins are not clear, there are two legends that have came down over the years. One is that beggars would go from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. Another legend has it that, since the fairies were abroad on this night, an offering of food or milk was frequently left for them on the steps of the house, so the homeowner could gain the blessings of the "good folk" for the coming year. (This almost sounds like the current false teachings regarding giving "seed" money to get a "harvest" of blessings for ourselves.) Many of the households would also leave out a "supper" for the spirits of the departed. Another Halloween tradition is the "jack-o-lantern". It also has two legends that surround its beginnings. One such legend states that originally the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns as representations of the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead. When the Irish emigrated to America they could not find many turnips to carve into jack o'lanterns but they did find an abundance of pumpkins. The other legend has it that a man named Jack tricked Satan into a tree and trapped him there. After making a deal with the devil to let him go, Jack went on his way. He eventually died and, the story goes, he was not allowed in heaven or hell and so was doomed to wander between the two realms. The story concludes with the devil giving Jack an ember from the flames of Hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed out turnip. The tradition of "bobbing for apples" is derived from a Celtic pagan marriage custom. A lot of marriage divinations had to do with apples. In Celtic tradition, the fruit was associated with female deities who controlled the ways of love. One of the most popular divinations was for young unmarried people to try to bite into an apple floating in water or hanging from a string. This is something like the bouquet toss that still plays a part in wedding receptions — the first person to bite into the apple would be the next one to marry. Witches, warlocks, and witchcraft are dominant themes of the holiday. Witches and warlocks generally believe themselves to be followers of the ancient religion called 'Wicca'. This is a religion which worships nature and is an attempt to return to worshipping ancient Norse, Greek, or Celtic gods and goddesses. The Wicca religion is growing in the United States today. According to some sources Wicca is currently the fastest growing spiritual path in the US. Wicca witches are now allowed to practice their pagan rituals on United States military bases. Fort Hood gave official sanction to the first Wiccan group by giving them a place to conduct their rituals, endorsing their selection of a priestess, and providing them with an Army chaplain. (This is the fruit of "freedom of religion".)
Our natural tendency would be to just brush this all off as harmless fun, believing that it has no real meaning. However, Halloween ("Samhain") is not an innocent holiday. It is taken very seriously by those of the Celtic (including Wicca) religion and is considered one of their most holy days. The problem is that Satan has worked very hard to get the rest of us — especially Christians — to think that Halloween is really harmless. In fact, part of the work of Satan has been to convince the world that he does not exist. By doing so, satanic rituals, such as the celebration of Samhain, are seen as not being real. When Christianity and the world celebrates the Festival of Samhain and the powers of darkness by masquerading as evil creatures or decorating their homes, schools, businesses, and churches with occult symbols, Satanic power is glorified.

As to the introduction of Halloween into the church ...When Christianity spread to parts of Europe, instead of trying to abolish these pagan customs, people tried to introduce ideas which reflected a more Christian world-view. Halloween has since become a confusing mixture of traditions and practices from pagan cultures and Christian tradition. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. The festival was celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints' Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. In 834, Gregory III moved All Saint's Day from May 13 to November 1 and for Christians, this became an opportunity for remembering before God all the saints who had died and all the dead in the Christian community. October 31 thus became All Hallows' Eve ('hallow' means 'saint')."Somewhere (probably from Satan), the Church came up with the idea that it had the power to adopt pagan holidays and declare them holy to the Lord, i.e. Easter and Christmas. There is no Scriptural basis for this act by the Church. In fact, only the Lord is able to declare anything holy. There is no evidence in Scripture — neither in the Tenach ("old testament") or in the Brit Chadashah ("new testament") — of Moses, Joshua, the prophets, King David or Solomon, Jesus, or the apostles ever "remembering before God all the saints who had died". Their focus was always on God, not man. In an effort to separate itself from Israel, the Church disregarded the holy days set forth by God in Leviticus 23.

Many churches today try to turn the holiday into what looks like a a more Christian event. A particularly strange phenomenon within many churches is the introduction of the "Hell House" program. Quoting from one Web site that promotes the program, "Hell House is an outreach event that is structured very much like a typical haunted house that people visit and walk through. "Hell House" capitalizes on the 'Halloween' time of year, when people are thinking about ghoulish and frightening images and attractions. Hell House is much more than a haunted house. It is a spiritually-based adventure that takes people on a 7-scene journey, each scene depicting the hell and destruction that Satan and this world can bestow on those who choose to not serve Jesus Christ. Literally, choices that can also have an end result of ushering people into hell." There is even a "Hell House Outreach Kit" available.
One of the greatest difficulties with this "program", and there are others like it, is that it boldly states that the Word of God is not powerful enough to change someones life so we need to put real satanic fear into them. Another problem is that it does not cause someone to humble themselves before God and submit to Him for who He is; rather it focuses on the person so that they won't have to spend eternity in Hell. In other words, the basic message is "save yourself from eternal damnation" instead of "worship the Creator, the God of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because He is worthy to be praised". The truth is we all deserve to spend eternity burning in Hell. It is only because of God's mercy and His love that He has provided a way that we may spend eternity with Him.
The Web site goes on: "Hell House is cutting edge, it is shocking, it is offensive. But it is Truth". Terrorism is also cutting edge, shocking, offensive, and true (in the sense of reality) but I would not want my child to be in the midst of a terrorist attack in order to 'understand' it. We do not have to see or experience these things to know that they are wrong, or to come to know the Lord. It is when we realize, in our daily lives, that we cannot make it on our own. We must come to the end of ourselves and see God for who He really is — the Creator of all things, the only truly perfect and good thing in all of eternity. We must come to know that He is the only One we can trust and that only by His mercy can we be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Is fear the method that God uses to draw someone to Him? Not according to Scripture: "The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted" (Proverbs 29:25); "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4). God draws men to Him through love; it is Satan who draws men through fear. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8); "Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you" (2 Corinthians 13:11). What God laid down in His Word should be sufficient. It is wrong to think that we must add the things of the world in order to make the Word of God more powerful or more palatable. These things of the world will all be destroyed, they are merely paper and straw. It is the Word of God that will stand in the end. *****We are not the ones who do the calling anyway, it is the Holy Spirit. He works in the hearts of men to humble them and bring them before the Lord. It is not the work of man to humble another; rather the work of God. So how will ushering teenagers through a "haunted hell house" do anything but add to the thrill of the holiday?

What does Scripture have to say regarding the things of Halloween? The city of Ephesus was considered one of the centers of occult in the world during the first century. Paul told the church there, "And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them" (Ephesians 5:11). According to this word from the Holy Spirit, not only are we to reject the deeds of darkness (i.e. celebration of pagan festivals), we are to expose them for what they are -- satanic, evil, and of the devil. The next verse says that we are not to even speak of these things: "for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret" (Ephesians 5:12). God commanded in His Torah: "... do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations [goy, i.e. pagans] serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?'" (Deuteronomy 12.30) Paul told the church at Rome to reject these things of the world: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12.2). Contrary to the teachings of the mainstream church, we are not to be conformed (or to conform the Word of God) to this world. We are supposed to renew our minds with the Word of God so that we may preach His message, not the message of Satan. We cannot seek after God and the things of darkness at the same time: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?" (1 Corinthians 10.21-22a). We must separate ourselves from the world. It does not matter if we look strange or are not "accepted". Jesus Himself had much to say to His disciples (and us) regarding this very topic: "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19); "He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal" (John 12:25).

The deception of the celebration of Halloween is so subtle it is hard to see it as demonic and evil. After all, it is just some children dressing up as monsters, witches, etc. and going door-to-door "trick or treating", right? Is there any real harm in it? This is the same thing as the reading of horoscopes. Most people think it is just foolishness anyway, so why not do it? Is it just foolishness? Does God really care if we celebrate Halloween (or read horoscopes)? God states in Torah: "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens [fortunetelling, horoscopes], or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist ["one who has a familiar spirit", 'wizard' - KJV], or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord ... For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so." (Deuteronomy 18.10-12a, 14) and again, "You shall not allow a sorceress ['witch' - KJV] to live" (Exodus 22.18). John heard a voice from the Throne saying "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21.8). God declared to Israel, "I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will have fortunetellers no more" (Micah 5.12). There are Christians around the world who are being persecuted for being "different". They will not conform to the ways of the world. We must take a lesson from them. Let us not enter into the ways of the world. Can we see Peter and his wife taking their children "trick or treating" (if it had been in existence at the time)? Or maybe Jesus passing out treats at the door to the little children that He loved so much? I don't think so. Why, then, would the followers of Jesus do it?