It is upon us again – Halloween. It is always a struggle for the church. Some Christians participate in Halloween simply by dressing up in a costume and having fun, seeing it as innocent and harmless. Other Christians are equally convinced that any form of participation is sinful due to the fact that Halloween is a satanic holiday established to worship evil spirits and promote darkness and wickedness. That’s not the case though.
The origins of Halloween might surprise you in that although it was a pagan festival to be sure, it was not satanic at all. It began with the ancient Celtic people. The Celt’s divided the year into two halves. A dark half starting in the cold early fall through the winter and the light half of the spring and summer months. To the ancient Celtic priests, known as the Druids, Samhain was the name of the festival marking the beginning of winter in Gaelic Ireland. It was a moment between these two halves of the year when they believed the boundaries of the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred. On Samhain spirits and ancestors of the dead could pass into the world of the living. For this reason, the ancestors and the departed souls of the living were honored. Villagers would keep the west door open to specifically invite the beloved dead inside. Many, in fact, would leave a candle or other light burning in a western window to guide the dead home. Other spirits were feared, and the Celts believed many were looking for bodies.
At this time, the Celts still practiced the ritualized beheading of enemies, and these grizzly trophies would be placed on their door jams to represent the departed. During the Christian era this tradition persisted with carved turnips taking place of human heads and eventually being turned into lanterns with macabre expressions. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the “head” of the vegetable to frighten off any spirits wishing to do harm. When the Irish (modern-day Celts) immigrated to America they found a more plentiful root vegetable to use instead of turnips. You guessed it – pumpkins. Grisly? Sure. Satanic. Not really. Satan and witches were nowhere to be found at Samhain.
The practice of trick or treating dates back to the Middle Ages when poor people would go door to door begging food in exchange for their prayers for the dead. In the 800s, the church established All Saints’ Day on November 1. At South Church, we celebrate this day by recognizing those who have gone to be with God in the past year.
Over time, many pagan customs were “Christianized” by the church. The Christmas tree and yule log are both pagan in origin. The winter solstice, a significant pagan festival, became Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ. Similarly, the spring festival of Eostre, associated with renewal, was aligned with Easter. Sadly, though not “evil” in its origin, evil people have misused Halloween for their own evil purposes. That’s what has given Halloween it’s bad reputation.
Actually, the defeat of evil and demonic powers is associated with Halloween. That’s why Martin Luther posted his 95 challenges to the wicked practices of the Church on the door of the Wittenberg chapel intentionally on Halloween. The custom arose of mocking the demonic realm by dressing children in costumes. Because the power of Satan has been broken once and for all, our children can mock him by dressing up like ghosts, goblins, and witches. The fact that we can dress our children this way shows our supreme confidence in the utter defeat of Satan by Jesus Christ – we have NO FEAR!
If Halloween bothers you, do not participate. But, for many, it’s simply a time for children to dress up and collect candy from friends and neighbors. Oh, I love the idea of mocking Satan too!