Bible: What is Halloween and should Christians celebrate it?

 

The popularity of Halloween is growing exponentially. Americans spend over $ 9 billion a year on Halloween, making it one of the best commercial holidays in the country.
In addition, a quarter of all annual candy sales occur during the Halloween season in the United States. What is Halloween that makes October 31 so popular? Maybe it's the mystery or just the candy? Maybe the excitement of a new costume?

Whatever the draw, Halloween is here to stay. But what does the Bible say about it? Halloween is wrong or bad? Are there any clues in the Bible that a Christian should celebrate Halloween?

What does the Bible say about Halloween?
First of all, understand that Halloween is primarily a Western custom and has no direct references in the Bible. However, there are biblical principles that directly affect the Halloween celebration. Perhaps the best way to understand how Halloween relates to the Bible is to look at the meaning of Halloween and its history.

What does Halloween mean?
The word Halloween literally means the evening before All Hallows Day (or All Saint's Day) celebrated on November 1st. Halloween is also the abbreviated name of Allhalloween, All Hallows' Evening and All Saint's Eve which is celebrated on October 31st. The origin and meaning of Halloween are derived from the ancient Celtic harvest festivals, but more recently we think of Halloween as a night full of candy, trick or treat, pumpkins, ghosts and death.

The story of Halloween

The origin of Halloween as we know it began over 1900 years ago in England, Ireland and northern France. It was a Celtic New Year celebration, called Samhain, which occurred on November 1st. The Celtic druids revered it as the biggest festival of the year and emphasized that day as the moment when the souls of the dead could mingle with the living. Bonfires were also an important aspect of this holiday.

Samhain remained popular until St. Patrick and other Christian missionaries arrived in the area. When the population began to convert to Christianity, holidays began to lose popularity. However, instead of eradicating pagan practices such as "Halloween" or Samhain, the church instead used these holidays with a Christian turn to bring together paganism and Christianity, making it easier for local populations to convert to the state religion.

Another tradition is the druidic belief that during the night of November 1, demons, witches and evil spirits roamed freely on the earth with joy to greet the arrival of "their season", the long nights and the early darkness of the winter months. The demons had fun with the poor mortals that night, scaring, injuring and even playing all kinds of bad tricks on them. It seemed that the only way for frightened humans to escape the persecution of demons was to offer them things they liked, especially fancy foods and desserts. Or, to escape the fury of these horrible creatures, a human being could disguise himself as one of them and join their roaming. In this way, they would recognize the human as a demon or a witch and the human would not be disturbed that night.

During the Roman Empire, there was the custom of eating or giving fruit, especially apples, on Halloween. It spread to neighboring countries; in Ireland and Scotland from Great Britain, and in the Slavic countries from Austria. It is probably based on a celebration of the Roman goddess Pomona, to whom gardens and orchards were dedicated. Since the annual Pomona Festival took place on November 1st, the relics of this observance have become part of our Halloween celebration, for example, the family tradition of "crushing" for apples.

Today the costumes replace the disguises and the candies have replaced the fruit and other imaginative foods while the children go door-to-door trick or treating. Initially the trick or treat started as a "soul feeling", when the children went door-to-door on Halloween, with soul pies, singing and saying prayers for the dead. Throughout history, the visible practices of Halloween have changed with the culture of the day, but the aim of honoring the dead, veiled by fun and parties, has remained the same. The question remains: is celebrating Halloween bad or not biblical?

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

As a person who thinks logically, consider for a moment what you are celebrating and what Halloween is about. Is the holiday uplifting? Is Halloween Pure? Is it adorable, commendable or good value? Philippians 4: 8 says: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, anything is adorable, anything has a good relationship, if there is any virtue and if there is something worthy of praise: meditate on these things ”. Is Halloween based on devoted themes like the idea of ​​peace, freedom and salvation or does the holiday bring to mind feelings of fear, oppression and slavery?

Also, does the Bible sanction witchcraft, witches, and witchcraft? On the contrary, the Bible makes clear that these practices are an abomination for the Lord. The Bible goes on to say in Leviticus 20:27 that anyone practicing witchcraft, guessing, witchcraft should be killed. Deuteronomy 18: 9-13 adds: “When you come to the earth that the Lord your God is giving you, you will not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. He will not be found among you ... one who practices witchcraft, or a fortune teller, or one who interprets the omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritualist, or one who calls the dead. For all those who do these things it is an abomination to the Lord. "

Is it wrong to celebrate Halloween?
Let's take a look at what the Bible adds to this topic in Ephesians 5:11, "And have no communion with unsuccessful dark works, but rather expose them." This text calls us not only to have no association with any kind of darkness activity BUT ALSO to shed light on this topic to those around us. As stated earlier in this article, Halloween was not exposed by the church for what it was, but rather was incorporated into the church's holy days. Do Christians respond the same way today?

While thinking about Halloween - its origins and what it represents - would it be better to spend time focusing on its themes or shedding light on what lies beneath the surface of the celebration of this holiday? God calls humanity to follow him and to "come out of them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch the unclean and I will receive you "(2 Corinthians 6:17).