Halloween: What’s So Bad About It?

Ray Leger May 04, 2023
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What about this Halloween celebration, and why is it not wise for a Christian to participate. Ephesians 5:7-12 Don’t participate in the things these people do. For though your hearts were once full of darkness, now you are full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, rebuke and expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret

The following definition of Halloween is directly from Encyclopedia Britanica. So the accuracy is well applied.
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Halloween, also called ALL HALLOWS’ EVE, holiday, October 31, now observed largely as a secular celebration. As the eve of All Saints’ Day, it is a religious holiday among some Christians.
Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. November 1 was considered the end of the summer period, the date on which the herds were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. It was also a time when the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes. People set bonfires on hilltops for relighting their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in these ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associated with the day. The period was also thought to be favourable for divination on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century AD, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the goddess of the harvest.
In the 7th century AD, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Halloween. By the end of the Middle Ages, the secular and the sacred days had merged. The Reformation essentially put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain especially Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. Along with other festivities, the celebration of Halloween was largely forbidden among the early American colonists, although in the 1800s there developed festivals that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When large numbers of immigrants, including the Irish, went to the United States beginning in the mid 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays, particularly among children.
As a secular holiday, Halloween has come to be associated with a number of activities. One is the practice of pulling usually harmless pranks. Celebrants wear masks and costumes for parties and for trick-or-treating, thought to have derived from the British practice of allowing the poor to beg for food, called “soul cakes.” Trick-or-treaters go from house to house with the threat that they will pull a trick if they do not receive a treat, usually candy. Halloween parties often include games such as bobbing for apples, perhaps derived from the Roman celebration of Pomona. Along with skeletons and black cats, the holiday has incorporated scary beings such as ghosts, witches, and vampires into the celebration. Another symbol is the jack-o’-lantern, a hollowed-out pumpkin, originally a turnip, carved into a demonic face and lit with a candle inside. Since the mid 20th century, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has attempted to make the collection of money for its programs a part of Halloween.
Now for a Christian to participate in this celebration. I have my own personal opinion, it’s a flat out no. As simply this, God wants us to be completely sanctified from the world, separated from it, not enjoying anything it has to offer.
I can’t think of a more pagan, ungodly tradition (we’re talking in it’s original state, 2000 yrs ago).
Why would we want to associate ourselves with the tradition of scaring other people, with costumes of ghouls and goblins, devils and dressing up as something we are not. Then there are the pranks, the horror films and the like.
Some costumes, I’ll give credit, are innocent, such as a princess, clowns and cute little animals. But it’s the history and what the tradition represents that could hurt someone’s spirit.
I remember reading somewhere that if someone is to have supper with the devil, make sure your fork is very, very long. The point was, don’t be at the table with him, be as far as possible from him. While your thoughts can be innocently wanting to entertain your child, you have no idea the spirituality that is really accompanying this event.
I can’t judge someone’s motives for celebrating. But I can judge the celebration. It was based on the fear of evil, while inviting it at the same time. And praying for the dead people, I am sorry dear reader, that dead person is not coming back. No matter how much you pray for them. The only prayer you can have is that they (the dead) met Jesus Christ before they died.
And now, the tradition is to make the scariest, costume, movie, house decorations and almost invite the evil within the house.
I may sound like a really conservative Christian, even to the point of being paranoid. But it’s not that I am better than others. I no means, I know exactly what I am and how weak in the flesh I am, which is the reason I want nothing to do with this tradition. I know I can’t stop if I give the devil an inch, I will give in to temptation.
So in summary, we can see that the Catholics could not beat out that tradition, that many people were jumping on board, so instead of condemning it, the promoted it to get more folks in. Much like they did with Christmas, which Jesus birth was at the end of Oct, but is celebrated at the end of Dec.

Dear reader, please understand I have no right to place judgment on you for wanting to celebrate this event. However, please understand, that it is not from God, it is very, very far from God in EVERY aspect. And if it is very far, celebrating the dead and the evil, it is sin. Whether consciously or not. Breaking the first commandment.

Please see your sin as God sees it, pray to God that He might have mercy on your soul and might save it through the blood of Christ. Your loved ones left behind will not be able to pray for your heaven once you cross the death line if you are not saved. It will be too late unlike it is taught in this  tradition.

God Bless