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Articles
Halloween
Hallowe’en, Samhain, and the Christian
By Bruce Horne, Ph.D.
Hallowe’en and Samhain: The Celtic Connection
The origins of Hallowe’en trace to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which marked the start of the new year throughout much that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. Samhain was celebrated on the night of October 31 when the ghosts of the dead supposedly returned to earth to make mischief of various kinds, damage crops, and frighten unwary individuals. The festival signified the end of the summer planting and harvesting season as well as the beginning of winter and was accompanied by sacrifices to the gods and other ritualistic acts of worship. Samhain became All Hallows Eve, or Hallowe’en, in the eighth century when Pope Gregory III designated the following day, November 1, All Saints Day. Although earlier festal events had been observed in honor of departed saints and martyrs, Gregory’s Feast of All Saints probably was the first such annual observance.
In summary Hallowe’en derives from an early Celtic festival associated with the rolling over of one year into the next and with darkness, death, and the largely malevolent activities of disembodied spirits. Hallowe’en was “baptized” and made a nominal Christian holiday by the Roman Catholic Church in the eighth century of the present era.
Hallowe’en and the Priesthood
In the Celtic world of two millennia ago, winter was a dark, foreboding time associated with transition in general and with human death in particular. The actual point of transition—from sunset on Samhain until sunset the following day—was seen as a time when the veil between the living and the dead was permeable and as a time of emergent intuition and insight for those receptive to inspiration from beyond the mortal coil. This notion made it especially easy for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to impress the populace with the Druids’ annual predictions for the future. For a population largely dependent on the uncertainties of the natural world, these predictions were reassuring and at the same time were reminders of the power exerted by the Druidic priesthood over the everyday lives of the people.
Later the Roman Catholic priesthood exerted similar influence over its faithful as Hallowe’en evolved into a popular church-sanctioned holiday replete with saints, martyrs, and the Roman church’s promise of otherworldly bliss after an appropriate postmortem period spent working away one’s sins in Purgatory. All this was presided over, of course, by priests of Rome from the Pope down to the lowliest monk.
While it might be impossible today to determine how much influence the Celtic practices of Samhain had on the initial institution of All Saints Day and its role in the Roman church, it is clear that contemporary American practices, both within the churches that tolerate Hallowe’en and without, have a direct lineage back to Gregory’s day through the Irish (Celtic) immigrant population that began to exert a strong influence in the United States following the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s. Students of history will recall that the influx of Irish immigrants following that agricultural tragedy significantly and permanently impacted American culture through increasing the American Roman Catholic population several times over in a comparatively short time. Hallowe’en is but one lingering example of this cultural shift.
Hallowe’en in the Modern Era
For most people in our secular society, Hallowe’en is a custom taken for granted. We are born into a ready-made world and quite naturally accept cultural norms without a great deal of question. And typically we are well pleased with our norms!
Merchants, for example, love Hallowe’en, for it is the second most profitable season of the commercial year for a majority of them. Only the Christmas season consistently outstrips Hallowe’en in annual profit. Hollywood and the media in general love Hallowe’en as it affords them fodder for their various undertakings. Children love Hallowe’en for its opportunities for what seems to be fun. What child without parental restrictions on Hallowe’en fun and games would not leap at the opportunity to participate in Hallowe’en traditions such as trick-or-treating or carving a pumpkin into a grotesque caricature of someone or something? Such activities reflect the essence of human nature in its unregenerate state and are not to be underestimated in their power to influence thought and behavior. Children, in their naivety and innocence, are extremely susceptible to such influences.
Moreover, it is no secret that Hallowe’en has ancient origins that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation allegedly was founded. In his 1982 essay entitled “Halloween: The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows,” Jack Santino wrote:
. . . All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified
Or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to the day
was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People
continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the
supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate
those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out gifts of food and
drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became
Hallowe’en—an ancient Celtic, pre-Christian New Year’s Day in contemporary
dress . . . .
. . . Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient
Celtic day of the dead. Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but
each one has a history, or at least a story behind it. The wearing of costumes, for
instance, and roaming from one door to another demanding treats can be traced
to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was
thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies,
witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them.
As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures,
performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called
mumming, from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved. To this day,
witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises.
Halloween also retains some features that hearken back to the original harvest
holiday of Samhain, such as the custom of bobbing for apples and carving
vegetables, as well as the fruits, nuts, and [spiced] cider associated with the
day . . . . (essay available from the Library of Congress)
It is apparent that Hallowe’en in the modern era is nothing more than the prevailing version of Samhain, a primordial Celtic festival designed and presided over first by the Druidic priesthood of antiquity and later by apostles of Romanism and commerce. Despite its popularity, Hallowe’en is an observance born and refined in the paganism God condemns throughout the Bible.
How Should a Christian Handle Hallowe’en?
Consider the Hallowe’en cast of core characters: witches, sorcerers, and ghosts. The Bible, however, plainly forbids occult practices of all kinds. God says:
When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn
to imitate the detestable things of those nations. 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, or a
sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up
the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of
these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.
You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 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: 9-14, NASB)
All counterfeit and spurious efforts to peer into the future, to control one’s fate or the fate of others, or to solicit spiritual guidance or favor from any other than God Himself are absolutely forbidden in the pages of the Bible, for God’s people are to be a peculiar treasure belonging to and trusting only in Him. Hallowe’en is an observance that in all its nuances elevates that which is dark and contrary to God’s way of life.
How is it, then, that so many well intentioned folk who call themselves after the only “name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, NASB), the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, find ways to justify the observance of Hallowe’en and even, in some cases, to incorporate the practice or some contrived alternative into their churches’ autumn activities schedule? As noted earlier, many feel that “baptizing” a pagan ritual, observance, or holiday brings it under the blood, figuratively speaking. However, they have no scriptural basis for their belief. On the contrary, God thunders “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4, NASB)
The immediate context here is the angel’s announcement that “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (Revelation 18:2, NASB), which speaks to the destruction God pours out on the world’s political, economic, and societal systems at the return of Jesus Christ. There is little doubt that same destruction also will befall all forms of baptized paganism, including Hallowe’en!
Some believers feel that reinterpreting Hallowe’en as an opportunity for children to have “harmless” fun by dressing up and playing out fantasies not related to the occult does not violate the law of God. Others rationalize their participation in Hallowe’en by sending their children out to trick-or-treat with tracts to distribute or other evangelistic tools with which to witness, i.e., memorized Bible verses. Still other parents claim Hallowe’en provides an opportunity for “family time” or mouth some other glittering generality that has a sound or form of godliness yet denies the power thereof. Such individuals, however sincere, are on dangerous ground spiritually and should remember the Lord’s admonition that “sorcerers” will be excluded from the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:15, NASB) and will have their part in “the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8, NASB). Hallowe’en is an observance undeniably linked to the realm of witchcraft and sorcery. Why would any sincere Christian want to take a chance on displeasing his or her Lord and possibly suffering the fate described in Revelation merely to cling to a pagan observance that will be swept away and remembered no more when Jesus Christ returns to establish His reign over the earth?
How much better it is for the followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Messiah, to “wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14, NASB). For outside are those who follow the ways of the world even after God, in His mercy, enlightens them to His ways and His true form of worship.
How should a Christian handle Hallowe’en and all that pertains to it? The Apostle Paul provides as definitive an answer as one can find in scripture or anywhere else under the heavens:
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have
righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with
darkness? ‘Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’
says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean; [a]nd I will
welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, [a]nd you shall be
sons and daughters to Me,’ [s]ays the Lord Almighty. (II Corinthians 6:14,
II Corinthians 6:17-18, NASB)
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