Holiday?

I had a friend recently ask me a question some of you may be wondering. She called after her son had a conversation with my bold 2nd grader and asked, "So, why don't you and your family celebrate Halloween?" I actually love it when people ask me about this! It gives me the chance to share what I believe the Holy Spirit has taught me to discern in my own spirit about good and evil. My response to her is the same for you. Why do you celebrate Halloween? We can answer that better if we step back and ask the same question about other real "holidays" (holiday actually means "holy day", so in the truest sense, Halloween can not be a "Holy Day" for Christians since there is nothing "holy" about it.)

Why do you celebrate Christmas? Do you still have something to celebrate if you take away all the gifts and decorations and other secular additions to this Day?
Yes, we as Christians, celebrate the birth of Jesus on this day and need not all the external additions to have true celebration.

Why do you celebrate Easter or Thanksgiving? Can you still celebrate without all the candy or food?
Yes, we celebrate the LIFE Jesus gave us through His death and the blessings He has graciously given unto us.

What about the Fourth of July or New Year's Eve? Are these holidays that have a Holy significance?
Yes, New Year's Eve is a time for giving thanks for the blessings of the outgoing year and praying for God to bless us during the upcoming year."
And Indepenence Day is when we celebrate our independence from Britain, which was certainly a Holy Day for those men, and families that sacrificed so much, even to the point of death, to freely practice their religion without the interference of the State.

So, why do you "celebrate" Halloween? Surely, you teach your children why you celebrate all the other holidays? Don't we teach them about the pilgrims of old and read to them out of our Bible to remind them about what happened on these Holy days (knowing we don't know what days they actually occurred, but we chose these days to set aside to remember)? Isn't it a time to look back in History and don't we focus much teaching on these History lessons?

So, why do we think that Halloween should be any different? Why do we ignore the history of this day and celebrate with no real reason other than "innocent fun"? How often I hear the lame excuse, "We don't celebrate it for those reasons" - meaning all the evil reasons that history tells us this day was set aside for. Many also give the excuse that Christmas, Easter, and even birthday parties are full of stolen pagan practices and symbols so why just pick on Halloween? Again, their is nothing "good and holy" to celebrate at Halloween, but a whole lot of darkness and evil. At least with the other days, we "cling to what is good".

How often do we take the Scripture from Deut. 6:6-9 out of context? God commands us as parents to teach our children. Not to teach them writing, reading and math as I am guilty of assuming. No, he tells us as parents to teach our children the commandments that he, as God, gave to us, His beloved children. And what has God commanded us about pagan practices and pagan gods and things associated with death and darkness? Well, all you have to do is flip over one more chapter to Deut. 7:25 where Moses instructs the Israelites according to the commandment of God, "The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire." What do you think a Jack-o-lantern is? It is an image of what some used to consider a "god" who could scare away the evils spirits that were let loose on Oct. 31. Staying in Deut. chapter 18:9, the Israelites are told, "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there." God drove out the nations who practiced divination or sorcery, and has commanded us, His holy people, to stay away from their practices and instead, "Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." I Thess. 5:21-22.

The Holy Spirit has convicted my heart that Halloween with all it's traditions is evil. If you dare, do some research and find out the history of this day so that you, too, can teach your children. Study God's Holy Word for yourself and ask him to reveal His truths to you so that you can impart them to your children and others he places in your path. I know not all Christians view this celebration in the same light and I have to remind myself, as I do my children, that no matter how backwards it seems for so many Christians to celebrate with the pagans on this day, it doesn't mean that they love Jesus any less than we do! I am passionate about it and want you to be too, but I know that the great majority of you will continue with your family fun on this nights and we can all still be friends!!

Below is some information from this site, but there are many more sites with great historical facts about this pagan celebration.

"Halloween has its origin in the British Isles about 1300 years ago. In those days, there were many men and women who practiced a so-called “nature religion” known as Wicca. (The word “Wicca” means “wise ones.” The word “witch” is derived from “Wicca.”) The witches worked their spells and magic as individuals or sometimes in groups of 13 known as Covens. Sometimes the witches and wizards worked as a triumvirate or power of three. The female Wiccan was known as a witch, and the male Wiccan was known as a wizard. The word “warlock” was not used by witches to identify themselves. It is actually a Scotch-Gaelic word that means “traitor.” Satanists use the word “warlock.”The Wiccans were worshippers of the “Earth Mother”, the sun, the moon, and stars. Witches do not believe in Satan. The Wiccans or witches meet every Friday night at a gathering called an “esbat.” They draw a magic circle with a six-pointed star in it called a “hexagram”, from which we get the word “hex.” The coven of 13 stand “sky clad” or naked in the hexagram and work spells by chanting and doing rituals such as “drawing down the moon.” The full moon is sacred to witches, especially if it is on a Friday. It is considered to be even greater if the Friday is the 13th day of the month. Eight times each year, the witches celebrated a sabat and the ritual work and spell casting was always done on the eve of the sabat. The sabats are Imbolc on February 2nd, the spring equinox on March 22nd, Beltaine on May 1st, the summer solstice on June 22nd, Lugnahsaid on July 31st, the fall equinox on September 22nd, Samhain on October 31st, and the winter solstice on December 22nd, which is also known as Yule. Witches have special ways of celebrating for each sabat, and even though they do not believe in Satan, it is Satan who gives them the experiences they have and deceives them into thinking it is the forces of nature they are tapping into. Halloween is the most important of the eight sabats in witchcraft and is known to the witches by the Scotch-Gaelic word “Samhain”, which is pronounced “SOW-EEN.” It is believed that on that night, the barrier between this world and the next, known as the astral plane, becomes very thin. The witches believe that this allows spirits of departed ones to travel freely back and forth between the earth and the spirit realm. Thus, Halloween is the highest day in Wiccan witchcraft. On that night for many centuries, witches would work their magic and then have wild parties all through the darkness of that night. They would play games, such as bobbing for apples, because witches regard the apple as sacred. The witches would also tell stories from their personal diaries of spells known as their “book of shadows.” These ghost stories would start when the hosting High Priest or Priestess would say, “A witches’ tale and a cup of ale for the host of our guests unseen.” In those early days in England, there was another kind of witchcraft known as Druidism. The Druids were called “men of the oaks” and were a strange clan of men who dressed in white robes. The Druids worshipped Cernnunos, the “horned hunter of the night.“ Halloween was sacred to the Druids because their sun-god receded to the underworld on October 31st, which is why darkness increased and light decreased according to their reckoning. As darkness set in on October 31st, the clan of Druids would put on their white robes and hoods. They would carry sickles and Celtic crosses as they began a torchlight procession. At the beginning of the procession, a male slave was killed and dragged by a rope fastened to his left ankle. The Druids would walk until they came to a house or a village where they shouted the equivalent of “trick or treat.” The treat was a slave girl or any female to be given to the Druids. If the people refused to a girl as a “treat”, blood was taken from the dead slave and used to draw a hexagram or six-pointed star on the door or wall of the village. Spirits of the “horned hunter of the night” were invoked by the Druids to kill someone in that house or village by fear that night. If the house or village gave a girl as a “treat”, the Druids put a pumpkin with a face carved in it in front of the door or gate of that place. Inside the pumpkin was a candle made of human tallow to keep evil spirits away. Thus, the Jack-O-Lantern was and is a sign that you have cooperated with Satan. The treats or female victims were taken to Stonehenge where they were raped and killed and then sacrificed on the sacred bonefire until only glowing embers were left. The “bonefire” is the origin of the modern day bonfire. As a matter of luck for winter survival, all villagers were expected to use the glowing embers of the bonefire to light their hearths. "