WHY DON’T WE CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN? 

by ALAN MORRISON First Reading: Deuteronomy 18:9-14 
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:1-16 
Focus Texts: Ezra 9:11; Ephesians 5:11 

"The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, 
with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their 
abominations which have filled it from one end to another with 
their impurity" (Ezra 9:11) 

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, 
but rather expose them" (Eph.5:11) 

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Here is a dialogue between Alex, an enthusiastic young churchgoer, 
and Michael, one of the elders of his church. The subject is 
Halloween. The young man wants to organise a Halloween celebration 
as an evangelistic activity. He presents his idea to the elder. 
The elder responds. 

Alex: I’ve got a great idea for our evangelistic work as a church. 
Why don’t we celebrate Halloween? We’ve been doing all this visiting 
for years now and it hasn’t done very much for our outreach. Let’s 
do a Halloween celebration. It’ll bring in piles of young people. 
We could have a parade through the town to the church with pumpkins 
and candles. We could  throw in the Gospel as well somewhere in the 
evening... 

Michael: Whoa... hold it Alex. There’s something we mustn’t forget 
here, a vital principle. The means that you use to put across the 
Gospel must be a fitting medium through which to present it. The 
Gospel is a holy thing, not a form of entertainment or a charade. 
Therefore the means must also fit into that holiness. The Bible 
says that it is Christ’s Gospel (2 Cor.2:12), that it is Divinely 
revealed (Gal.1:11-12), and that it is a unique Gospel (Gal.1:6-10). 
Do you really think that a bunch of kids dressed up as witches and 
ghouls with demon faces carved out of pumpkins is a fitting medium 
through which to proclaim the fact that the Son of God has come to 
destroy the works of the devil. If the means that you use to present 
the Gospel aren’t compatible with the Gospel itself, then you just 
give the wrong impression and wind up cheapening the Gospel and 
dishonouring God. 

Alex: [Becoming indignant...] That sounds like narrow-mindedness to 
me. You’re stuck in a time-warp man. Nowadays Halloween is just a 
bit of harmless fun for kids. How can a bit of harmless fun cheapen 
the Gospel? 

Michael: But is it just "a bit of harmless fun" — or is there more 
to Halloween than meets the eye?
 
Alex: [Even more indignant...] Oh, come on! Halloween just means 
the evening before All Saints’ Day on November 1st. It’s a 
recognised day in the Christian year calendar. 

Michael: Recognised by whom, Alex? Do you know where it comes 
from, when it first happened, who it was who began it and why? 
Let me tell you what Halloween is really all about. I have a 
paper I wrote on this somewhere. Let me get it out and share 
it with you. 

[Michael pulls a file from a drawer and hands a sheet to Alex, 
who immediately begins to read. Here follows the contents of 
what he read] 

THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWE'EN 

    "What we now know as ‘Halloween’ developed from ancient 
New Year festivals and festivals of the dead. In pre-Christian 
Britain, October 31st was considered as the eve of New Year, 
when the souls of the dead — especially those who had died in 
the past year — were believed to revisit their homes. After 
it became a "Christian" festival (as we'll see later), the 
evil supernatural symbolic associations continued — 
alongside such customs as the shaping of a demonic face out 
of a hollow pumpkin, in which a candle is placed. In the 
Halloween which people celebrate today, many of the practices 
have a direct association with witchcraft. Let’s have a look 
at the history: 

    The origin of the present-day Halloween celebration is 
generally believed to be the Celtic festival of Samhain — 
also known as The Lord of Death. The Celts lived more than 
two thousand years ago in what is now the United Kingdom, 
Ireland, and Northern France. Their New Year began on 
November 1st. A festival that began the previous evening 
honoured this Samhain, the Lord of Death. The celebration 
marked the beginning of the season of cold, darkness, and 
decay. 

     On the evening of the festival, the Druids, who were 
the Celtic priests, ordered the people to put out their 
hearth fires. The Druidic priests then built a huge New 
Year's bonfire made out of oak branches — which they 
considered sacred — and burned animals and crops (some 
believe that they also used human beings as sacrifices). 
These were performed in the belief that they would protect 
the crops and flocks from demonic influence, for without 
them the Celts believed that they couldn’t beat the perils 
of the season or ward off the activities of the deities who 
were also believed to perform various tricks at this time 
of the year. 

    The Celts believed that on the Feast of Samhain, the 
spirits of their ancestors would rise up from the cold 
fields and graves and come into the warm homes and cottages 
of the people, and thus had to be greeted with decorations 
and festivities, parties and acceptance, in order to get 
"protection" for the household from evil spirits during 
the coming winter months. 

    So, in its origin, the Feast of Samhain was a rite 
designed to protect humans from the 'evil' activities of 
discarnate entities. It was, in effect, a bargain with 
the dead so they'd stay away and cause no trouble during 
the coming year. 

   Each family then relit its hearth fire from the New 
Year's fire. During the celebration, people sometimes 
wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They told 
fortunes about the coming year by examining the remains 
of the animals that had been sacrificed -- an occult 
practice which is referenced in Ezek.21:21: "For the 
king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at 
the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes 
the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver"). 

   This date was also the eve of the New Year in both 
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times and was the occasion for one 
of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set 
on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits. The date was 
connected with the return of herds from pasture, and laws 
and land tenures were renewed. The souls of the dead were 
supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the 
autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with 
ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and 
demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the 
time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the 
processes of nature. In addition, Halloween was thought 
to be the most favourable time for divinations concerning 
marriage, luck, health, and death. It was the only day on 
which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes. 

    Gradually, Halloween became a secular observance, and 
many customs and practices developed. In Scotland young 
people assembled for games to see which of them would marry 
during the year and in what order the marriages would occur. 
Many Halloween customs have become games played by children. 
    
    Immigrants to the U.S., particularly the Irish, introduced 
secular Halloween customs that became popular in the late 
19th century. Mischief-making on this day by boys and young 
men included overturning sheds and outhouses and breaking 
windows, and damage to property was sometimes serious. In 
later years, this has come to be observed mainly by small 
children, who go from house to house, often in costume, 
demanding "trick or treat". The neighbours, to avoid having 
tricks played on them, give the children such treats as fruit, 
money, and sweets. Since 1965, UNICEF, an agency of the 
United Nations, has attempted to incorporate into the 
Halloween observance the collection of money for the United 
Nations Children’s Fund! 

    A common symbol of Halloween is the Jack O’Lantern (the 
name was possibly derived from that for a night watchman). 
This is a hollowed-out pumpkin carved in the appearance of a 
demonic face and with a lighted candle fixed inside. In 
Scotland a turnip was used, but the native pumpkin was 
substituted in the United States. Many years ago, people in 
England and Ireland once carved out beets, potatoes, and 
turnips to use as lanterns on Halloween. These lanterns were 
hung allegedly to frighten away witches and evil spirits. 
Today, they use pumpkins. In England, Halloween was 
sometimes called Nutcrack Night, or Crab Apple Night, or 
Apple and Candle Night. Families sat by the fire and told 
stories while they ate apples and nuts. 

    On All Souls’ Day, in olden times, poor people used to 
go "a–souling" (begging). They received pastries called 
‘soulcakes’ in exchange for promising to say prayers for 
the dead. In England, some Halloween customs became mixed 
up with Guy Fawkes Night, on November 5, which is also 
celebrated by lighting bonfires. The Encyclopedia 
Britannica (eleventh edition) states: 

"Halloween and its formerly attendant ceremonies long 
antedate Christianity. The two chief characteristics of 
ancient Halloween were the lighting of bonfires and the 
belief that of all nights in the year this is the one 
during which ghosts and witches are most likely to wander 
abroad. Now on or about the first of November the Druids 
held their great autumnal festival and lighted fires in 
honor of the SUN-GOD in thanksgiving for the harvest. 
Further, it was a Druid belief that on the eve of this 
festival, Saman, LORD OF DEATH, called together the wicked 
souls that within the past twelve months had been condemned 
to inhabit the bodies of animals. Thus it is clear that the 
main celebrations of Hallowe'en were purely Druidical, and 
this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland 
the 31st of October was, and even still is, known as Oidhche 
Shamhna, "Vigil of Samhan". Onto the Druid ceremonies were 
grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival 
in honor of Pomona held about the end of November, in which 
nuts and apples, as representing the winter store of fruits, 
played an important part. Thus the roasting of nuts and the 
sport known as 'apple-ducking' - attempting to seize with 
the teeth an apple floating in a tub of water - were once 
the universal occupation of the young folk in medieval 
England on the 31st of October. The custom of lighting 
Hallowe'en fires survived until recent years in the highlands 
of Scotland and Wales. In the dying embers it was usual to 
place as many small stones as there were persons around, and 
next morning a search was made. If any of the pebbles were 
displaced it was regarded as certain that the person 
represented would die within the next twelve months" 

    In A.D. 43, the Romans conquered the Celts and ruled 
what are now England and Wales for about 400 years. Now, 
during this period, two Roman autumn festivals were 
combined with the Celtic festival of Samhain, Lord of the 
Dead. One of them, called Feralia, was held in late October 
to honour the dead,. The other festival honoured Pomona, the 
Roman goddess of fruit and trees. It seems likely that 
apples and nuts first became associated with Halloween 
because of this festival." 

[Alex puts the sheet of paper down and looks pensive...] 

Michael: Now, did you know all that Alex? 

Alex: Well... er... no... er... sort of... but... that’s 
not what we’re doing on Halloween, is it. I mean I wouldn’t 
have anything to do with all that stuff that you’ve been 
talking about. 

Michael: You might not; but there’s plenty of people who 
would. We’ve got to consider the effect these things have 
on other people. Those powerful visual symbols are much 
more likely to turn someone on to Old Nick than they are 
to bring someone to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Alex: But it is a Christian Festival, isn’t it? 

Michael: I’ve always found the idea of Christian Festivals 
extremely weird. Festivals were certainly tied up with the 
nation of Israel under the Old Covenant. But these have 
all found their fulfilment and ultimate _expression in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who has set them aside as unnecessary 
celebrations: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, 
or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which 
are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of 
Christ" (Col.2:16-17). We need to bear in mind that the 
idea of Church or Christian Festivals is very much a 
man-made concept. The only commemorations commended to us 
by the Lord are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. If you look, 
there's more at the the bottom of the paper. 

[Alex picks up the paper again and reads the next section...] 

CHRISTIANITY & HALLOWE'EN 

    What people call All Saints Day in the Christian Church 
is a day which is said to commemorate all the saints of the 
church, both known and unknown, celebrated on November 1st 
in the Western churches and on the first Sunday after 
Pentecost in the Eastern churches. Its origin cannot be 
traced with absolute certainty, and it has been observed 
on various days in different places. But the connections 
are pretty easy to discern because the coincidences are in 
plentiful supply. 

     A feast of All Martyrs was kept on May 13th in the 
Eastern Church according to Ephraim Syrus (d.c. 373), 
which may have determined the choice of May 13th by Pope 
Boniface IV when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a 
church in honour of the Virgin Mary and all martyrs in 609. 
The first evidence for the November 1st date of celebration, 
and of the broadening of the festival to include all saints 
as well as all martyrs, occurred during the reign of Pope 
Gregory III (731-741), who dedicated a chapel in St. 
Peter's, Rome, on November 1st in honour of all the saints. 

     In 800, All Saints' Day was kept by the Yorkshire 
scholar Alcuin (735-804) on November 1, and it also 
appeared in a 9th-century English calendar on that day. In 
837 Pope Gregory IV ordered its general observance. In 
medieval England, the festival was known as All Hallows, 
and its eve was known as Halloween. 

     People fail to realise that many ancient pagan 
practices became incorporated into the practices of the 
post-Apostolic Church, including virtually every pagan 
festival known to the Romans and the inhabitants of the 
Roman Empire. Halloween was no exception. But what 
happened? How did the ancient Druid, Celtic festival in 
honour of the "Lord of the Dead," and celebrated in 
worship of the "Sun-god," ever creep into the practice 
of the "Christian Church"? The World Book Encyclopedia 
relates: 

    "Many of the customs of the Celts survived even after 
the people became Christians. During the 800's, the church 
established All Saints' Day on November 1. The people made 
the old pagan customs part of this Christian holy day. 
Then the church began to honor the dead on November 2. 
This day became known as All Souls' Day." 

    When All Saints’ Day had become established on November 
1st, the Mass that was said was called Allhallowmas. The 
evening before All Saints’ Day then became known as All 
Hallows’ Eve, or All Hallow e’en. And that’s what we have 
today. 

     Now it is easy to find out all this information 
without having to look very far. It is all in the public 
domain. However, amazingly, the New Catholic Encyclopedia 
says: "How a feast of all the saints came to be celebrated 
on November 1st has not yet been demonstrated". I guess 
there is a vested interest in saying that! 

[Alex looks up and goes on to challenge Michael...] 

Alex: Hold on a minute. You’ve said a great deal about 
history, but you haven’t even mentioned the Bible. As far 
as I know, there’s nothing about Halloween in the Bible, 
for or against. 

Michael: Just because the word "Halloween" isn’t 
specifically mentioned in the Bible doesn’t mean there’s 
nothing which can help us to know how we should respond 
to it. In fact, everything we need to know about how to 
respond must be in the Bible. "All Scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped 
for every good work" (2 Tim.3:16-17). 

   Let’s just look at the reasons we can learn from the 
Bible about why we shouldn’t celebrate Halloween. First, 
Halloween clearly has occult implications, being a direct 
offshoot of the ancient pagan beliefs of the magical cult 
of Druidism. The fact that these practices today are 
largely symbolic for the average person in the street 
doesn’t make any difference. The Christian is intimately 
concerned with symbols. The two sacraments of Baptism and 
the Lord’s Supper are massive symbols of great spiritual 
importance relating to the work of God through the Lord 
Jesus Christ; and they are acted out with great 
significance on a regular basis. In the same way, acting 
out ceremonies which are symbolic of devilish and demonic 
works also carry great spiritual significance. 

     Now you may say well what’s wrong with doing 
something which only has occult implications. I'll tell 
you -- and this is my second reason why we shouldn't 
have anything to do with Halloween. It is that 
connecting with occultism causes spiritual pollution. 
It actually renders people "unclean". The Bible makes 
it very clear that to have any association with 
witchcraft or evil spirits -- far from being "good 
clean fun" -- actually defiles a person: 

     "Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; 
do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the 
LORD your God" (Lev.19:31). 

     "The land which you are entering to possess is an 
unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the 
lands, with their abominations which have filled it from 
one end to another with their impurity" (Ezra 9:11). 

     You may have noticed that in Eph.5:1-16, the word 
"uncleanness" is often referred to as something which 
believers should avoid. The Christian has been cleansed 
by Christ from the taint and stench of his former evil 
deeds: "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but 
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by 
the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor.6:10). 

     "Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His 
own blood" (Rev.1:5) 

     Is it really fitting that we should overturn that 
cleansing by polluting ourselves with the powerful symbols 
of wickedness and sorcery through participating in a 
festival which has its roots in outright paganism of the 
worst sort? Thirdly, God’s people are to disassociate 
themselves from evil works. We are a people separated from 
worldly living to live a life of holiness: 

     "When you come into the land which the LORD your God 
is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the 
abominations of those nations. There shall not be found 
among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass 
through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a 
soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 
or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, 
or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things 
are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these 
abominations the LORD your God drives them out from 
before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your 
God. For these nations which you will dispossess 
listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, 
the LORD your God has not appointed such for you" 
(Deut.18:11-14). 

     "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph.5:11). 

     "Do not be unequally yoked together with 
unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with 
lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has 
a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the 
temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the 
living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And 
walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be 
My people." Therefore "Come out from among them And be 
separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, 
And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And 
you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD 
Almighty" (2 Cor.6:14-18). 

      By the way, Alex, that doesn't mean that we should 
have nothing to do with unbelievers. That would be silly 
and counterproductive to the spirit of the Gospel, which 
expects us to be witnesses alongside the people. However, 
it does mean that we should not be intimately involved 
with any of their evil religious anti-Christian activities. 

Alex: But the things which kids do on Halloween aren’t evil. 
That’s ridiculous. 

Michael: My friend, we’re not only called to refrain from 
the actual practise of evil, but we are also called to have 
nothing to do with things which even appear to be evil. 
"Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thess.5:22). The 
word "appearance" is a translation of the Greek word eidos, 
the external outward appearance, which comes from eido, to 
see, to perceive with the eyes. In other words, the Apostle 
is commanding us to abstain not only from actually 
practicing evil but also from doing anything which may be 
perceived by others as being evil. "Abstain from all 
appearance of evil". Surely the celebrating of Hallowe'en 
and participating in its activities comes under that 
command. 

Alex [incredulously...] : Are you saying that even 
non-Christians shouldn’t be celebrating Halloween? 

Michael: Well, that would certainly be the ideal. 
Association with magic and the occult is harmful to society. 
Wherever it occurs it causes numerous problems in the 
offending culture. If you look at all the countries which do 
the most to promote blatant witchcraft, sorcery and the 
occult, you will see that they are riddled with other 
negative social phenomena such as hunger, disease, 
financial catastrophe, sexual perversions, pestilences, 
etc. Now that the Western world is being given over 
officially to syncretism, amorality and the acceptance of 
occultism, those same phenomena are making massive inroads 
into... 

Alex [interrupting irritatedly...]: So are you going to let 
me hold this Halloween Celebration in the church or not? My 
kids will be doing something at home anyway, so you can't 
stop that. 

Michael: Alex, it’s out of the question. Haven’t you 
understood a word of what we’ve been talking about? There’s 
no way that I could agree to hold a meeting here which 
would defile the church and all those involved — not to 
mention our responsibility towards the children and 
unbelievers in our town. I have to think of what's 
spiritually best for the people in general rather than 
pleasing the whims of a few, even if it makes me unpopular 
-- although the Lord knows that I don't seek that 
unpopularity. 

     I am all for "good, clean fun". I think that 
Christians should enjoy themselves and in fact should be 
able to enjoy themselves in the truest, highest sense 
even more than unbelievers. But surely you can see that 
even on a natural level, it seems wrong and oddly out of 
place for good people to commemorate a whole day to the 
impersonation of the worst sort of spiritual evil. 

    I don't want to see my kids dressed up as witches. I 
don't want to see my kids lighting up pumpkins which 
look like the faces of demons. I don't want to see my 
kids pretending to be blood-sucking vampires. Vampires 
may not be real in a physical, non-symbolic sense, but 
demons do suck the individuality and lifeforce out of 
a person and take them over, and that is what vampires 
represent. Demons are for real. Witches are for real. 
Sorcery is for real. There is nothing good or clean or 
funny about any of it. To encourage children to be 
involved in such things in any way is surely 
irresponsible and can ultimately be damaging to their 
spiritual health. 

    I find it sad that so many people think that the 
impersonation of satanic representation is "good clean 
fun". Any society which imagines that it is worthy of 
the title 'civilised' while it regards Hallowe’en as 
"good, clean fun" has well and truly lost its way. 

    We could also say the same thing about a society 
which legalises abortion and homosexuality — but 
that’s another story!