Halloween: A Devil's Holiday or Christian Celebration?

This past week, I've become increasingly bothered with the "celebration" of Halloween. It all started with the Baptist Student Ministry sneaking into my dorm room to place a brown paper bag filled with candy and a note reading "Have a happy Halloween!" on my desk. Following that, I received several text messages from friends wishing me a happy Halloween and asking me what I'm planning on doing. I simply replied with, "I don't believe in celebrating Halloween." My friends replied with shocked disbelief in my not celebrating Halloween.



So, I did some quick research (I would have done more thorough research but I have wayyy too many exams this week to do research for, sorry!) and according to the History Channel and a few other sources, below is a "cliff notes version" on why Halloween was celebrated.

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts believed that on that night (Nov 1), the boudary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. It was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth. These ghosts were believed to cause trouble, wreck havoc, and damage crops. During this time, the Celts wore costumes (animal heads & skins) in an attempt to scare the ghosts of the dead away from their families and crops. They would also gather to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic gods to protect them. When the Romans took over most of the Celt's land, two of the Roman holidays (a celebration of the passing of the dead and the day to honor Pomona, goddess of fruit and trees) were combined with Samhain. Thus, the tradition to bob for apples on Halloween (Pomona's symbol was the apple). By the 800s, Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. The pope at that time designated Samhain to be All Saints' Day or All-hallows Eve (a time to honor saints and martyrs). It is widely believed that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but church-sanctioned holiday. In A.D. 1000, the church would make Nov 2, All Souls' Day, to honor the dead.



What bothered me most when my friends' text messaged me wishing me a happy Halloween and were shocked to hear that I don't celebrate it was that most of them were Christian! In most countries today, Halloween is some cutesy holiday where little children get to dress up as puppies and baseball players, men get to live their fantasy as super heroes for a day, and it's also an excuse for women to dress as scantily as possible. Pumpkins are carved as a family traditions and candy is given out. Sure, as a child it was fun dressing up as a scary creature or weird animal and going door to door asking for candy was always a treat but as I become more and more aware of how the world is growing more corrupt, I am wary of each "celebration." Thus, my research to discover the true meaning of Halloween.

On that day, I saw people dressed in scary, weird, devilish, degrading costumes. This is no celebration to remember the saints and martyrs. So to Christians who tell me that I am a prude, Halloween is a Christian holiday, and that dressing up like devils, ghosts, aliens, or what have you, is okay, I beg to differ!

It still amazes me how so many people celebrate Christmas, Easter, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Lent, Diwali, etc and do not truly know the reason why they are celebrated! I guess my point is this: Don't celebrate holidays blindly and ignorantly without knowing its true meaning.