Everything has a beginning. Sometimes it’s a lot darker than we would have ever imagined, but it’s where it ends up that really counts. It’s what we do with it that’s really important.
Every Culture has it’s festivals and traditions. These traditions encourage a united belief system and inspire unity within the community.
2000 years ago, community living looked very different to what it does today. The people lived largely off the land, which is a hard existence and they relied on their superstitions and prophecies to bring them hope and peace.
The festival of Halloween, has a very dark origin but through the ages, it has taken many twists and turns. It has jumped from culture to culture and continent to continent and today, it has evolved into a community oriented, child friendly celebration – in fact one quarter of all the candy sold annually in the USA is purchased for Halloween.
Come with me on a journey of discovery, of where it all began to where it is now and I am sure it will help you make a decision about whether or not you want to join in the celebration.
It all started with the Celts who lived two thousand years ago, in an area which is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and Northern France. They would celebrate their New year on the 1st of November, right at the end of their season of harvest and before the cold, brutal winter months. Winter was often associated with death and the Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the lines between life and death become blurred and that ghosts would come and wreak havoc in their community. Therefore on the 31st of October, they celebrated Samhain, a festival where they believed the spiritual world invaded the natural world. Unfortunately there was not light and goodness in this tradition. They did not trust in God and his heavenly host of angels. Instead the people feared the otherworldly spirits so they dressed up as ghosts or evil beings so that they would not be the targets. They also believed that because of the high level of spiritual activity, the Druins or priests of the time, were able to make predictions about the future and these prophecies were a great sense of comfort for the people during the dark dismal season ahead.
In the 600’s we see a better influence coming in to ‘change’ the day. Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to honor all the Christian Martyrs and the Catholic feast of “All Martyrs day’ was established in the Western Church. Later, in the 700’s Pope Gregory III expanded this festival to include all the saints and martyrs, and move the celebration from May to November 1.
By the 900’s, Christianity had spread into the Celtic lands and in 1000 AD, the church made November 2 ‘All Soul’s Day’ to honor the dead. It is thought that this was perhaps the churches way of replacing the Celtic festival with a similar but church-friendly celebration. The ‘All Saints day’ was enjoyed in a way that was very similar to Samhain with parades and people dressing up as saints and angels and devils.
The All Saints day was also called All-Hollows (which means all saints) and over time, the night of the Samhain which was celebrated on the eve of ‘All Saints Day’ also became known as All Hallows and eventually Halloween.
Eventually, as Irish and English immigrants moved into America, the beliefs and customs of the different groups meshed and a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, which was the start of todays “trick-or-treat” tradition.
And from here, the evil overtures of the Halloween celebration become milder and milder until in the 1800’s there was a move in America to recreate Halloween as a festival that was more about the community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts and pranks and witchcraft. Halloween was mostly celebrated at parties and parents were encouraged to take everything that was ‘scary’ and ‘evil’ out of the of the Halloween celebrations and because of this, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the 20th century.
Between the 1920’s and 1950’s the old tradition of trick-or-treating were revived. This is a relatively inexpensive way for the entire community to share in the celebration and it gives families a way of avoiding a ‘trick’ by giving the children of the neighborhood a small treat.
Now, in 2016, it is almost impossible to avoid the Halloween festivities. Even in South Africa, this festival has grown immensely, but as with most celebrations it has become hugely commercial with the impact on the sweet industry being astronomical.
So does this mean that it is ok for bible believing Christians to join in the Halloween celebrations?
In our society today, it is almost impossible to avoid the festivities of Halloween but we can create room for heaps of fun and use the day to celebrate God’s protection, provision and purpose for our lives.
God is with us in all that we do and everything should be an expression of his love in our lives.
So if we go our trick-or-treating with our kiddies, go with the joy of the Lord. Pray over the sweeties that you give out and trust that God will supernaturally work in the life of each the person they are given too.
We can make a difference, even in a time such as this.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying these traditions, as long as they don’t overshadow Jesus.
Enjoy your freedom in Christ. Enjoy Christ.
1 Corinthians 8
But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.[a]
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,
There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.