|
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter. By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween. By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.
"Encyclopedia: Lincoln, Abraham," The History Channel website, http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=214843
Caution: As I was studying up on the topic of Halloween I found a numerous amount of information. Some things were so detailed that it began to lose me and some things were so general that it was unhelpful. Through the research I found a write up that, frankly, was the easiest to understand, read, and relate to the writing of this holiday. As I read this I began to think if I could write it any other way to make it easier to understand but there wasn’t.
While you read this, remember that there is much more detailed information if you desire to go deeper into the subject. As you read all the information just remember to keep it simple and don’t look too deep into all of the writings where as you could possibly get lost in the wording and begin to see this holiday as a good thing. Just remember, anything that does not bring glory to the King of kings is not worth doing!
This holiday called Halloween is a worldly holiday. What do I mean by worldly? That means that it is a holiday that is not intended to glorify God. Are there other holidays that were started without the intent of glorifying the Lord. Yes, some holidays were intended to honor fallen soldiers such as memorial day. Labor day is a holiday that honors the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. Are these bad holidays? No, we need to give honor where honor is due. This leads us to Halloween. As we look through this holiday we will use the writing from above to understand why we as Christians do not want to partake. Now, I know that when the above statement is made, those who do take part already begin to put up a wall because they do not see what the “big deal” is. But I challenge you to be teachable and not look at this holiday as a harmless, fun day, rather look at it with the seriousness that the Bible speaks of. Take in consideration a few things. Number one, look at the holiday for what it was intended. Two, remember that Satan “the deceiver” always works under the radar so that things seem to be okay. And three, remember that things are not always as they seem.
Lets begin to look at this holiday Samhain together and start to dissect what they did and why. As we read, we find that the Celts had a thought, the dead would come and visit the living. When we look at this we want to understand that Biblically we do not find the dead ever coming back to visit unless God or Jesus themselves raised people to life. For example we find in Matthew 27:51-53, Matthew 27:51-53, “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
Now the point that needs to be mentioned is that first, they were saints and second, the people that God or Jesus raise are for their glory. Lazarus is another fine example of this (John 11:1-44). Now, as we look at the Celts tradition of the dead coming to visit, we see that they did wreak havoc by damaging the crops. Remember that these are not real events, but superstition. It was believed that the dead would come, but they didn’t. Look at what happened next. Because of the superstition of the Celts, their hope was not in God but rather they turned to Druids or Celtic priests to begin predicting the future. Whenever anyone begins trusting in anything other than God Himself we are going in the wrong direction. The comfort of the people was not by God but rather the words or predictions of the Druids and Celtic priests.
To commemorate this event, the sin continued to grow by having the Druids build bonfires. Not that bonfires are sinful but what the people did was, they gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. Through this we now understand that the Celtic people believed in multiple gods. Exodus 20:3, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
As the festivities continue, costumes are worn which are of animal heads and skins and then they take part in telling other’s futures. A fortune teller (soothsayer) is one that has supposed supernatural power. This is commonly referred to as witchcraft. Micah 5:12, “And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers.”
This was God’s stand point with Israel, don’t you think it would be the same for us? Regardless of who you are God hates witchcraft.
Unfortunately later in time the pope tried to replace the Celtic holiday with a related, but sanctioned holiday. This is horrible because the pope never acknowledged the festivity for what it really was. He instead tried to take what was wrong and add to it to make it better. He didn’t have to accept the holiday and try to make it better. Sometimes we have to make a stand against the things that are not of God. We don’t have to try and make it fit. Its okay if you don’t partake in all of the holidays.
As we have looked at the roots of Halloween I hope that you have seen the progression of the Celts. They took a festivity, which seemed to be harmless, and wound up dealing with evil spirits, fortune tellers, worshipping false idols, and even witchcraft. Remember, as we deal with Halloween, that Satan is the deceiver. He flies under the radar and is very subtle. While this holiday may not seem to be a “big deal” just think about Satan in the garden with Eve. He was very subtle and deceived her to take part in something that God did not want for her to do (Genesis 3:1-13). Anything that does not bring glory to God is a “big deal.” This is a holiday that is rooted in evil spirits which is why we see these grotesque costumes even today. This holiday is rooted in witchcraft and trickery which is what we see today. This holiday is one that may appear to be harmless but is it really?
|
