What is Halloween?
The history of Halloween, based on its Celtic traditions, is that on the night of October 31st, the Samhain festival was celebrated. The festival commenced the end of summer and of harvest, and the beginning of winter, a time they believed related to human death. On the night of October 31st, the Celts believed that the boundary of the world, between the living and the dead, was thin, and that ghosts were able to roam the earth. The festival was celebrated by people making mischief, damaging crops, and the Celtic priests and their deities predicting the future. The priests would build bonfires to offer sacrifices, and costumes and masks were worn, often of animal heads and skins.
During the 9th century, Catholicism spread to the lands of the Celts where Christianity and Celtic rituals were blended. The church made November 2nd All Souls’ Day in celebration of the dead, aiming to replace Samhain. The celebrations were quite similar. While they still wore costumes, animal parts were used and, people opted for saints, angels and devils. All Saints’ Day was also called All-hallows, and Samhain started being dubbed All-Hallows Eve. Halloween, with varying cultures in the United States, has adjusted the traditions associated with the celebration; however, the attachment to death remains.
In II Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul teaches us why we should not celebrate Halloween. Verses 14 to 17 cautions saints when interacting with unbelievers. In verse 14, Paul proclaims: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” He further asks, “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (vs. 15). These are still appropriate questions for today. To whose or to what benefit is it for us to celebrate Halloween, and who are we, intentionally or unintentionally, glorifying? Paul starts by beseeching the Corinthians to not take the grace of God in vain, and I am asking us to do the same. How we live throughout this life matters. We have to actively seek God and not just go through the motions of what may or may not be sinful. I Corinthians 10:31 proclaims that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Let us lean into the actions of righteousness and in praising God, and not indulge in things He does not delight in. Our goal is to reach and inherit the kingdom and the beauty of all there is. You must ask, how does Halloween allow you to receive that? Or, is it yet another ploy of the enemy to block you from the presence of God? As Joshua said to Israel, and I now say to us, “choose you this day whom you will serve!”
Gabrielle Reid
Asbury, New Jersey