The Truth About Halloween

Halloween is a festival that conjures up images of ghosts, skeletons, black cats, witches and little costumed children scurrying about the neighborhood. While there may be some people who are concerned about the origin of Halloween and its focus on blood, death, horror and the occult, to millions of youngsters across the nation it is adopted to pursue scare fun. It is an opportunity to dress up in goulish and fanciful costumes, to engage in the fantasy of being a witch, vampire, ghost or devil. Eager tricker-treaters solicit candy door to door or bob for apples at Halloween parties. Others raid haunted houses or horror movie marathons while the more daring visit cemeteries at midnight, play with the Ouija boards and hold seances in an effort to contact the spirits of the dead.

One of the biggest promoters of Halloween is the public school system. School sponsored Halloween theme activities often include, dances, parties, carnival and arts and craft projects. Education authorities tell us that more effort is put into Halloween festival than any other holiday throughout the year. Is the stimulation of a child's sense of fun and fear all there is to Halloween or is there more? The truth is that beneath Halloween's candy coating is a history of diabolical evil. In this writing I will give you some of the evils of Halloween. I will tell you briefly three things: 1. The history of Halloween and, 2. The heroes of Halloween, 3. The harm of Halloween.

Halloween is a pagan religious holiday not a Christian day. Tom Sanguinet, former high priest in the Celtic tradition of Wicca (witchcraft) said "The modern holiday we call Halloween has its origin closest to November 1, the witches' New Year. It was a time when the "spirits" (devils) were supposed to be at their peak power revisiting the earth. Planet." He went on to say, "Halloween is purely and absolutely evil, and there is nothing we ever, have ever or will ever do to make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus."

What is the man talking about, you may be asking yourself? Let me explain. The origin of Halloween is the Celtic Festival of Samhain, or of death and evil spirits. Long before Christ (at least 2000 years), Druids in Britain, Scotland, France, Germany and other Celtic countries observed the end of the Summer by making sacrifices to Samhain. The Celts considered November 1 as being the day of death because the leaves were falling, it was getting darker sooner and temperatures were dropping. They believed Muck Olla, their sun god was losing strength and Samhain, lord of death, was overpowering him. Further, they believed that October 31 Samhain assembled the spirits of all who had died during the previous year. These spirits had been confined to inhabit animals' bodies for the past year, as punishment for their evil deeds. They were allowed to return to their former home to visit the living on the eve (Oct. 31) of the feast of Samhain. Druid priests led the people in diabolical ceremonies in which many different animals and even human beings were offered as sacrifices and burned to death. This was done to appease Samhain and keep spirits from harming them. It is clear to see that Halloween has always been a celebration of death. Hence, we have the origin of trick or treat. "Trick or Treat is a re-enactment of the Druidic practices. Today, candy sugarcoats the human sacrifices of old, but it is still an appeasement of those deceptive evil spirits. The tradition response to those who do not treat is to have a trick played on them. When you give out Halloween candy you are in essence providing a sacrifice to false gods. You are participating in idolatry", says the former high priest of Wicca, Tom Sanguinet. The Bible teaches to "flee from idolatry" 1 Cor. 10:14

In the middle ages the Catholic church attempted to Christianize the paganism involved in the Samhain festival by making November 1 All Saints Day and November 2 All Souls Day. As noted, All Saints Day was a celebration of the saints, especially the ones that were martyrs. All Souls Day became a day to pray for the dead and to help them escape the torments of purgatory. On May 13, around the year 610, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Roman Pantheon to the Virgin Mary and all the Christian martyrs. In 835 Pope Gregory IV transferred this feast of All Saints to November 1 and extended it to include all the saints. So November 1 All Saints Day, the day after Halloween (Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve), became a day dedicated by the Catholic church to the Virgin Mary and the saints. Eventually, November 2 became All Souls Day as a special day to pray for the dead. This, of course, is an anti-biblical tradition. It never originated form the Bible. The Bible says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement:" (Heb 9:27). We can clearly see by this scripture that prayers for the dead are vain and cannot help the dead. Once a person dies he does not have a second chance! His eternity is set. There are only two places the souls of the dead will go to heaven or hell. See also Luke 16:9-26. Reminiscent of the ancient Druids, the Catholic church still teaches that the living may, through various acts, alleviate the sufferings of the dead. They may pray for the souls being tormented in purgatory and ease their pain through specific or sacrificial acts such as penance, partaking of sacraments, mortification, using the Rosary, and good deeds like alms giving. Prayers are especially to be said to the Virgin Mary, who is believed to have power to release the suffering from purgatory. (This Catholic concept of purgatory also has many parallels in other religions but the idea is neither biblical nor Christian. These false teachings contradict the holy scriptures. The Bible says, "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," (1 Tim 2:5) Therefor, prayers to Mary (vain repetitions) cannot help alleviate the sufferings of the dead (Matt. 6:7-9). Purgatory is a Catholic pagan tradition and is not a doctrine founded upon the Bible.

You could not celebrate Halloween without the witch. The oldest known illustration dates back to the pre-Columbian era. The drawing shows the pagan goddess Tlazolteolf naked, wearing a pointed hat and riding a broomstick. Where you find witchcraft you will find nudity, divination, gross immorality and occultic practices just to name a few. According to the Old Testament of the Bible witchcraft and the whole spectrum of the occult were capital crimes punishable by death (Exod. 22:18). In the New Testament in Galatians 5:20 witchcraft is listed among those things which are to be renounced by believers. In fact Acts 19:18-19 records how that those who became Christians denounced all dealings with the occult and burned any occultic material they had.

The majority of Halloween Heroes are evil, demented or demonic. That should not surprise us. HALLOWEEN IS THE DEVIL’S DAY!

The truth is millions of people and likely your kids will be exposed to some of the endless string of TV programs, videos, community and church activities that glorify mutilation, torture, and bizarre murders this Halloween. Halloween is harmful because of its focus on violence. Don’t you see the paradox? When we read of the violent murder any other time we gasp. But we laugh, tease, and call it fun and glorify the same things when Halloween comes. The Bible rebukes this attitude. In Isaiah 5:20 it says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Halloween’s focus on violence breaks down the restraints of our children towards murder. They have difficulty separating between fantasy and fact and that is taking its toll on our society. Halloween is in line with Satan’s plan to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10, John 8:44)

The most frequent ways children are introduced to the occult are through rock music and Halloween. Tragically more and more children are introduced to the occult by teachers in public schools. And unfortunately Halloween is one of the two holidays that public schools celebrate. They choose Halloween (and Valentine’s Day) because supposedly there is no religious significance. How wrong they are about Halloween! To be sure, there is no Christian significance to Halloween, but it’s obviously a religious holiday.

Our forefathers recognized Halloween’s association with the occult. The pilgrims banned celebrating Halloween in America. The ban lasted until about 1845. At that time multiple thousands of Irish immigrants flooded into New York because of the Irish potato famine of 1845 through 1846. They brought Halloween with them and gradually spread throughout the country. God says, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil…” (Exod. 23:2)

To the Druid, Witch and the Satanist Halloween is a sacred holiday. Certain orders of Druids, witches, and Satanists will perform sacrificial rituals killing babies, young children, men and women on Halloween night. Born-again Christian and ex-generation Satanist Glen Hobbs says that ritual killings are prominent practices for Satanists on Halloween. As he recalls, his involvement as a child, one of the many ritual sacrifices in which he was forced by the satanic high priest to kill an innocent little girl by driving an athame (ritual knife) into her chest. He states, “This is something that is happening everywhere, this is not just an isolated event. There are children all over the world who are losing their lives for Satan on Halloween Night. And yet as a society, we go on and celebrate it and go door to door and ask for candy and have great fun. I think it is ironic how a group of people are thinking it is fun and another group of people are taking human lives. Yet there is a wall and no one wants to face the fact of what is going on.” He adds, “If people would realize that there are innocent children who are going to lose their lives and that some people are taking this a step further. This is a sacred holiday to a Satanist and they are out there to take human lives. So then, I can’t say go and have Halloween fun. It doesn’t matter if you are participating without being a Satanist. No, because those Satanists are using Halloween as a smokescreen.” When asked what he thought about Christians in churches celebrating Halloween he replied, “It makes me sick that the Church of Jesus Christ would take this horrible, demonic event that is happening all over the world. Christians should stand against Halloween! Christian churches shouldn’t be having Halloween parties, they should ban together as brothers and sisters and bind the evil forces and pray that God would somehow intervene for the children that are going to be used for ritual sacrifices.” The Bible says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” (Eph. 6:11-12) Trying to justify Halloween by dressing your children with costumes of Bible characters is still wrong! Repent of Halloween! It is an evil satanic holiday! The Bible says in II Cor. 6: 14,17 “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith The Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” …SAITH THE LORD ALMIGHTY.

I hope you will carefully consider the information in this write-up and decide NOT to celebrate Halloween. But there is an even more important decision you can make. That is, decide to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Combined excerpts were taken from The Dark Side of Halloween by David L. Brown, The Facts on Halloween by John Ankerberg, and The Pagan Invasion Video Series: Halloween [Denotes added.]

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