Halloween will be celebrated at the end of this month. Where I live, ghouls, goblins, ghosts, headstones, skeletons, witches and all sort of other yard decoration began to pop up in peoples yards around the middle of September. It appears more and more people are joining into this practice earlier and earlier each year. The decorations get more elaborate with each passing year also. Halloween lights deck their windows, light their sidewalks and huge illuminated blow up globes adorn their lawns.
This brings me to a question I’d like to pose to each of you.

Do you think a Christian should participate in celebrating Halloween? Personally, I don't like the holiday, and I think it is not something that Christians should participate in. There are a lot of evil things that go on on Halloween night and the nights leading up to it. The worship of Satan is prevalent in many of the activities surrounding October 31. It really disturbs me that every year, more and more houses are decorating with lights and morbid characters that seem to mock the festive Christmas decorations that are displayed a couple of months later in celebration of Christ's birth. (Yes, I know that December 25th is not really the day Christ was born, and paganism has been brought into that celebration as well, but we’ll discuss that more in-depth in December)

The occult is very much alive in some areas of the country more than others. I happen to live in an area where it is extremely prevalent. I use to celebrate Halloween as a child. I dressed up, went trick or treating, went to Halloween parties and haunted houses, but at that time my family didn’t really know the background of Halloween nor the things that went on in our region. This began to change for me when I became a teenager. Some of the kids I went to school with held seances and practiced witchcraft, and later I learned that some also participated in rituals that openly worshiped Satan. One Halloween night, a group of my friends were out riding around, when a group of older guys started tailing us. We had CB radios back then and the guys keep taunting us over the radio telling us that they were going to catch us and take us to their church because they needed some virgin sacrifices. These guys were evil. We’d had seen them many times in stores and they always gave us the creeps. Their voices and sneers that night chilled us to the bone, and we were scared to death. Finally, we all began to pray, and we were able to ditch them. I never looked at Halloween as an innocent holiday since that experience.

Now I’d like to share some bits of its history with you as well as some of the current things that go on in celebration of this day so that you can judge for yourself whether you should participate in promoting this day.

Here's a bit of history that I found at:

http://www.history.com/minisites/hallow ... pageId=713

Ancient Origins: 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.

There’s more but this is enough for now. Remember, this is also the year of the Feast of the Beast. We need to be spending much time in prayer “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

NO! 8-)

Thank you for that resounding "NO," Pastor David! :D

Well, you know I can understand Christmas and Easter, and the Child of God's involvement. Even though both of these are deeply rooted in paganism, these holidays do open a door for the Ambassador for Christ to present the Ministry of Reconciliation.

BUT Halloween....the celebration of this day has no redeeming qualities.

Any Child of God involved in the goings on of Halloween, needs to step back, check themselves, and renounce before The LORD, verbally, this most devilish of celebrations! 8-)

Agreed! I really do not like Halloween, truthfully, I hate it. The real demons of this world are scary enough for me, thank you very much...I don't need to go out and look for horror to get a thrill. The evening news provides enough. I live in Central Florida and so see all of the ads for "Halloween Horror Nights" at Disney. I've had friends ask me if I want to go. Uh...no thanks. Do a google search on this event....you will be disgusted and appalled , no doubt. It kinda like horror porno...best way to discribe it.
Bad, bad juju.

I hate to be a party pooper with this old topic, but Christmas and Easter are based on pagan symbolism too. Yes, themes of Christ have been woven into these holidays, so we can find some joy on these days...but I'm just sayin'....

Back to halloween and the druids....
I love bonfires and trees and crops and animals...but I thank the Lord for these things...not demonic spirits.

I think God has to consciously deal with people's belief system on these matters. More Christians than not celebrate Halloween. Not that it's right--it's just the way it is. Myself, I always looked forward to Halloween because I loved the dressing up part and attending costume parties. I always made my own costumes, and when I became a parent I did the same for my son. I loved to decorate my front porch and made an authentic, scary, life-sized witch complete with cauldron and rats that sat by my front door. Spiderwebs, bats, pumpkins, orange lights....all the kids LOVED the scenes I created, and of course I got many accolades from both the kids and the parents for the decorating! Getting candy wasn't a big deal, as with most children my son had access to it anytime he wanted. I looked at it as harmless fun. I never considered the real roots of Halloween or those that practice demented worship on that day, namely, occultists and witches. Why? In my heart I felt witches and the like were not actually real. I viewed these people who laid claims as being a witch as somewhat harmless individuals with delusional mental problems.

It wasn't until around 2000 that I became aware of the dark evil things that are carried out on that day. I don't recall what program it was specifically, but it was on Christian TV, and they were interviewing young adults whose parents had been satanists and practicing witches. They were all raised in covens. When they revealed the rituals, sacrifices, worship, sex magick, etc. they did on Halloween, I was shocked and appalled. It was a High Holy Day to them. This WAS REAL.

Satanist - Anton LaVey (now deceased): "Two major holidays, HALLOWEEN and Walpurgisnacht are celebrated by the Church of Satan."

It dawned on me that my participation in this holiday could be a detriment to myself and family, and as a follower of Jesus Christ I should not be involved in any fashion. I did more research on it and it confirmed what I saw on the program. From that point on, I did not decorate my porch, hand out candy, or attend Halloween parties. My son was still young at the time and I explained to him why I wasn't going to decorate and give out candy anymore.

I gave him the option to go with his friend to Trick or Treat, but to my surprise he told me he understood and he didn't want to go anyhow. He was only 10, and I was very proud of his decision. My husband however was extremely upset with me and wanted me to at least pass out candy. I refused. That's my take on it.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 1 Corinthians 10:21