Halloween

(A brief history of the holiday with discussions for small groups, Sunday School classes, etc.)

HALLOWEEN, a holiday celebrated in various countries, can initially be traced back to the 9th century when Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day from May 13th to November 1st. All Saints Day, or Hallow's Day, was to commemorate all saints who did not have their own day of remembrance. This was done in part because for about a thousand years that day had been celebrated by the Celts and British islanders as a feast of their own, and the Pope wanted to stamp out remaining pagan influence among that group of people. The term Hallowe'en is a gloss form of Hallow Even, short for Hallow Evening, because it preceeds Hallow Day.

Before the Church tried to convert this pagan holiday it was known as Sahmain (pronounced SahWEEN or SAHwin), a word meaning "end of Summer." When the Romans conquered the British Isles in the first century the Celts had already been celebrating Sahmain for several hundred years. The Romans did not object to it because it coincided with a similar feast of their own called Pamona, named for the goddess of fruits and gardens. In certain areas the Romans and Celts lived among each other and Sahmain may have been merged with or at least influenced by the Roman holiday.

The Celts were ruled by a mysterious order of people called Druids, who controlled both civil and religious life. An agrarian society, the Celts celebrated four distinct fire festivals: Ormelc, Beltane, Lughnasad, and Samhain, which commemorated the final harvest and functioned as a New Year celebration. Each festival corresponded with one of the four seasons, and the Druids believed that each seasonal change thinned the veil between the spiritual and material worlds. Like many cultures in that day, the Celts followed a lunar calendar. Like the Jewish tradition, the Celtic day began at sunset. Thus October 31st evening was actually part of November 1st. Since Samhain represented the end of the harvest and seasonal death of their crops,etc., it was also a time to acknowledge, remember, and possibly consult with the spirits of the dead as well.

This was the time of year when departed and/or troubled spirits, faeries, goblins and ghosts could most easily cross over into the material world. People dressed up as these beings and went from house to house asking for food so that they might be appeased. Others wore scary masks in order to ward off them off. The festivities were marked by animal sacrifices, offerings to the dead, and bonfires in their honor.

By the time of Pope Gregory III the Celts were no longer a physical threat to the Empire, and the Druids had long since disappeared. Only the traditions remained. With the conversion of Sahmain into All Saints Day, old traditions took on new meanings, yet little actually changed. Instead of appeasing ghosts and faeries, trick-or-treaters gathered food in honor of the saints. The more food that was given assured more prayers to be said at mass the next day. One interesting tradition involved the carving of potatoes or turnips with scary faces, and inserting candles inside to serve as lanterns. These Jack-o-lanterns commemorated a fellow named Jack, who supposedly was unable to enter Heaven or Hell and was stuck wandering about with his lantern until Judgement Day.

This day was further immortalized when on Hallow's Day 1517 the parishioners of All Saints (Castle) Church in Wittenberg, Germany came to the Hallow Mass surprised to find nailed to their church door a tract contesting some of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and specifically the Pope himself. They were placed there by a priest who sought reform within the Church, even if that meant breaking with the culture he lived in. His name was Martin Luther. This paper, called the 95 Theses, sparked the eventual Protestant Reformation and significally affected society.

Only two decades before this was the New World discovered by Columbus, and when people flocked to America years later they looked down upon Halloween as well as other holidays. In early America people did however celebrate the Fall harvest in what were called Autumn play parties. People assembled for feasting, offering thanksgiving for their food, dancing, plays, raising of barns, etc. The late 1800's brought a boom in immigration from Europe, many being from Ireland. These Irish immigrants (predominatly Catholic) brought their long held tradition of Halloween with them. They found pumpkins more plentiful than turnips, and turned them into Jack-o-lanterns.

Those who celebrated Halloween pushed for it to be a recognized holiday, and when it finally showed up on the calendars it took off in popularity. In 1921 the first all-city Halloween celebration took place in Anoka, MN with New York and Los Angeles shortly following suite. By the mid-part of the twentieth century advertising marketers had caught on to the craze, and Halloween became a major money maker. The demand for costumes, candy, decorations, greeting cards and pumpkins gave it a niche in the business world to be taken advantage of. To this day Halloween is celebrated voluntarily. The U.S. Government does not recognize it. There is no national observance. It is not a paid holiday. It is kept alive through retail marketing, local school districts, city governments, and houses of worship. People just do it.

Since the 1960's there has been a tremendous revival in the occult, satanism, witchcraft, New-Age groups and neo-paganism, and many within these groups hold Halloween night in high regards. Satanic ritual abuse, animal sacrifices, arsons, poisoned candy, cruel tricks, graffiti, etc. all get attention around Halloween due to their increase. So then, how should the Believer respond? Traditionally there are three options:

(1.) ACCEPTANCE - Do nothing differently than an unbeliever would. Decorating the house with images of the occult, witches, skeletons, etc. and dressing your children in costumes does not negatively affect your faith. You pass out candy to visitors, wish others a happy holiday, and enjoy the spookiness of the occasion. Even if you don't care to celebrate it, you enjoy seeing children having fun. The images or history of the day mean nothing to you and you don't believe there's anything wrong with observing it.

(2.) ABSTINENCE - Total rejection of anything associated with Halloween. Do nothing differently than on any other night. You find Halloween to be satanic or at least offensive. You believe it is spiritually wrong to celebrate it, and want others to know about its dark history. You see it as a poor Christian witness to be associated with such darkness.

(3.) COMPLIANCE - You are uncomfortable with Halloween's dark history, but question how something as simple and innocent as giving out or taking candy could be wrong. You recognize the difficulties of raising your children against the holiday while having to face public school carnivals or at the very least, any retail store. You accept Halloween as just a day, and make what you want of it. You avoid scary costumes, treat it as a fall festival, offer thanks to God for the year's crops, and maybe even use it as an opportunity to share your faith.


GROUP DISCUSSION ISSUES
1. Which one are you?
2. If you don't celebrate Halloween, why not?
----a. pagan origin
----b. current association with occult images
----c. both
----d. other
3. If you do celebrate Halloween, why?
----a. societal pressure
----b. it's fun
----c. it's important to have family activities
----d. other
4. Do you celebrate anything else in replacement of or addition to Halloween?
----a. All Saint's Day
----b. Reformation Day
----c. Harvest Party
----d. other Halloween alternative
5. Is it ok for the Church to embrace non-biblical holidays (ones not prescribed in scripture?)
6. If so, what could be done to disassociate October 31st with its pagan roots?
7. If not, how would you deal with Christmas, Easter, etc.?

SCRIPTURES TO CONSIDER

Romans 14:5ff
1 Cor 8:4ff
1 Cor 10:23ff
Colossians 2:16ff

Sources:
Christian Research Institute Fact Sheet DH-010
Encyclopedia Brittainica Online
Microsoft Encarta95
World Book Encyclopedia

*Revised 8-8-06