Cornerstone Bible Talk: Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

In this episode of Cornerstone Bible Talk we tackle the important question of the season. We dialogue and learn about the origins of halloween as well as answer other important questions. We hope you are blessed by the content. Please hit the like button if you are blessed. #halloween #harvest #biblediscussion #biblepodcast #biblepodcaster #itunespodcasts #amazonpodcast #iheartradiopodcast #faith #truth #spotifypodcast

[@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474]

Completely contrary to what many would have one believe, Halloween is not a holiday that has close ties to the ancient past, nor does it have some ‘pagan’ antecedent, nor is it a continuation of several ancient pre-Christian customs.
To say Halloween’s connections to ancient Samhain, or anything “ancient” for that matter, are, at best, extremely tenuous, would be grossly overstating the facts. Virtually all of the customs associated with the modern secular celebration of Halloween developed only in the past 500 years and have no connections to ancient pagan religious practices.
In short, Halloween just does not have the “pagan precedent” so many people seem to desperately want it to.
Even the concept of ‘Trick or Treat’ is a relatively new phenomenon, originating from right here in the USA from about the 1920’s or so, and represents a mix of cultures, capitalism, and accommodation.
To be completely fair, a few customs associated with Halloween do have a very old past; most notably, the carving of root vegetables and bobbing for apples. Without going into all the lengthy details, the carving of root vegetables (pumpkins in America) dates to around the 1700’s - it’s just not historically attested any earlier than that. Bobbing for apples is a fall activity not specifically connected to Halloween, and comes from a British woman’s courting custom historically attested to about the 1300’s. Neither custom is associated with, nor can they be historically attested back to, Samhain, or anything ‘pagan’ or ‘demonic’ for that matter. Further, there is zero evidence the Celts ever donned costumes of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Costuming for trick-or-treat comes from about 1930's America. The concept of trick-or-treat dates to about then as well. It has no ties to mumming, guising or souling. Historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. Simply put, there is no continued ancient tradition. But misconceptions abound regarding the nature and origin of Samhain, to the point where virtually everything that people today believe about it is a complete fabrication.
What is definitively known about Samhain would fit on about a page and a half of paper. What gets passed around the Internet as “history” and “fact” is mostly speculation and utter nonsense. The primary source of what is known comes from the books of the Ulster Cycle. By most historical accounts, Samhain proper was preceded by three days, and followed by three days. In some accounts it’s only a three-day celebration (not a seven day). Samhain seems to have been a time to prepare for winter, to welcome in the dark half of the year, cull the herds and celebrate the final harvest of the year. One particular activity that these old Gaelic texts seem to suggest was very popular at Samhain was…. horse racing. That sounds a lot like many European holidays today from October-January. The texts also speak of it as a time to pay tithings, gather taxes, and the holding of a judicial assembly (much like the Manx ‘Tynwald Day’). There is zero evidence that it was a religious observance, that it entailed any ritual, that it was a celebration of the dead, or that it opened the Celtic year.
Anything else asserted to be associated with Samhain is either pure wishful thinking or absolute nonsense.
There is zero evidence the Celts ever donned costumes of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Costuming for trick-or-treat comes from about 1930's America. The concept of trick-or-treat dates to about then as well. It has no ties to mumming, guising or souling. Historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. There is no continued ancient tradition.
Let’s take a closer look at the assertion that Christian All Saints Day/All Souls Day replaced Gaelic Samhain.
To state it briefly, the date of 1. November for All Saint's Day was practiced in continental Europe long before the date was formerly fixed by the Church to November 1st, and long before said change got to what is now the UK & Ireland; which was centuries after the time of Druids and Samhain proper.
In addition, most people are not aware that Samhain itself is a movable feast day; the exact date varies from year to year depending on when the autumnal equinox and winter solstice fall. In short, it’s not always 31. October. In the modern Gaelic languages, Samhain is the name for the entire month of November.
To assert that the establishment of All Saint’s Day (and All Souls Day on 2.NOV) was the early church’s attempt to “Christianize Samhain” just does not stand to reason. Think about this logically for a moment, why would the church change a major feast day affecting all of Western Christendom just to accommodate a small group of Christians who lived on, what would be considered at that time, some remote group of islands in the middle of nowhere, centuries after Druids and the observance of Samhain?
One scholar has even suggested that November 1st may have been chosen simply so that the many pilgrims who traveled to Rome to commemorate the saints “could be fed more easily after the harvest than in the spring (when it was originally celebrated).” That certainly does not seem out of the realm of possibility. Though this may not have been the predominant reason, I’d be willing to bet it was taken into consideration and was a contributing factor in the change.
All three holidays, Halloween, All Saint’s Day, and Samhain share a common date and perhaps a “feeling”, but that’s really about it. Indeed, so much of Halloween “feels” Pagan that attempts to connect those things to ancient Samhain simply “feels right”.
To be completely fair, the traditions of modern Halloween (save for trick-or-treat and costuming) were brought over to North American by the Irish and Scottish so one can certainly argue a “Celtic origin” for Halloween.
For Wiccans, Halloween/Samhain does mark the end of a ‘liturgical’ year consisting of 8 holidays. It is a time to reflect on the past (liturgical) year, institute intentions/resolutions for the coming year, and acknowledge the dark half of the year and its symbolism (recognizing that one cannot know the beauty of life without the wisdom of death, the endless circle of death and rebirth, etc.). In addition, it’s a time to remember and honor ancestors and a time for feasting after the final harvest of the year. Sorry to disappoint, but Samhain for Wiccans is just not any more “nefarious”, “evil” or “demonic” than that.
Let’s be honest here, the Bible says absolutely zero about Halloween - accept that. One can’t cherry pick verses taken completely out of cultural and historical context and try to make them fit. Further these verses typically refer not to the historical facts concerning the origins of the holiday, but rather the legend, lore, assumptions, myths, and perhaps more importantly, the misinformation, outright lies and religious paranoia that surround it.
As one commenter puts it - “This smear campaign against Halloween, in which it has been scapegoated among Christians as the ultimate manifestation of secularism and satanism in contemporary culture, only goes back to fairly recent modern times when certain Christian groups resorted to any fanciful tale to counter the emerging counterculture of the 60's and 70's that they perceived as corrupting youth. Christian leaders since then have clutched us in a guilt trip ever since about a holiday which, prior to this extreme reaction, was indeed harmless for the most part like any other holiday and had no connection with satanic rituals. It was a cultural festival which, though mischievous at times, really posed no threat to society until we were forced to believe that it did.”
And as an Orthodox priest quipped in a 2010 article about Halloween, “And let’s be honest: modern Halloween for you and me-and even the Wiccans down the street-has nothing to do with virgin sacrifice or black magic. It’s about having fun in a costume and eating things your dentist wouldn’t approve of. No one was ever possessed by the devil because he or she dressed up for Halloween or passed out licorice or read a Harry Potter book. Our modern lives have way too many other avenues for temptation to enter, and these things are the real cause of our spiritual problems."
When we celebrate Halloween, we are definitely participating in a tradition with deep historical roots. But those roots are firmly situated in the medieval Christian past, not an ancient pagan one.

[@familyshepherd3832]

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