Halloween - Satan's Trick
This booklet is written with the idea of providing a means to
get started in this study. It is by no means an effort to answer every question
or give you all the proof you need. To truly understand, you need to do some
research on your own. Most of the Scriptures quoted are from The Interlinear
Bible, by Jay P. Green, Sr., as general editor and translator.
Introduction
Once a year, they go door to door - little children dressed in all sorts of
costumes, carrying a bag for loot. They ring doorbells and cry out "Trick
or treat!" when the doors open. Candy or other goodies are dropped into
their bags so they won't do any "tricks" to the occupants of the
homes. Then they head off to the next house on their route. These children are
enjoying Halloween. But do they know what it is? Do they, or their parents, know
what it pictures and what it means? Is it really harmless child's play? Just
innocent mischief?
When I was a child, it was not really a big deal like it is today. There were
only a few decorations each year and very little money spent. I attended a
little country school and each year we had a carnival at that season. Each class
had a booth with some sort of game for the children and parents to play and try
to win a small trinket. Most of them did not even wear costumes. Since we lived
on farms, there was no trick or treating door-to-door.
But today? Decorations are elaborate. There are even Halloween greeting cards
now. The adults often have fancier larger and parties than do the children that
they say the holiday is for.
Most Halloween history and tradition goes back to the Druid times of the
Celtic peoples. Some also originated with the Roman harvest celebration of the
goddess Pomona. But that isn't our intent today, is it? So that makes it all
okay, doesn't it?
History
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, revised by Ivor H
Evans -
From page 503 -
"Halloween - 31 October, which in the old Celtic calendar was the last
day of the year, its night being the time when all the witches and warlocks
were abroad. On the introduction of Christianity it was taken over as the Eve
of all Hallows or All Saints."
From page 561 -
"Ignis Fatuus - The 'will o the wisp' or 'Friar's lonthorn', a
flame-like phosphorescence flitting over marshy ground (due to the spontaneous
combustion of gases from decaying vegetable matter), and deluding people who
attempt to follow it; hence any delusive aim or object, some Utopian scheme
that is utterly impracticable. The name means 'a foolish fire' and is also
called 'Elf-fire', 'Jack o'lantern', 'Peg-a-lantern', 'Kit o' the canstick', 'Spunkie',
'Walking Fire', 'Fair Maid of Ireland', 'John in the Wad'."
From page 23 -
"All-Hallows' Eve or Hallowe'en (31 October), also called 'Nutcrack
Night' and 'Holy Eve', is associated with many ancient customs including
bobbing for apples, cracking nuts, finding one's lover by various rites,
etc."
From page 204 -
"Celtic - Applied to the peoples and languages of that branch of the
Aryan family which includes the Irish, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, Bretton and
Scottish Gaels. Anciently the term was applied by the Greeks and Romans to the
peoples of western Europe generally, but when Caesar wrote of the Celtae he
referred to the people of middle Gaul only. The word Celt probably means a
warrior; fable accounts for it by the story of Celtina, daughter of Britannus,
who had a son by Hercules, named Celtus, who became the progenitor of the
Celts."
From The World Book Encyclopedia, volume 9, page 25 -
"Halloween is a festival celebrated on October 31. Its name means
hallowed or holy evening because it takes place the day before All Saints'
Day.
"Many superstitions and symbols are connected with Halloween. The
Irish have a tale about the origin of jack-o'-lanterns. They say that a man
named Jack was unable to enter heaven because of his miserliness. He could not
enter hell because he had played practical jokes on the devil. So he had to
walk the earth with his lantern until Judgment Day.
"The Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britain, believed
that on Halloween, ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches, and elves came out to
harm people. They thought the cat was sacred and believed that cats had once
been human beings but were changed as a punishment for evil deeds. From these
Druidic beliefs comes the present-day use of witches, ghosts, and cats in
Halloween festivities.
"The Druids had an autumn festival called Samhain, or summer's end. It
was an occasion for feasting on all the kinds of food which had been grown
during the summer.
"In the 700's, the Roman Catholic Church named November 1 as All
Saints' Day. The old pagan customs and the Christian feast day were combined
into the Halloween festival."
From The Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore,
Mythology, and Legend, 1950, page 535 -
"Jack-o'-lantern - The phosphorescent light frequently seen moving in
the air over marshy places; the corposant or will-o'-the-wisp that retreats
from those who try to reach or follow it. It is the proverbial misleader of
belated travelers who fall into swamps and marshes or ponds and are drowned.
It is also often called ignis fatuus, foolish fire: the implication being that
only a fool would follow it, and that the light is foolish to flee from a
fool. In Ireland … it is commonly believed to be the wandering soul of one
who has been refused entrance into both heaven and hell. He often terrifies
night travelers; sometimes he warns them."
How Halloween Evolved
From Halloween, An American Holiday, An American History, by
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne -
Various quotes from throughout the book -
"The history of Halloween begins in ancient times in the lands
populated by Celtic peoples - what is now northern France, Ireland, England,
Scotland, Wales and Brittany. Centuries before the birth of Christ, these
rugged peoples forged a life-style from their hunting and herding. The
celebrated two major seasonal events: the onset of winter, when the herds were
brought in to shelter, and the onset of summer, when the herds could be
released to pasture."
"In the climate of northern Europe, winter came early - around
November - and lasted close to six months. The first day of winter was
considered the beginning of the new year, and celebrated as New Year's
Day."
"Only the finest of the herd were brought to shelter on this day. The
others were slaughtered , making it an occasion of great feasting and
celebration. From the very beginning, this communal feast was dedicated to
Samhain, the Celtic Lord of the Dead (the festival opposite Samhain on the
Celtic seasonal calendar, approximately May 1, was known as Beltane and
heralded the grazing season)."
"The festival of Samhain was the most sacred of all Celtic festivals.
It's rituals helped link people with their ancestors and the past. The Celts
believed that the dead rose on the eve of Samhain and that ancestral ghosts
and demons were set free to roam the earth, harm crops and trouble homes.
Since spirits were believed to hold the secrets of the afterlife and the
future, the priests of the Celts, the Druids, believed that on the eve of
Samhain predictions had more power and omens could be read with more clarity.
Druid priests divined the health of the tribe, the wisdom of a proposed move,
the right time to make magic or the key to curing a sickness."
"The Druids were also closely linked to witchcraft. For practitioners
of this ancient craft, the festival of Samhain was one of their major annual
celebrations, which may explain why witches are bound to Halloween imagery
even today (in fact, Samhain remains a principal sabbath among modern-day
witches and other neo-Pagans)."
"Samhain marked the start of the season that rightly belonged to evil
spirits - a time when nights were long, and dark fell early. It was a
frightening time for a people who were entirely subject to the forces of
nature, and who were superstitious about the unknown, with only a primitive
sympathetic magic system to rely on for comfort. Samhain was a night of
mystical glory."
"Each year on Samhain, the Lord of the Dead was believed to assemble
all lost souls for resentencing. This was the 'Samhain Vigil,' held during the
darkest part of the night. Samhain judged the dead, sentencing sinning souls
to twelve months of afterlife spent in the shape of a lowly animal. Good souls
were sentenced to another twelve months of death, but were allowed to take the
shape of human beings."
"The Celts believed that gifts could make Samhain more temperate on
this night, and offerings were made in hopes that he would allow the spirits
of their loved ones a brief visit home to enjoy a warm fire and the smell of
good food cooking. Food and wine were set out for the dead souls of the
ancestors, sure to be weary from their travels in the netherworld. To avert
unwanted guests - those malicious spirits set free on that night - the Celts
hid themselves in ghoulish disguise so that the spirits wandering about would
mistake them for one of their own and pass by without incident. Masked
villagers representing the souls of the dead also attempted to trick the
spirits by forming a parade and leading them to the town limits. If they
thought appeasement or gentle persuasion was more appropriate, the Celts
offered sweets to the spirits."
"The Celtic New Year was also the time to celebrate the life-giving
sun god, Baal. People believed that the sun grew weaker during the winter
months, and feared it would leave them forever in the cold night of winter.
The Celts celebrated a second feast, known as Taman, on November 1 to please
and glorify the sun so that it would not disappear during the long cold months
ahead. Since they believed that like begets like, a bonfire was lit high on a
hill - and still is in parts of Scotland and Wales - in an attempt to fuel the
waning sun. Each member of the village could take part in this renewing ritual
by rekindling their home fires from a 'new fire' built on the last day of
October."
"Horses, believed sacred to the sun god, were sacrificed in great
fires, and the Druids divined the future by observing the movements and
entrails of the animals as they died. Evidence suggests that the Druids also
sacrificed humans during these festivals. They imprisoned criminals - possibly
practitioners of black magic - in wicker cages built to resemble animals and
burned them. There were incidences of sacrificing horses to the sun as late as
AD 400. And even in the Middle Ages, cats were burned in wicker cages on the
November 1 fires."
"Other elements, such as romance and apple lore, came from another
part of the world entirely. Just before the birth of Christ, the Celtic lands
were conquered by legions of Roman soldiers, and the Druidic Samhain practices
merged with Roman mythological beliefs."
"To the Romans, the apple was a symbol of love and fertility. The
Roman divinity Pomorum, or Pomona, was the goddess of orchards and the
harvest. She was celebrated on November 1 with feasts featuring apples, nuts,
grapes, and other orchard fruits."
"The festival of Pomona was celebrated on November 1, after the
harvest was safely stored away for winter. It coincided with the Celt's
Samhain festivities, and a synthesis naturally occurred. By the first century
AD, Romans and Celts inhabited the same scattered villages throughout Europe
and most of the British Isles. Their life-styles merged and the pure origins
of each culture's festivals were obscured."
"Christianity spread across the Roman Empire and beyond from the first
through the fourth centuries. The emperor Constantine officially declared
Christianity legal and thousands of pagans were baptized into this new
religion. The Church expounded a potent theology based on a holy trinity of
one God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. The pantheistic, nature-bound realm of
Roman mythology was superseded. And although the new church decried the pagan
practices of its enemies, it was in fact largely responsible for the health of
pagan Halloween in Celtic countries. Rather than obliterate pagan ways, shrewd
church leaders set about assimilating existing pagan rites into their new
Christian ones."
"The celebration of All Saints' Day is attributed to Pope Boniface IV,
who dedicated the Roman temple, the Pantheon, to St. Mary and the Martyrs on
the thirteenth of May, 610. Boniface set the day aside as a memorial to early
Christians who died for their beliefs without official recognition of their
sanctity, so that 'the memory of all the saints might in future be honored in
the place which had formerly been devoted to the worship, not of gods but of
demons'."
"The clergy encouraged their flock to remember the dead with prayers
instead of sacrifices. People were taught to bake 'soul cakes' - little
pastries and breads - to offer in exchange for blessings rather than trying to
appease the spirits with food and wine."
"Villagers were also encouraged to masquerade on this day, not to
frighten unwelcome spirits, but to honor Christian saints. On All Saints' Day,
churches throughout Europe and the British Isles displayed relics of their
patron saints. Poor churches could not afford genuine relics and instead had
processions in which parishioners dressed as saints, angels and devils. This
religious masquerade resembled the pagan custom of parading ghosts to the town
limits. It served the new church by giving an acceptable Christian basis to
the custom of dressing up on Halloween."
"In addition, the Church tried to convince the people that the great
bonfires they lit in homage to the sun would instead keep the devil away -
God's mortal enemy in the new Christian religion."
"The early Church's contribution to the popular celebration of
Halloween was a considerable one. The Church ironically gave the holiday its
name - during medieval times All Saints' Day was known as All Hallows, making
the night before it All Hallows Eve, which became Hallowe'en, then Halloween.
The Church sanctioned the long-standing custom of remembering the dead on the
eve of November 1. Furthermore, it added credence to the old Celtic
masquerades, parades and great blazing fires set on the dark evening before
November 1. It was the Church, too, that firmly established the custom of
visiting from house to house on All Hallows Eve - a practice that eventually
evolved into America's most popular contemporary Halloween custom: trick or
treating."
Yahweh's Opinion
We've seen that the origins of Halloween are steeped in deep paganism. Since
it was "Christianized" over the centuries and "cleaned up",
does that make it okay today? Is it now just innocent fun for the children to
participate in each fall? That is what most people will tell you - that they
just celebrate Halloween for the kids. What does Yahweh have to say about such
things?
Exodus 22:18
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live."
The King James Bible substitutes the word "witch" for
"sorceress".
In history and today, Halloween is the major holiday for witches and
witchcraft.
Leviticus 19:26, 31
"You shall not eat with the blood; you shall not divine, nor conjure
spirits."
"You shall not turn to those having familiar spirits; and you shall not
seek to the spiritists to be defiled by them; I am Yahweh your Elohim."
The Celtic peoples were heavily involved with the spirits and turned to
diviners. In the history, we found that they believed predictions and omens were
clearer and more powerful on Halloween.
Deuteronomy 4:2
"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it,
to keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you."
Yahweh has given us His commands - and that is what He wants us involved in.
And that is what we should be looking at - not what these other peoples did.
Deuteronomy 4:15-19
"Therefore you shall carefully watch over your souls, for you have
not seen any likeness in the day Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst
of the fire."
"That you not deal corruptly, and make for yourselves a graven image, a
likeness of any figure, the form of a male or female."
"The form of any animal which is in the earth; the form of any winged
bird that flies in the heavens."
"The form of any creeping thing on the ground; the form of any fish in
the waters under the earth."
"And that you not lift up your eyes towards the heavens and shall see the
sun, and the moon, the stars, all the host of the heavens, and you shall be
drawn away and worship them, and serve them; which Yahweh your Elohim has
allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens."
So what are two of the main symbols of Halloween? Black cats and spiders.
Aren't those animals and creeping things? The Celtic peoples were worshipping
the sun, too, weren't they? It was known as Taman.
Deuteronomy 12:29-32
"When Yahweh your Elohim shall cut off the nations from before you,
where you are going in to possess them, and you shall possess them, and shall
live in their land."
"Take heed to yourself that you not be snared to follow them after they
have been destroyed among you; and that you not inquire after their gods,
saying, how did these nations serve their gods? And I shall do so, even
I."
"You shall not do so to Yahweh your Elohim; for everything hateful to
Yahweh, which He detests, they have done to their gods, for they have even
burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods."
"All the things that I command you, take heed to do them, and you shall
not add to it, nor take away from it."
If you follow these customs of Halloween, you are following some of the
patterns of the ancient peoples. Yahweh says you are not to do so! It also says
that they, in some instances of their customs, sacrificed people, burning some
of them in wicker cages.
Deuteronomy 13:6-11
"If your brother, your mother's son, or your son, or your daughter,
or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, shall
entice you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you have
not known, you and your fathers."
"Of the gods of the people who are around you, who are near you, or who
are far off from you, from one end of the earth even to the other end of the
earth."
"You shall not consent to him, nor listen to him, nor shall your eye have
pity on him, nor shall you spare nor hide him."
"But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put
him to death, and the hand of all the people last."
"And you shall stone him with stones, and he shall die, for he has sought
to drive you away from Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slaves."
"And all I shall hear and fear, and shall not again do any such wicked
thing as this among you."
This says they were to stone the person for enticing - not because they had
been worshipping. That is strict! So what should our response be to those who
want us to go trick or treating with them or to celebrate any holiday that has a
basis in paganism? We are not to do so.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14
"When you come to the land which Yahweh your Elohim is giving to you,
you shall not learn to do according to the hateful acts of those
nations."
"There shall not be found in you one who passes his son or daughter
through the fire, one that uses divination, an observer of clouds, or a
fortune-teller, or a whisperer of spells."
"Or a magic charmer, or one asking of familiar spirits, or a wizard, or
one inquiring of the dead."
"For all doing these things are an abomination to Yahweh, and because of
these filthy acts Yahweh your Elohim is expelling these nations before
you."
"You shall be perfect with Yahweh your Elohim."
"For these nations whom you shall expel listen to observers of clouds and
to diviners; but as to you, Yahweh your Elohim has not allowed you to do
so."
So what does this mean for today's astrology? Or games of magic? Or ouija
boards? Is that something we are not to be doing as well?
In verse 11 above, an "observer of clouds" is not referring to a
weatherman. It is Strong's #6049 in Hebrew, anan. It means to cover; to cloud
over; to act covertly, ie to practise magic. In refers to an enchanter, a
soothsayer or sorcerer.
Psalms 106:28-29
"They also were joined to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the
dead."
"And provoked him with their deeds; and a plague broke out among
them."
They were joining into the rites regarding the dead. The Celts were using
foods as offering to appease the spirits. It is included in the ancient
practices of Halloween.
Isaiah 8:19
"And when they say to you, seek to those who have familiar spirits,
and to wizards who peep and mutter; should not a people seek to its El, than
for the living to seek to the dead?"
"To the law and to the testimony; if they do not speak according to this
word, it is because there is no dawn to them."
Yahweh gives us a standard for our behavior and our practices - His law and
testimony. That is all!
Jeremiah 10:1-2
"Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel."
"So says Yahweh, you shall not be goaded to the way of the nations; and
do not be terrified at the signs of the heavens, for the nations are terrified
at them."
This chapter goes on with a good description of a Christmas tree, but the
meaning is still there - we are not to learn the ways of the heathen and how
they worship their gods.
Acts 5:29
"But answering Peter and the apostles said, it is right to obey
Elohim rather than man."
I Corinthians 10:20-21
"But the things the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and
not to Elohim; but I do not want you to become sharers of demons."
"You are not able to drink the cup of the Master and a cup of demons; you
cannot partake of the table of the Master and a table of demons."
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership
does righteousness have with lawlessness? And what fellowship does light have
with darkness?"
"And what agreement does Messiah have with Belial? Or what part does a
believer have with an unbeliever?"
"And what agreement does a temple of Elohim have with idols? For you are
a temple of the living Elohim, even as Elohim said, I will dwell in them, and
walk among them; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my
people."
"Because of this, come out from among them, and be separated, says the
Master, and do not touch the unclean thing; and I will receive you."
"And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me,
says Yahweh Almighty."
It looks like we are being told that we must make a choice. We cannot
honestly worship Yahweh and Yahshua and keep our foot in the world's practices
and customs as well. We can't have it both ways. It is either one way or the
other. As the holiday approaches this year, where will you be standing?
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