Should we celebrate Halloween?

FAITH

By Rev SEIK PITOI
TRICK or Treat! What on earth is that, you may ask. Trick what?
For the majority of us as Christians from this lovely nation, we have never heard of the expression ‘Trick or treat.”
It is a phrase you will hear often in a season called Halloween which is, as we are told, a harmless time of joy and celebration when kids go from house to house in the neighbourhood dressed in costumes, often with scary themes like ghosts or goblins, and get candy.
Halloween falls on Oct 31. Our Christian tradition in PNG does not include this holiday which is quite common in western countries, particularly the United States.
Is it a celebration that is found in the Bible? That will be looked at a little later, but in PNG, we are beginning to hear more about Halloween mainly because it is promoted by business houses. These companies make and sell merchandise that appeals to our people – be it Australian NRL team uniforms or flags sold at State of Origin time; or PNG national and provincial flags and associated items available during the period of our independence on Sept 16.
Then you have other big money spinners in the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter (complete with the chocolate Easter egg) and items generated from the themes of these special days. Halloween, however, is just making an entrance, thanks to the promotions in shops plus movie channels like HBO and Netflix who roll out Halloween-themed movies at around this time.
In this article, we will look at Halloween and go into its origins to see how it began. We will also see what a former Satanist and witch have to say about it. Then, we will scrutinise the holiday against the word of God.
The origins of Halloween
Wikipedia tells us that Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of “All Hallows’ evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on Oct 31, the eve of the western Christian feast of All Hallows Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the departed.
One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been ‘Christianised’ as All Hallow’s Day, along with its eve, by the Early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow’s Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland, in the 19th century, Irish and Scottish migrants brought many Halloween customs to North America, and then through American influence, Halloween spread to many other countries by the 21st century.
We are also told that another tradition is the druidic belief that during the night of Nov 1, demons, witches, and evil spirits freely roamed the earth with joy to greet the arrival of “their season”—the long nights and early dark of the winter months. They believed that the line that separates between the living and the dead is the thinnest at this time, so during the night of Oct 31 into Nov 1, spirits of the departed and demons would roam freely and mingle with the living. The demons had their fun with poor mortals that night, frightening, harming, and even playing all kinds of mean tricks on them.
The only way, it seemed, for scared humans to escape the persecution of the demons was to offer them things they liked, especially fancy foods and sweets. Or, in order to escape the fury of these horrible creatures, a human could disguise himself as one of them and join in their roaming. In this way, they would recognise the human as a demon or witch and the human would not be bothered that night.
During the time of the Roman Empire, there was the custom of eating or giving away fruit, especially apples, on Halloween. It spread to neighbouring countries; to Ireland and Scotland from Britain, and to the Slavic countries from Austria. It is probably based upon a celebration of the Roman goddess Pomona, to whom gardens and orchards were dedicated. Since the annual Feast of Pomona was held on Nov 1, the relics of that observance became part of the modern-day Halloween celebrations, for instance, the familiar tradition of “dunking” for apples.
Today costumes take the place of disguises and candy has replaced fruits and other fancy foods as children go door-to-door trick-or-treating. Originally trick-or-treating began as “souling,” when children would go door-to-door on Halloween, with soul cakes, singing and saying prayers for the dead. Over the course of history Halloween’s visible practices have merged with the culture of the day, but the purpose of honouring the dead, disguised in fun and festivities, has remained the same. But is the purported time of fun and festivities truly an innocent season to celebrate?
Experiences of a former Satanist and witch
Pastor John Ramirez is a former Satanist. He served as a high level Satanist for 25 years. At age 8, he was introduced to the ‘dark side’ and groomed to become a warlock. He had a demonic wedding on Halloween, complete with animal rituals and blood sacrifices. He also baptised his own daughter into the devil when she was only 11 years old. John said, “Halloween is the devil’s holiday.”
Even the founder and leader of the 8,000-strong Satanist church in America was quoted as saying thank you to Christian parents for allowing their children once a year to worship Satan”!
On the question of whether it is right for Christians to ‘redeem’ the day by including Christian themes during Halloween, he said: “why would you take something demonic and slap the name of Jesus on it?”
The root is still demonic and should not be entertained. John was gloriously saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and now serves as a pastor. “I will continue to fearlessly reveal the truth about this demonic season as long as I live”, he said.
Meanwhile, Jenny Weaver, an ex-witch, agrees. She said witches use Halloween as a point of contact to recruit people into their covens. She said that just as Christians look forward to the Easter Sunday resurrection celebration, witches, who are advocates of Wicca, look forward to Halloween celebrations. (Wicca is a network of practicing witches).
Witches, warlocks, Satanist and sorcerers “rest well that week in preparation for Halloween when they are up all night casting spells and roaming” amongst the revellers. She even said statistics show that usually on the night of Halloween, the rate of murders, missing persons, kidnapping and crime in general rises. Jenny was an abused child who was into drugs and witchcraft. She was introduced to Jesus Christ during her final arrest and transportation to jail. The lady warden minding her was a born again believer who introduced Jenny to her Saviour. So ended her life of serving the devil in witchcraft. She now has a powerful ministry directed to setting free those who are bound to the worship of the devil, through the power of God.
The Bible and Halloween
Every Christian needs to make his own decision about Halloween. Thankfully, many of our kids aren’t into this business of dressing as demons. Our people are a bit wiser than that. However, because of outside ‘western’ influence, some might like to do otherwise. Like everything else, we choose!
But we must note that the Bible has a bit to say about it too. For instance, Ephesians 5:11 says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
This text is calling us to not only have no association with any type of dark activity but also to shed light on this topic to those around us. We also need to ask: Is the holiday uplifting? Is Halloween pure? Is it lovely, praiseworthy, or of good report? Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
So does Halloween have godly themes such as the idea of peace, freedom and salvation or does the holiday bring to mind feelings of fear, oppression and bondage? Additionally, does the Bible sanction witchcraft, witches, and sorcery?.
In fact, the Bible makes it clear that these practices are an abomination to the Lord. The Word of God goes on to say in Leviticus 20:27 that anyone who practiced witchcraft, soothsaying, and sorcery should be killed. Deuteronomy 18:9-13 adds, “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you … one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.”
Finally, I believe God is calling His people to follow Him. He invites us to: “come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
Have you been dabbling in the occult or practicing witchcraft? It would be a wonderful time now to pray a prayer of repentance, renounce it and ask God’s forgiveness and cleansing through the Blood of Jesus. Then, your worship of the true and living God shall be pure and free from the contamination of the evil one in every way!

• Rev Seik Pitoi is a freelance writer.