The seemingly innocent and entertaining feast of Halloween has come and gone and will come again next year. Some people find it fun but, unwittingly, they are participating in a demonic pagan festival. In a culture where the occult has taken centre stage around the world through movies and books, children are falling into this trap without having any clue of the risks involved. As a Christian society we need to take stock of the true implications of this feast that has nothing godly or sweet about it.
It is truly interesting and surprising that after taking a cursory glance and putting into perspective the historical roots of this pagan festival on can fully understand its evil nature.
Halloween’s history goes back to the ancient religion of the Celtic tribes (circa 500 BC). Present day Britons, Scots, Welsh and Irish are all descendants of these ancient Celtic tribes, whose practices were imported to America by Irish settlers.
In Europe, America and other parts of the world it is believed, in witchcraft, that 31 October is the best time for contacting the spirit world because the veil that separates the material and spiritual worlds is at its flimsiest. Spirits were appeased by giving them food when they visited houses. By the 8th century, the Church had had enough of trying to keep the pagans happy and Pope Gregory III decided to challenge their beliefs head on by turning their most important holiday into a day of the Christian, 1 November, which was named All Saints Day to honour those saints who did not have a feast day of their own. So ‘Hallow’ or ‘All Hallows’ = All Saints and ‘Ween’ (corruption of the word ‘Eve’) creating the word ‘Halloween’. In the Bible we find several warnings about witchcraft and the occult in Deuteronomy 18:10-13
9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire (referring to human sacrifice), who practises divination (Ouija board or astrology) or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
The priests were called Druids, or sorcerers, or wise men. They dabbled in darkness and death. It was known that Druids drank blood and performed human sacrifice. Stonehenge in England is believed to have been built by these Druids and it was a place of human sacrifice. Stories in legend and historical fact have it that these Druids on the eve on Sanhaim (31 October) celebrated the end of summer by putting humans in wicker baskets and setting them ablaze, offering them as sacrifice to Sanham (the ‘god of death’ or the ‘grim reaper’).
These evil Druids celebrated Halloween with great excitement and, at that time, when evil spirits were let loose to torment humans, the Druids told the Celts to dress up in weird outfits and put out vegetable and fruit on the porches of their homes so that these wicked and evil spirits and fairies would not harm them, their homes and their livestock. This acted like a treat for the spirits who would not do mischief.
Every time your child chants, ‘trick or treat’ he/she is repeating an age-old pagan festival of death. These spirits would wander the earth for a while. As time went by the demands to appease them grew stronger and wickedness grew. The Druids told the people that the treats were too small and demanded a larger sacrifice from the townspeople, who would bring animals such as cats and dogs and with time this grew to taking goats and slaughtering them for the wicked spirits and taking their heads and putting them on sticks, representing their sacrifice to Sanham.
The Druids went further, stepping up their demands by requesting a virgin (a human offering) from the townsfolk on 31 October and if they did not deliver her by morning, someone would die.
From the above overview, if anyone can tell me that there is anything holy and sweet about celebrating Halloween this is surely not the case. As Christians, we should realise it is detestable to the Lord, so adults and children should take heed about the evil nature and dangers of this so-called festival.
The testimony of Carol Kornacki who was a warlock and is now a Christian speaks of her involvement in the Festivals of Halloween and spells out the demonic nature of this feast. (The story can be seen on YouTube.)
Anthony Zarb Dimech