What is wrong with celebrating Holloween?

Question

Nat: Everyone says it is pagan customs and we shouldn't do it.
what if it is a carnival at the church where everyone dresses up and we throw bean bags and have a party there.
If it is at the church how could it be wrong?

Answer 1

What should concern christians is the fact that Halloween and celebrations like it are steeped in paganism. The apostle Paul wrote: “I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:20-22, New International Version) He also asked: “What common interest can there be between goodness and evil? How can light and darkness share life together? How can there be harmony between Christ and the devil? What can a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, Phillips) The Bible thus condemns the whole idea of putting a Christian mask on a pagan practice!

Also, the Bible warns against the practice of spiritism. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) While it is true that the vast majority of those who celebrate Halloween would claim to spurn Satanic practices, we should, nevertheless, be aware that historically this holiday has close connections with the occult. Thus, it can serve as a door leading to spiritism, especially for impressionable youths. Pagan rites and traditions tainted by spiritism simply have no place in Christian worship; they are far from harmless.

Finally, there is the fact that Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day are all based on the beliefs that the dead suffer or that they can somehow bring harm to the living. However, the Bible clearly shows that such beliefs are not true, saying: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) For that reason, the Bible counsels: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [the common grave of mankind], the place to which you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Answer 2

I think wether you choose to celebrate Halloween or not is a personal choice. I believe the reason a lot of Christians are against this celebration is because of it's pagan origins, actually worshipping and creating idols with the belief they will keep away evil spirits etc. You can read more about it on many websites. As for you other question, I understand what you're saying about certain events, things etc. being "okayed" by the Church, but you also have to use your own discernment. For instance there are "churches" out there who believe there members are the only ones who will be saved, or woman shouldn't speak at all in Church, does that make these practices right?

Answer 3

Visit here for the real story of Halloween. http://www.exwitch.org/mambo/content/view/41/36/

I say visit here, because for me to explain it...would take a long time...and a long post. This sums it up. I know the people who run this ministry, and I found them because I too was a practicing Witch for many years.

Personally, when I came to Christ and I began to see what I had been doing for so long in celebrating the Pagan holidays...I began to see the detriment I was creating for myself. Samhain was one of the worst nights to celebrate anything for me. I never truly had a good experience, even as a Pagan, on Halloween. And now I understand why. It really is not a night to be celebrated as it is. In my honest opinion, Church's ought not to promote the night as a night of play and merriment. It is not a night of play and merriment. Society today has made it such. It has roots deep in evil, no joke...no lie. And when a Church holds a function on this night to lure children and people away from the worldly way of celebrating, I find hypocritcal. I don't care how Christian to label something, when the activity is rooted in the wrong...it is wrong. You can clothe a wolf in sheeps clothing, but underneath it all...it is still a wolf.

On this night, the only thing I do now...is I preach the word. I hand our pocket Bibles. Instead of worshipping Pagan gods and goddesses on this night like I used to, and trying to contact the dead...I promote life to others who come to our doorstep.

I highly suggest again though reading the link above. It is highly informative; and it comes from a perspective of those who have been there, done that, and have the scars to show it.

Answer 4

Halloween isn't wrong to celebrate! it's my favorite holiday and i'm not "pagan." and don't let hispanic cultures hear you say it's a pagan holiday b/c they call it the day of the dead. they pay their respects to family members that have past. ancestors, ect. they have a lot of respect for their ancestors and celebrate their lives with this holiday.

it is also a Celtic/Irish holiday called Samhain. very very old. lots of info on the net everywhere.

bottom line is that Halloween is NOT something you should feel ashamed of wanting to celebrate. on a personal side note: just b/c the church says it's wrong, doesn't necessarily mean it is wrong. i respect other peoples' desires to have faith and community involvement in their church (or similar religious establishment), but i don't think that religion should be followed to the letter. they make for good moral guidelines for most people, others need specifics, i'm just not one for being told i have to live a certain way. i follow my heart, try to stay away from things that "feel" bad (ie. drugs have never been something i was interested in b/c i always got a negative energy feeling -that wasn't meant to sound so hippie-ish :) - from them, so i stayed away. same goes with other things.) i follow my intuition, i research religions to maybe find something that fits my beliefs, but i don't mold my life into someone else's beliefs. i think everyone should try to find what they believe on their own, if it's christianity, catholicism, buddhism, hinduism, paganism, whatever, that doens't mean you're a bad person for not believing what those around you believe.

sorry for the rant, but also i want to say that paganism isn't "evil." i have friends that worship "pagan" gods/goddesses and they are some of the best people i know. do some research on your own. either way, it's not a bad thing if you like/want to celebrate Halloween. i feel it's respectful to my family that has passed. i celebrate life and living on Halloween.

hope all this helps at least a little. i didn't mean to get side-tracked so much.

try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_dead
http://www.celticholidays.ca/samhain/index.html

Answer 5

Halloween was originally a pagan ritual that was accepted by the Christian church to satiate Celtic Pagan converts. They could spend less time in front of the tv and type "Halloween" into Google. They would be quite surprised at how much Christian symbolism and ritual can be traced directly back to the Pagans.

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas. The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role. The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

Answer 6

Halloween use to be my favorite Holiday, but now that I am a Spirit Filled Christian, I can see the evil assosiated with this Holiday. When we partake in this, we are partaking in Satanism. We are opening the door to the Demonic world and inviting Demons to enter our lives. It is wrong for Churches to partake in these activities. God hates this and tells us not to even learn about these false religions and come out of Churches that do. I would go to another Church if mine were to do this, including having Easter egg hunts and Sanat Clause. I use to love to read my horoscope, but one day after becoming a Christian, I was at a Restaurant one day reading the newspaper and thought came across my Horoscope. I thought to myself, what wrong will it be if I just read it this once, nobody would know and besides God would understand. So I read it. As soon as I got back into my van, a Christian Radio Announcer, read my mind and gave us a teaching against it using my very same thoughts. I repented right then and there. Later that same week, I went to a Chinese Restruant, and sure enough, they had the Chinese Horoscopes listed right on my place mat. It was very hard for me not to look, so I turned the mat over. I realized what a strong hold that these things had in my life.

I have witnessed Demons that have invaded peoples lives through doorways from the evil unseen world around us through what appears to be harmless and fun. But many times too often they lead to destruction. Remember that Satan roams around looking to destroy people as a Lion. God's Word says that His people are destroyed because they have a lack of knowledge. Now that you have this knowledge, what are you going to do with it? Laugh it off or stay away from Halloween.

Answer 7

I'm a Christian and an Elder in my church. We regularly have a Halloween celebration for our kids at church the Sunday evening before Halloween each year. I think there is nothing wrong with this, but some hardcore conservative denominations might disagree.

As for your question, "If it is at the church, how could it be wrong?", however, you do need to be discerning. There are people and congregations out there doing some wacky stuff supposedly in the name of God. So don't just assume that because a church sponsors something, it is correct. Study your Bible, discern scripture and then use the brain God gave you to make up your mind about the correctness (or not) of what a particular congregation or denomination does. After all, people do kill each other, supposedly in the name of God. God gave you a brain...use it!

Having said that, I think there is nothing wrong in this particular case.

Answer 8

The original idea of Holloween was that various demons and spirits were allowed up on Earth on this day, and if you didn't make them happy (with food and worship) then they did bad things to you. Some people got the bright idea that if they dressed up like demons and spirits they could take advantage of this superstition and so began getting treats from the terrified townsfolk (of various England towns). When someone wouldn't give them any, they would make sure the rest of the villagers would still believe by playing tricks on the one who refused to give them treats.

Can you really think of anything much more offensive to God then pretending to be one of his enemies to scare some of his followers into giving you things?

And for the record, not all churches follow God. They started out with that idea but became too "self-sufficient" and left God's teachings, but failed to see that they were. They still claim God, but they don't always follow God. I'm not saying your church is doing this, but don't always believe something is right solely because the church is doing it. Read the bible, if it is in there then you can trust it (if you believe Christianity to be the right choice).

Answer 9

What your church does sounds alot like what happens at my church during Halloween. It is meant to be an alternative for the evil things that really go on.
The problem with Halloween is that it is basically Satan's celebration day. There are so many cults out there who have Satanic rituals, séances, animal and infant sacrifices, even force children to rape one another. If you ask any Satanic person or a person involved in a cult or a wiccan, their biggest day is Halloween.
Did you know that carving pumpkins originated from seances? People did that so they could remember and worship the face of the spirit they saw.

Answer 10

to not celebrate Halloween because it is a pagan holiday is kind of ignorant, imo. The reason we celebrate Christmas and Easter when we do is because the church was trying to combat the pagan holidays that fell on those days. I think it is a matter of where your heart is. If you are celebrating Jesus on Christmas and Easter, so what that it used to be a pagan holiday? Same with Halloween. If you are not dressing up to scare away pagan "spirits" or whatever, then I don't see the problem. I think adults often try to put too much motive into children's things. I wasn't allowed to trick or treat growing up, and I never understood why because it is not like I was celebrating the pagan part of the holiday; I just wanted to dress up and have fun!