are Hollween costumes wrong? and is hollween a day for Satan?

Question

a friend gave me this info about hollween. is any of it true? i'm not sure myself.
"Druid priests led the people in diabolical worship ceremonies in which horses, cats, black sheep, oxen, human beings and other offerings were rounded up, stuffed into wicker cages and burned to death. This was done to appease Samhain and keep spirits from harming them. It is clear to see that HALLOWEEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CELEBRATION OF DEATH.
What about COSTUMES? They originated with these terrible Druid death rites also. As people and animals were screeching in agony while being burned to death the observers would dress in costumes made of animal skins and heads. They would dance, chant and jump through the flames in hope warding off the evil spirits. "
is any of this true?

Answer 1

seeing as how Satan is christian and not pagan, there is no way it could be related to that. I'll save myself alot of time by telling you to look up halloween on wikipedia.com
There is no recorded evidence of Druids gathering animals and burning them to death to keep spirits away, this sounds like X-tian fear propaganda

Answer 2

There is evidence of sacrifices during ancient times - animal and human. The frequency of those is up for debate - quite honestly, with ancient birth rates being what they were, the community couldn't afford to lose too many of people or animals.

Typical animal sacrifices were something more akin to kosher slaughtering - the animal was blessed, butchered, and then eaten. This is especially the case at Samhain (Gaelic for "Summer's End" - it's the name of the holiday, not a being), with it being a harvest fest - they had to cull the herd for the winter months.

Animals were driven between two bonfires to ward off evil spirits during the ceremonies - very likely that humans did as well.

There's little archaeological evidence of the "wicker man" thing. Mostly, that comes from the writings of Caesar, who is a bit suspect, given that he was trying to drum up support back in Rome for his campaign against the Gaulish Celts.

It also was not a celebration of death, any more than Memorial Day is a celebration of death. Along with being a harvest fest, it's also a time when the barrier between the land of the living and the land of the dead is thinnest - therefore, it's treated as a time to remember those who have died, to commemorate the honored ancestors.

Answer 3

There is nothing explicitly evil in the origins of Halloween. It comes to us from the Irish "Samhain" holiday which was about the end of the harvest and transition to the colder, darker months. Also, since the nights were getting darker they believed this was a time where the veil between the worlds of living and dead was thin so that spirits might be around. From this over time culture morphed it into end of the harvest and honoring your ancestors celebrations. From there Christianity took it and tried to make it over, this was their least successfully adapted pagan holiday though as it retained more of its earlier meanings. Meanings I think can and do still have relevance to us today; life transitions both physical and seasonal, contemplation of life and death, rememberance of loved ones, and confronting mortality. Not to mention its a lot of fun. At any rate they seem to choose to forget that Easter and even Christmas have their roots firmly planted in older religious/cultural traditions and are adaptations of celebrations that came before them. Christmas trees and wreaths are traditions taken from the pagans who brought evergreen things in during the winter because they were symbols of life during a time when other plants were dying. They reminded them of the promise of spring. So should we not have trees and wreaths? How about Easter eggs, a totally pagan ritual as well. I think we currently have a culture that is a rich mixture of all the other cultures and religions that came before no matter how some would deny that.

Answer 4

Some of it IS true, the rest is propoganda sent out by the Christian church to defile the Druid priests.

Yes cattle was slaughtered and AFTER the meat was comsumed (beef was normally a happy treat for most commoners) then only the bones were burned to ensure the prosperity of the following year's herds. And it was only one or two depending on the number of revelers. Cats were NEVER slaughtered as they were considered pets and carriers of returned souls, and humans were never slaughtered. Unless some crazed reegiment of irrational priests attacked a temple. Then it was considered the High Priest or Priestess's (or both) duty to stand up and protect their young apprentices. Never with force unless a life was at risk. Then it was considered honorable to die fighting for your beliefs.

Samhain is a holiday when the dead were honored by their families. Not worshiped. Satan does NOT exist in the pagan religion, that's another negative thing the Christians INVENTED to make Christianity so appeasing. To become a Druid took time, study, intiative, memorization and talent. To become a Chrsitian all you needed was an "open heart," sin, and pocket money.

Only one Priest would dress up in a costume with Stag antlers to represent the God of the Hunt. Some people would dress up their children in scary costumes to confuse the occassional evil spirit that wandered outside the protective circles cast by the Priests. It was also a ward against the dark spirits who might replace a beloved child with a changeling.

The jumping of the Samhain fires was for luck. Normally it was for a courting couple, or a married couple to jump in request for luck in the following year.

There was no torture, no screaming animals, and no rites to raise the dead. Samhain was the final festival of the year before the bitter snows would set in, one of the last times that whole villages (or two or three) would get together before Beltaine. It was a happy time to give thanks for the prosperous year they had, and ask for another in return.

Answer 5

Your question is difficult to answer because most Christian holidays have a pagan equivalent and Halloween is no exception.

Halloween is a combination of a Christian All Saints Day and Samhain (a Celtic celebration)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls_Day

The night of October 31st is supposed to be a night when the spirits of the dead rise from their graves and walk the Earth.

The USA is the only country that originally celebrated with children wearing costumes and the custom of Trick or Treat. In other countries Halloween is not celebrated but Day of the Dead (in Mexico) and All Saints Day is celebrated by Catholics.

If you want to ban Halloween from you holiday list then you might want to ban Christmas too because Dec. 25th is not the actual birth of Jesus - scholars think his birthday was around April 14th but a long ago Pope changed the calendar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
http://www.firmament.com/2000years/

Halloween is fun. Take the religious significance out of the date and just have a good time - or not, as you will.

Answer 6

Samhain is pagan. To my knowledge many pagans don't believe in satan. Although Samhain is the lord of the dead I never heard him associated with anything evil. Traditionally, pagans believed that Halloween was one of the two days of the year when the veil between this world and the other side was at its thinnest. They would wear costumes and masks so that the spirits of dead relatives and friends would not recognize them and return to the other side.

Answer 7

Halloween as it has come down to us is a mixture of Christian and Pagan religions.

Halloween (All Hallow's Eve) is the night before All Saint's Day.

The original Celtic Holiday Samhain pronounced So-wen was the Celtic New Year not the Lord of the Dead - this was badly researched info which caused all this Halloween celebrates Lord of the Dead nonsense. It was believed spirits both good and bad came back to Earth this night because the barriers between the worlds were weakened. To deal with the evil spirits, the people would wear masks and costumes to scare the spirits away. You can find this belief in the power of masks to drive away evil in many cultures around the world.

Samhain was also the beginning of winter and subsquently harvest time. Excessive lifestock were slaughtered for the winter stock and so as have enough feed for the remaining lifestock the rest of the winter.

It is true that human sacrifices took place in the Celtic world particularly around bogs but human sacrifice has been practiced by practically every ancient culture around the world. The gladiator games of the Romans originated from earlier funeral games of the Etruscans which essentially was a form of human sacrifice.

Alot of the fundamentalist christian gripe about Halloween as pagan holiday with "evil roots" comes from the Samhain, lord of the Dead/Darkness, nonsense. There is the mistaken beleif that Samhain is the name of a Celtic god of the Dead and that he was worshipped on Halloween. There is no such god by that name in the Celtic Pantheon. Its the product of poor scholarship and biased pious minds.

From www.religioustolerance.org comes some interesting facts that put to rest this horrid specter of fundamentalist propaganda.

Myth of Samhain Celtic Lord of the Dead:
"The belief that Samhain is a Celtic God of the Dead is near universal among conservative Christian ministries, authors and web sites. They rarely cite references. This is unfortunate, because it would greatly simplify the job of tracing the myth of Samhain as a God:

In 1989, Johanna Michaelsen wrote a book opposing the New Age, Humanism and Wicca. It is titled "Your Child and the Occult" 4 She writes:

"The Feast of Samhain was a fearsome night, a dreaded night, a night in which great bonfires were lit to Samana the Lord of Death, the dark Aryan god who was known as the Grim Reaper, the leader of the ancestral Ghosts."

The Watchman Fellowship Inc is a conservative Christian counter-cult group which attempts to raise public concern over religious groups whose theological teachings deviate from orthodox Christianity. Lately, they have also been expressing concern about the dangers of inter-religious dialog. They seem to imply that belief in Baal, a Middle Eastern deity, made it all the way into Celtic lands. They assert:

"It [Halloween] was at this time of the year that Baal, the Celtic god of Spring and Summer, ended his reign. It was also when the Lord of the Dead, Samhain, began his reign."

Was/is Samhain a Celtic God?
The answer is a definite yes and no:

YES. He did exist. Many Neopagan and secular sources are probably wrong. As As Isaac Bonewits writes: "Major dictionaries of Celtic Languages don't mention any 'Samhain' deity..." 8 However, there is some evidence that there really was an obscure, little known character named Samain or Sawan who played the role of a very minor hero in Celtic mythology. His main claim to fame was that Balor of the Evil Eye stole his magical cow. His existence is little known, even among Celtic historians. He was a hero, not a god.

NO. Many conservative Christian and secular sources are definitely wrong; there is/was no Celtic God of the Dead. The Great God Samhain appears to have been invented in the 18th century, as a God of the Dead before the ancient Celtic people and their religion were studied by historians and archeologists."

So it is quite clear that HALLOWEEN HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN A CELEBRATION OF DEATH.

However I'm quite confident that the close-minded religiously minded who hover around such debates with their dogma and badly researched (mis)information will be sure to give me thumbs down for accurately pointing out what Halloween is and what it certainly is NOT.

Answer 8

No it is not Satan's Holiday that is stupid. It is pagan in that "All Hallows Eve", or Halloween, was a night that people believed spirits walked the earth, so people dressed scary and decorated with scary stuff to scare the spirits away ! I don't think there is anything wrong for kids to dress up for fun. Paganistic beliefs have endured and mixed with Christian even though they really have nothing to do with each other. Easter Bunnies have nothing to do with Easter and decorating trees is a pagan thing

Answer 9

Halloween is okay to dress up and take kids to get candy. Then if you do all hallow's eve then you worship if you are a pagan, witches and wiccas celebirty because it is the day that the vail between this world and the next is the thinest. NOt all druid presits killed humans and anmails. You should really ask your friend to double check her sources. Halloween cmes from all different belifes.

Answer 10

Do you celebrate Halloween? Do you worship Satan? The holiday is what you make of it, it really doesn't matter what it was back in the day..
My family and I celebrate Halloween. It is fun, my kids dress up and look really cool and have a blast getting candy. We do not worship satan.

Answer 11

Let me start by clarifying--Day of the Dead-Nov. 2nd -is a Mexican Holiday.
2.) Halloween is a wiccan celebration of the changing seasons.
3.) Black Magic is an entirely different subject, like, molesting priests.
4.) The Druid religion of old, probaly did have some type of sacrifice--check out the bible/Abraham was going to dice up his kid...I'll keep my broom to the closet.