Is Halloween a christian festival?

Answer 1

No, it's a pagan festival.

Answer 2

It can be if looked at in a different way. Take the "dark knowledge" of Halloween from the history of how Halloween developed, teach that to people and parallel it to Christianity and the joyful festivals we celebrate such as Christmas...that would work.

Answer 3

In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of the dead, but NO, Halloween is NOT a Christian festival.

Answer 4

The word Halloween is derived from the term "All Hallows Eve" which occurred on Oct. 31, the end of summer in Northwestern Europe. "All Saints Day," or "All Hallows Day" was the next Day, Nov. 1st. Therefore, Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day.
Apparently, the origins of Halloween can be traced back to ancient Ireland and Scotland around the time of Christ. On Oct. 31st, the Celts celebrated the end of summer. This was important because it was when animal herders would move their animals into barns and pens and prepare to ride out the winter. This was also the time of the crop harvests. This annual change of season and lifestyle was marked by a festival called Samhain -- pronounced 'sow-ane' and means 'end of summer.' Sow rhythms with cow.
There was much superstition associated with this time of change including the belief in fairies, and that the spirits of the dead wandered around looking for bodies to inhabit. Since the living did not want to be possessed by spirits, they dressed up in costumes and paraded around the streets making loud noises to confuse and frighten the spirits away. In addition, the new year began for the Celts on Nov. 1. So, the day of Samhain was believed to be a day that was in neither the year past or the year to come. Since it was in between, chaos ruled on that day. Often, people would pull practical jokes on others as a result.
Later, around the 5th century, as the Catholic Church developed and moved into the area, instead of adding a new day to celebrate, it took over the Samhain celebration. Nov. 1st became "All Hallows Eve" where all the saints of the Catholic church were honored. A later custom developed where people would go door-to-door on Nov. 2, requesting small cakes in exchange for the promise of saying prayers for some of the dead relatives of each house. This arose out of the religious belief that the dead were in a state of limbo before they went to heaven or hell and that the prayers of the living could influence the outcome. This may have been the precursor to Trick-or Treat.
The Jack-0-Lantern apparently comes from Irish folklore about a man named Jack who tricked the devil into climbing a tree. Once the devil was in the tree, Jack carved a cross on the trunk, preventing the devil from coming down. The devil then made a deal with Jack to not allow Jack into hell after Jack died if only Jack would remove the cross from the tree. After Jack died, he couldn't go to hell, and he couldn't go to heaven. He was forced to wander around the earth with a single candle to light his way. The candle was placed in a turnip to keep it burning longer. When the Irish came to America in the 1800's, they adopted the pumpkin instead of the turnip. Along with these traditions, they brought the idea that the black cat was considered by some to be reincarnated spirits who had prophetic abilities.
So, it appears that the origins of Halloween are a mixture of old Celtic pagan rituals superstition and early Catholic traditions.

Answer 5

IN name only.
Samhain (pronounced Sow-een.....not sam hane) was a pagan festival that was seen as uncouth by the christian catholic priests. After years of attempting to cull the masses to order with no avail the catholic order created Hallow's Day, and then Soul's Day.

All Hallow's Day should have been to honor the Saints who had no specific date of their own to be celebrated and then later changed to celebrate all Saints. And All Soul's Day was instilled to honor all the fallen souls within the year to try and convince the old school celebrants to stop playing Samhain. It didn't work....sorry old guys. Samhain continued to be celebrated in secret as All Hallow's Eve. and then through mispronounciation of the day and year's of accents it became bastardized as Halloween [(All) Hallow ('s) e'(v)e (+n)]

There ya' go....history from a pagan.

Answer 6

It originally began as a pagan celebration of the fall harvest (Samhain), then was adapted into the Christian celebrations of "All Souls Day", "All Saints Day" and Dia de los Muertos.
If you're worried about celebrating it because its roots are in another religion's, the same arguments can be made about Christmas (Yule, Saturnalia) and Easter (Eostre).

Answer 7

yes and no

it started out as a pagan festival but later was adopted by Christians.

The reason this was done was because the early church new they had to keep some of the local people traditions (the ones everyone like) if they wanted a chance of getting them to convert.

Answer 8

Halloween has its roots in paganism/satanism. Interestingly, a satanist high priest was once quoted as saying that Halloween is his favorite holiday because it's the one that even Christians celebrate and worship satan with them. He meant that they dress up in costumes of ghoulish things and trick-or-treat. That's something to think about!

Sue

Answer 9

Yes. It's called All Saints Day and is not the demonic perversion that is Halloween.

Answer 10

no it is not. Why? because some people believe that dressing up like a devil and such represents the devil. which is not christian like. But it is only a day to go around and get candy so it is no big deal really

Answer 11

In general, Halloween is not a religious holiday.