How, in good conscience, can any Christian celebrate Halloween?

Question

It is nothing more than a celebration of evil.

My pastor said so.

Answer 1

Well if your pastor said so then it must be true. No candy for him.

Answer 2

Your pastor is a nut case -- sorry, but its true.

The roots of Halloween are in an ancient New Years celebration. Later, Halloween was (and in some countries is) a time to remember the dead (like memorial day). Modern secular Halloween is about candy and play, nothing more. NO VERSION HAS EVER BEEN ABOUT *EVIL*!

Also, a couple generations ago, *NO* Christian would question celebrating Halloween -- they celebrated and took it for granted. One generation ago Christians who opposed Halloween were still rare, but now its surprisingly common. The idea that Halloween is connected with "evil" is an recent invention of extremist leaders -- part of a tendency to create imaginary enemies to rally support. Traditional Christians never had a problem with Halloween and have always celebrated it. Your pastor is a nut, plain and simple.

ADD: The Pagan holiday is Samhain, which is also secular fall festival in some Celtic countries. Halloween started as a Christian name for a Christian holiday that was on the same day -- yes, Halloween, per se, was originally a *Christian* holiday (the "Hallowed evening" before All-Saints-Day).

Answer 3

"My pastor said so"....hm, are you also known as Dr. Doris??? If so, then hello again. If not...well, hello anyway and it's very nice to meet you.

If you look at the origins of Halloween, there's nothing wrong with it. It was a harvest festival from religions that predate Christianity by more than a few thousand years. It was to pray for a good winter, and to celebrate good harvest. So even people that celebrate "harvest festivals" instead of Halloween are celebrating the exact same thing.

Nowadays it's just a kid's holiday, a time for children to run around and get free candy. It's a fun night to hangout with friends and dress up. How is that so bad?

Honestly, Halloween has nothing to do with evil unless the celebrant goes out that night with the intent of evil. Like most things in life, you make it what it is. So if you go out with the intent of good fun, there's nothing evil about it.

I'm getting tired of people attacking Halloween. It's just old hatred from the Christian groups that destroyed the Pagans thousand of years ago. Pastors like yours are still falsely telling everyone that Halloween and the Pagans that it came from were evil. It's a lie, so open up your mind and don't believe everything you're told-- do some real research and find out for yourself.

Not to mention, Christmas is also derived from a Pagan holiday. So to be fair, if you stop celebrating Halloween you'd have to also stop celebrating Christmas. They're called "Sabbats".

Peace.

Answer 4

Your pastor is incorrect. Halloween has come down to being nothing more than a time for kids (and sometimes us adults) to dress up, have fun and get lots of candy.

If your pastor wants to stop celebrating holidays that have a pagan beginning, then he needs to stop celebrating Christmas and Easter also. Yes, Christmas and Easter are pagan born holidays. Christ was NOT born on December 25. Do some research and find out for yourself.

Don't ever take the word of anyone as "gospel". Do your own research from unbiased sources. Find out for yourself what is true and what isn't and make your OWN decisions. Don't blindly follow someone elses ideas.

Answer 5

Halloween is a day in which we teach our children to go door to door and beg for candy. They get to play dress up and nobody gives them a hard time about it if they are boys. I am a Christian and it would only be bad if I used it as a day to worship the devil or demons, or whatever. There are many holidays that your pastor probably would not tell you is sinful yet they have been made to correspond with pagan holidays of the past. I bet he also says that you cannot read Harry Potter books either but it is ok to read The Lord of The Rings. Both have wizards and evil creatures.

Answer 6

About 2,000 years ago in the area of the world that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, lived a group of people called the Celts. The Celts' lives revolved around growing their food, and considered the end of the year to be the end of the harvest season. So, they celebrated new year's eve each year on October 31st with a festival called "Samhain," named after their Lord of the Dead (also known as the Lord of Darkness). Samhain (pronounced 'sow-in') was presided over by Celtic priests called Druids.

Back then, winter was the time of year associated with human death. The Celts believed that on the night that marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred allowing ghosts of the dead to return to earth. Celts thought that the presence of the ghosts made it easier for the Druids, their priests, to predict the future. These predictions were an important source of comfort and direction for the Celts during their long, dark, frightening winters.

To celebrate Samhain, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires around which the Celts gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to their ancient gods. During the celebration, the Celts dressed up in costumes consisting of animal heads and skins and tried to tell each other's fortunes.

The Celts eventually were conquered by the Romans, and by about the year 43 AD two Roman festivals were combined with the Celtic Samhain festival. The first Roman festival 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 practiced today on Halloween.

By 800 AD, the influence of Christianity spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st as All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The combined and updated 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.

Answer 7

I really hope you're being sarcastic, because if you really believe something just because your pastor said so, you should seek psychiatric help.

So how in good conscience can an Christian celebrate Christmas or Easter? They're pagan holidays too. Are you just determined to make up lies about religions that don't resemble your own?

Answer 8

Halloween is not a celibration of evil. It is a celebration of the fall harvest. You can believe what you want to about it, but it has more so become one of our best holidays. It is a wonderful time to just let go and have fun. Why would you but a religious implication on it? Do you thinking Christmas is actual Christs birthday? Lighten up and go out and have some fun. It is hardly evil and certainly not the work of the Devil that holiday is in February. 

Answer 9

Halloween wasn't created as a holiday to celebrate evil or to worship evil things. It was a Gaelic festival for the harvest season. The people believed at the time that on that date the dead would return and wreak havoc. So, they donned costumes as a means of frightening away these spirits. Just because it's a fairly dark holiday doesn't mean it's celebrating evil. One should research the history of the holiday before assuming it's purpose.

Answer 10

oh_paleeeze above wrote: "So, they celebrated new year's eve each year on October 31st with a festival called "Samhain," named after their Lord of the Dead (also known as the Lord of Darkness). Samhain (pronounced 'sow-in') was presided over by Celtic priests called Druids."

Incorrect. THERE WAS NO GOD CALLED SAMHAIN, LORD OF THE DEAD AND/OR LORD OF DARKNESS. The autumn festival is called Samhain (pronounced SOW-in), and the name means "summer's end".

Here's a link with genuine historical information:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm

(Apologies for putting the above all in caps, but honestly, I get SO tired of hearing the same old tired misinformation trotted out every Halloween...)

Answer 11

And my brother told me once that if I stood in the bathtub while it drained I would go down it.

Halloween is a celebration of harvest set aside on All Hallow's Eve, the day before All Saint's Day which is a catholic holiday.

Easter is a pagan celebration of the vernal equinox that was adopted by Christians.

http://www.dreaming.org/~meph/PaganYear.html