HALLOWEEN�S HISTORY
by Pastor
Rick Sams
This controversial "holiday does have an inglorious
history, which may help explain why it�s so controversial even in the
church. My source is Halloween Through The Twenty Centuries by Ralph
Linton, Stirling professor of Anthropology at Yale. The name originated
because that is the eve of All Hallows (All Saints) Day created by the Catholic
Church to honor all martyred saints.
The earliest Halloween celebrations
were held by the Druids, a cultish religious order in ancient Britain, Ireland
and France. These celebrations, starting in the 2nd century BC, honored
Samhain, lord of the dead. Human victims were sacrificed at this festival
held on Nov. 1, the Celtic New Year�s Day. Black cats were put in
wicker cages and burned alive on Halloween because people believed that black
cats may be witches who had changed into cats.
Samhain was supposed to
gather all the spirits of the dead on Halloween night. Gradually fairies,
goblins and witches were added to this assembly. People practicing
witchcraft, being opposed to all the church stood for, would gather on Halloween
to mock the All-Saints services and engage in their own occultic rituals.
Eventually the church charged them with heresy.
These rites migrated to
this country over the past three centuries. The addition of American
traditions have stamped their own imprint on this day. The jack-o-lantern
represents a dead man, "Jack, sentenced to roam the earth with a lantern,
a pumpkin lit with a coal given to him by Satan. He was to continue till
judgment day, because neither heaven nor hell wanted him. This evolved
into a ritual where children carried jack-o-lanterns to ward off evil
spirits.
Few people would oppose the fun of allowing children to dress
up, eat candy and have parties, but when the fun becomes entangled with death,
darkness and violence, what are we to do? Aren�t there plenty of ways we
can embrace the fun parts of Halloween without celebrating the superstitious and
satanic parts?
On the one hand the apostle Paul encouraged us to follow
his example to "…become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I
might save some ( I Corinthians 9:22). He learned the cultures of
the people he was trying to reach with the Good News of Jesus Christ so he could
better tell them about Christ�s love and life-giving ways. He also took on
some of the customs and cultural practices of those people as long as it didn�t
require him to compromise Christ and His ways and words.
On the other
hand there are those who would have us run as far away as possible from anything
questionable, even quoting the same apostle to justify their separatism: "Have
nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them
(Ephesians 5:11).
It�s our challenge to study Paul�s words and follow his
example today, having the same passion and love that Paul had for both Christ
and for people. This requires a large measure of wisdom that only comes
from drawing ever nearer to our good God, Himself.