The word "Halloween," originated in the Catholic Church. It is derived from "All Hallows Eve," the night before "All Hollows Day," or "All Saints Day."

All Hollows Day is originally a Celtic festival for the dead, celebrated on he last day of the Celtic year, October 31. It was official adopted as a Catholic Holyday in 1484 by Pope Sixtus IV. The church incorporated parts of the Celtic festivals into their holiday and called it "All Hallows' Eve", the night before All Saints' (Hallows') Day.

Of all the practices of the Celtic Holiday, the Catholic Church maintained the ones most anti-biblical. They kept the recognition of the dead as being a live in purgatory and the the idea of the wondering spirits, just to name a few.

In an attempt to differentiate their holyday from the pagan holiday, the Catholic's inserted the word 'saint' after the word 'dead'. Now, instead of honoring just the dead, they were honoring 'dead saints." The major problem however, is that there is no biblical basis for the practice. Another interesting point, is that it honored the dead saints, that were said to be in "heaven" and in "purgatory." The bible however says, that the dead go to the grave and do not rise until the last day, the day that Jesus comes. (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; Acts 2:34)

Until recent times, it was believed that on this night, witches and warlocks flew abroad; and huge bonfires were lit to ward off these malevolent spirits. Others claimed that spirits of those who died during the year would came back to find a living body to possess. The Catholic's maintained similar views with its holyday. Again, these views are against what the Bible teaches.

Scriptures says:

• Job 7:10 - "He shall return no more to his house."
• Psalm 115:17 - "In death there is no remembrance of thee.
• Psalm 146:4 - "His thoughts perish."
• Isaiah 38;18 - "Death can not celebrate thee."
• Eccl. 9:5 - "The dead know not any thing"
• Acts 2:34 - "For David is not ascended into the heaven."

The Costume

Many wonder where the idea of dressing up as devils and ghouls came from. The first instinct is to say, "It's because people worshiped the Devil and it was how his agents looked." However, that is an after thought. It appears that the idea of dressing like ghost, goblins, ghouls and such the like, came from an attempt to ward of the spirits that were said to be lose on All Hallows' Eve.

Since the people thought that spirits were loose on that night, they marched around their towns in the most ghoulish and frightening costumes in an attempt to scare off the spirits. While they marched, they would make all sorts of noise and reek all types of havoc, being as destructive as possible. All to give the impression that they weren't worth possessing.

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.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

Although many people hold Halloween as one of their favorite holidays and many churches have adopted it as well, those who are Christ are not deceived. They understand that their minds should be on heavenly things. They understand, that the things of this world aren't the things of God. As Paul spoke of the creation of a healthy person, he said place before you "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report." (Phil 4:8). As Jesus said, "For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15).

Some might say, "A day is what you make it." But God say, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:11, 12). Only the elect will not be deceived!

References:

Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997.

Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1958), pp. 307–309, 312, 313. Copyright 1952 by Francis X. Weiser. Used by permission of the publishers.

Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia, (New York: Lexicon Publications, Inc., 1985), p. 23. Copyright 1985 by Lexicon Publications, Inc.)

Microsoft Bookshelf © 1987 - 1995 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University Press). Copyright 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.