Can we cancel Halloween?
Is there a more useless so-called holiday than Halloween? Maybe we can ignore it to death.Halloween hovers somewhere between satanic and silly. It certainly does not glorify God, but carnal Christians (the carnally minded branch) celebrate this so-called "holiday." The story of Halloween is as varied as the stupid costumes it inspires. Here's an except about the history of Halloween from History.com
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter. (Read the full article here)
On top of all this, some Christians are worried about demons possessing people on Halloween. Unfortunately, we already have plenty of demon-possessed people long before Halloween rolls around. Then there’s all the “fun” that children have being scared and pretending to be some imaginary person or character. Add to this the thrill of roaming the streets at night visiting the homes of strangers to collect “treats.” The Bible says that we should "Hold forth the Word of Life," not play with the darkness.
I grew up running the streets on Halloween night "trick or treating," collecting candy from strangers, acting foolish, and sometimes trampling and breaking stuff with rambunctious friends in the 'hood. After all, we were little devils running around so we may as well act like it!
I know that regular folk characterize Halloween as wonderful, wholesome fun, but I think it is simply ridiculous. Maybe we can have two Thanksgivings. Now, that’s a holiday worth celebrating!
