Every Halloween the old debate is renewed. Is it ok for christians to participate in Halloween? Well– I have almost all my life, and I’ve allowed my daughter to, as well. I justify this by reminding myself and my daughter that I do not consider Halloween to be in any way a religious holiday, but the truth is, it was.
The title of this post is a link to a short essay about the origin of Halloween. The name is derived from a holiday called “All Hallow’s Eve” in recognition of the catholic church’s attempt to migrate pagans conquered by the Roman Empire to christianity by celebrating instead “All Hallow’s Day” or “All Saint’s Day” (formerly in May, but moved to November 1st for the purpose of easing the transition). The pagans, however, continued to observe the druidic roots of their holiday on the night before, known as “All Hallow’s Eve.” That later got shortened to “Hallow’s E’en.” You can see how it got to be “Halloween” from that.
At conception, the holiday marked the end of the druidic year which was considered a time of sacrifice for souls that had not yet been judged by their chief gods, sanheim, god of the dead, and cernunnos, the sun god. Every October 31st, druids would make great bonfires in which to sacrifice animals to cernunnos (horses were especially sacred and killed often) and humans to sanheim. Druids believed that watching how they died in the fire revealed portents of the future. The original druid rites eventually died out, but some are still in practice in newer pagan sects, such as wicca, which still hold Halloween sacred.
Anyways– It’s comforting to refer to the holiday as “halloween” since that word has taken on a meaning of its own which few folks relate to sacrifice and worship of false gods. The holiday has come a long, long way from its druidic ritualistic roots. The jack-o-latern and trick-or-treating are products of unassociated practices of warding off evil spirits or retelling old celtic legends. The holiday is now a hodge-podge of many different customs and practices rooted in celtic folklore.
However, It’s important to note that some people still prefer to call it “All Hallow’s Eve,” its original religious name, either in appreciation of the attempt by the Romans to integrate pagans and christians from which the observance was named, or in recognition of the worship of the druid gods for whom the observance was created. What’s really frightening is that some people today actually celebrate Halloween with bonfires as the original druids did (though without the sacrifices, I hope). That’s a little too close to the original druid rituals for my tastes.
The holiday is one of the only true pagan holidays left. Like it or not, that is its origin. This “debate,” by the way, has been going on since the romans introduced it into christian culture in 834 ad and it continues today. Every christian should use their own judgement after education and prayer whether or not to celebrate the holiday and how to celebrate it. After all, any holiday can be an excuse to glorify God.
