Celebrating Halloween
“Do not
incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work
iniquity;
and do not
let me eat of their delicacies.” Psalm 141:4 (NKJV)
The word Hallow means to “make or set apart as holy” and to respect or
honor greatly; revere. Jesus himself
told the disciples that an example of prayer is what we call “The Lord’s
Prayer”. In this prayer he used these words; “hallowed be thy name.” It
is obvious that the word ‘Hallow’ is directly linked to God [our Father which
is in heaven]. How did this word change
to Halloween and how we celebrate it today?
The name, Halloween,
comes from the Catholic, ‘All Hallows Eve’. In 1745 this name evolved into
Halloween because the Scots used the word ‘een’ for eve; thus the name
Halloween and has been called that through the years. As time went on it became more and more a secular
celebration. In the seventeen hundreds
it was not at all ‘spooky’, but was celebrated by lighting candles and placing
them on the graves. There were many more
practices over the centuries, such as believing souls of the dead returned to
their homes and so they had parties for the souls, followed by eating and
drinking and building bonfires.
As we know, Halloween
is definitely not celebrated as a Holy Day, or Eve. It tends to be directed toward things of evil
which is against Christian beliefs, because of the comparison of a Hallowed God,
the Father, and the Hallow of evil practices by cults. The practice of dressing up with masks and
trick or treating only began in 1927 in Canada and eventually spread to the
U.S. Where did the tradition of carving
pumpkins come from? Centuries ago, people carved out turnips and put a candle
in them to light the way as they went from house to house celebrating. Some would carve faces on the turnips or
paint things on them. Thus in the
nineteen hundreds, in America, people began carving pumpkins and putting a
candle in them.
Is there anything
wrong in our children dressing up in costumes and going out to gather up
candy? Probably not in itself, because
most of these children are not thinking they are doing anything evil; they are
just having fun. Knowing the history of
Halloween, it is up to parents to decipher the pros and cons for their
children. The Bible says we should train
up our children in the ways of the Lord.
If you feel this does not oppose the Word of God, you will probably let
your children Trick or Treat.
We have alternatives to celebrating Halloween such as
Harvest Parties, family get-togethers or school activities. Kids can dress up like cartoon characters,
Bible characters or animals, but dressing up like something dead or evil should
not be something you should select for your children. Some of these things must be so offensive to
our heavenly Father, like pregnant angels, or pregnant nuns; cute little devils
or ghosts. How about zombies? They might sound funny to some, but are
against the Word of God.
“And as it is appointed
for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” [Hebrews 9:27] People are not going to wander around half
dead and half alive. The Devil isn’t
cute! God’s heavenly creation – angels
are not going to be pregnant for they are neither male nor female. Let’s be real; there is nothing funny about
evil!
A word of advice, when
you are out trick or treating on Halloween and you get a creepy feeling that
someone or something may be watching you or following you, you are probably
right. Just remember these spirits are
not from God, so where do you think they came from?
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