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Monday, January 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM

Halloween origins not as harmless as fests now

The Bible says:

“There shall not be found among you any that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fire, or useth divination, or an observer of time, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.”

— Deuteronomy 18: 10-12

Celebrating Halloween, though innocent as it may seem to most, had its beginning in a Druidic and Celtic pagan festival in which both animal and human sacrifices were made. The book “The Worship of the Dead” points out that on this day festivities took place to honor the people whom God destroyed because of their wickedness in Noah’s day.

The wearing of ghoulish masks and costumes today originated with the people of ancient time wearing masks because they thought they could fool the demons into thinking they were another demon and would be left alone.

Trick-or-treat came from the fact that the Druid priest would go door to door demanding a human sacrifice for their religious rituals. If one was not provided the house was marked with a hexagram.

The priest would later burn down the house or work some evil against the family. The human sacrifices were tied and dragged behind a wagon until all the victims in the community were collected.

A bonfire (bone-fire) would be built and the victim was asked if they wanted to be put to death immediately or would they like to try their luck at bobbing for apples in boiling oil. (Thus the origin of the custom of bobbing for apples.)

Other victims were locked in wicker and straw baskets and set afire and roasted alive by the Druid Priests.

The Celts and Druids believed that Samhain (meaning lord of the dead) gathered all the souls of them that had died the previous year to release them from the bodies of the lower animals to which they had been confined in order that they might atone for their sins.

By the next day, their sins had been atoned through the blood sacrifice of animals and humans and they were free to go to the true heaven.

The Celts and Druids celebrated this three-day fire festival from October 29-31, ending with their high holy day. These bonfires or bone-fires were called Belteins or Bel’s fire. Bael or Beil was the Celtic god of light or Sungod.

“It has been usual to identify the worship of the Celtic Beal with that of the Baal or Bel of the Phoenicians and other Semitic nations.” On this day they worshiped spirits of the dead.

Halloween or Halloweven (hallow and even) is the name of the eve or vigil of All Saints. As the date of that vigil is November 1, Halloween is the evening of October 31.

Unable to destroy these pagan rites, Catholicism sought to give them some holy connotation by associating them with rites of their own. They either appointed a Catholic festival at the time of the heathen one, or tried to shift the time of a heathen one to one already fixed by Catholicism.

For it was the policy of Catholic leaders to supplant heathen festival by Catholic observances.

Halloween came about by the wedding of an occult pagan festival with an unbiblical Catholic observance by Catholicism.

Participating in Halloween festivities doesn’t necessarily mean one is guilty of involvement with the occult, but it is a celebration or at the least a recognition of its dark origin and its forces of darkness. Many find other things to do and other festivities to have on Halloween night that are not in any way associated with Halloween in order to steer people away from its celebration.

“... what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial (Satan)?”

— 2 Corinthians 6: 14, 15

James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches for a total of 11 years. Email him at pastorjameshcagle@ yahoo.com


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