Halloween: The Re-creation of Samhain
Should Christians observe it?
When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, 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: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
The Origin of Halloween
The origin of Halloween is Samhain (“SAH-win”), which is still observed today by modern day Wiccans and other Pagans with bonfires, necromancy, divination rituals, and feasting, and is seen as a time to “connect with ancestors and the spirit world.” Historically, it was also celebrated with guising (or mumming), which is the origin of Halloween costumes. The Celts believed that the veil between the physical and spiritual realms were thinnest at this time of year, and that if they blended themselves by looking like the spiritual agencies that were about, they stood a better chance of being left alone.
Samhain
Samhain is not only a Celtic festival, but a chthonic god (a god of the underworld). Lord Samhain (or Cernunnos), is the Celtic lord of the dead. In Gaulish mythology, he serves as a psychopomp (guide of souls) into the afterlife. Samhain and Cernunnos are just different names for Nimrod.
The Celts and Druids
The Celts and Druids believed that the sinful souls of those who died throughout the year dwelt in a place of torment, but if they could please Samhain with their sacrifices, he would release their dead. Sounds like the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is. We will address how Samhain was christianized by the Catholic church later in this article.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge served as a temple complex and an astrological observatory where the Druids practiced human sacrifice eight times a year (see Illuminati Calendar below). Archeologists have unearthed 50,000 cremated bone fragments from 63 individuals, many of whom had been beheaded (more on this later).
On the nights of Samhain, the Druids would gather at Stonehenge, hollow out gourds or turnips and fill them with human fat gathered from previous human sacrifice offerings to their various pagan gods. They prepared enormous cauldrons over a fire pit with an apple cider or mead-like substance, lighting the fire before marching off into the countryside to visit various homes of nobility (such as Dukes and Marquis).
Trick or treat?
The Druids proceeded to go house to house, banging on doors and screaming out the dreaded words, “trick or treat!”. If the lord of the manor cooperated with the Druid priests and gave them a treat, they would hand over one of their own household servants, or if they didn’t have any servants, a member of their own family, so that they could be used as a human sacrifice offering that very night. As a reward for the treat, the Druids would leave one of those gourds or turnips (previously filled with human fat) on the front door and light it. The lit gourd or turnip supposedly offered protection to everyone inside of the manor (house) from all of the demonic forces that they would be summoning up during the nights of Samhain.
However, if the lord of the manor did not cooperate with the Druid priests and give someone over for a human sacrifice offering, they would paint in blood a hexagram (six pointed star, i.e., the “star of David”) with a circle around it on the door.
The origin of bobbing for apples
Now recall those cauldrons we spoke about earlier. By the time the Druids were finished wandering throughout the countrysides gathering human sacrifice offerings, those cauldrons, having reached boiling point (212℉) and continuing thereat for many hours, were then filled with apples. They would bring the first person in line up to the cauldron, and say, “If you can take out one of those apples by your teeth on the first try, we will let you go.” Were anyone to refuse the challenge, they were beheaded on the spot. The majority of those who accepted the challenge died a horrific and excruciatingly painful death. The Druids kept their promise of setting free whosoever managed to do so successfully, and survived, though incurring terrible injury.
The Wicker Man
According to classical works, particularly Julius Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic War and Strabo’s Geographica, the Wicker Man was a colossal effigy made of wicker reed (or wood and straw) used by the Druids to perform human sacrifices. The Druids packed the wicker colossus, hollowed throughout with cages for holding human and animal sacrificial offerings, and set them alight in sacrifice to their Celtic gods, such as Cernunnos. Those remaining who could not fit inside the Wicker Man would go in separate wicker cages to be burned.
Caesar and Strabo said the following about the Gauls and Druids:
The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods can not be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent. (Caesar)
To their simplicity and vehemence, the Gauls join much folly, arrogance, and love of ornament. They wear golden collars round their necks, and bracelets on their arms and wrists, and those who are of any dignity have garments dyed and worked with gold. This lightness of character makes them intolerable when they conquer, and throws them into consternation when worsted. In addition to their folly, they have a barbarous and absurd custom, common however with many nations of the north, of suspending the heads of their enemies from their horses’ necks on their return from battle, and when they have arrived nailing them as a spectacle to their gates. Posidonius says he witnessed this in many different places, and was at first shocked, but became familiar with it in time on account of its frequency. The heads of any illustrious persons they embalm with cedar, exhibit them to strangers, and would not sell them for their weight in gold. However, the Romans put a stop to these customs, as well as to their modes of sacrifice and divination, which were quite opposite to those sanctioned by our laws. They would strike a man devoted as an offering in his back with a sword, and divine from his convulsive throes. Without the druids they never sacrifice. It is said they have other modes of sacrificing their human victims; that they pierce some of them with arrows, and crucify others in their temples; and that they prepare a giant figure of hay and wood, into which they put cattle, beasts of all kinds, and men, and then set fire to it. (Strabo)
Burning Man
The Burning Man Festival held annually in Nevada, USA, features a giant effigy statue called “The Man”, which is the modern-pagan continuation of the Wicker Man. The 2014 edition of the Burning Man statue was 105 feet tall.
All Hallows’ Eve/Day
All Hallows’ Day was first christianized in the 7th Century (May 13, 609 AD) by Pope Boniface IV, known then as All Martyrs’ Day. The Celtic festival of Samhain became incorporated into the “Christian calendar” as early as the 8th century (and as late as the 11th century AD). The first and second days of Allhallowtide—All Hallows’ Eve (October 31) and All Hallows’ Day (November 1)—became known as Halloween and All Saints’ Day.
Time out of time’, when the barriers between this world and the next were down, the dead returned from the grave, and gods and strangers from the underworld walked abroad was a twice- yearly reality, on dates Christianised as All Hallows’ Eve and All Hallows’ Day. (Roberts)
It is considered a “holy day” of obligation in Roman/Irish Catholicism requiring Catholics to attend mass in honour of all “Christian saints and martyrs”. The feast involves placing candles on graves and praying to the dead.
All Souls’ Day
As mentioned earlier, Roman Catholicism christianized Samhain, which became part of Protestant religious traditions (such as certain parts of Lutheranism and Anglicanism). November 2nd is the third day of Allhallowtide, known as All Souls’ Day or The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. It is a day dedicated to prayer, intercessions, alms, and visits to cemeteries to commemorate souls in purgatory and to pay indulgences to the dead. Its observance was standardized in Western Christian tradition by Odilo of Cluny in the 10th (or possibly the 11th) century AD.
In Catholic tradition, “the purification of souls in purgatory” is based on Judas Maccabaeus’ prayer for the dead in the deuterocanonical Second Book of Maccabees:
And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
2 Maccabees 12:42-46 DRC1752
Praying to the dead, known as necromancy, is an abomination to God.1 The Bible says that upon death, a man’s thoughts perish,2 and that “the dead know not anything”.3 Job tells us that there is no consciousness in death, but rather man rests in the grave awaiting the first or second resurrection:
But man dieth, and wasteth away: Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, And the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not: Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, Till my change come.
Job 14:10-14
The aged King Solomon tells us that upon death “the dust shall return to the earth as it was: and spirit shall return unto God who gave it”.4 The Psalmist writes that when God takes away their breath (spirit), they die, and return to their dust.5
“Christian Alternatives” to Halloween
Trunk or treat
Originating in the late 1990’s, Trunk or Treat is becoming more and more accepted as a “Christian alternative” to Halloween. Rather than going door to door throughout the neighbourhood, children visit decorated cars where volunteers hand out treats from the trunks, often in a church, mall, or community centre parking lot. Despite aims of providing a safer environment for children to participate in the holiday, the origin of Samhain remains the same.
Harvest festivals
Samhain, being the most well known, is one of such Harvest Festivals. Simply changing name from Halloween to the general term “Harvest Festival” does not somehow result in a Christian alternative to Halloween/Samhain, because Harvest Festivals as a whole are rooted in Paganism, not the Bible.
Conclusion
Today, Halloween is beloved throughout the world by children and adults as both a secular and religious holiday. But as Christians, we are commanded to “abstain from all appearance of evil”.6 Despite the fact that Catholics and Protestants alike teach for doctrines the commandments of men7 by observing—even obligating the observance of—Halloween, Harvest Festivals, and so on, every true follower of Christ is to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them”.8
It is therefore the duty of every true Christian to wholly forsake Halloween and all that has anything to do with it. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children of “all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them”,9 edifying them from the Word of God why they are not to be participants in that which is unholy. We are commanded to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean”.10
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2 Corinthians 6:17
God bless,
Brandon
Works Cited
The Holy Bible. King James Version. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
The Gallic Wars. Julius Caesar. Book VI, Chapter 16.
Geographia. Strabo. Book IV, Chapter 4.
The Making of the English Village: A Study in Historical Geography. Brian K. Roberts. Longman Scientific & Technical, 1987.
The Holy Bible. Douay–Rheims Version. Venerable English College, 1752.
God bless you for writing this paper!🙏