"If you don't see the real me, you won't see what love has won..." Vota

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Why we are not celebrating Halloween.

OK, so this year we are sticking to our original decision made several years back but not necessarily followed, to not celebrate Halloween. I have hemmed and hawed the past years about it and have always second guessed Ernie's and my decision to not celebrate. I have used the excuse of it being different than the evil originally celebrated, and we don't dress up scary, and it is just a fun family thing... ALL of these and more I have used as excuses to second guess our original decision. This year we will not be celebrating it at all. No trunks of treats. No dressing up, no jack o lanterns... Here are my reasons. (Thank you Sharon for reaffirming our decision and sending me this info to mull over.) I am going to post this for anyone interested to read. If you choose to celebrate Halloween, I am not telling you what you should or should not do!!! I personally am only responsible for my decisions and would never try to make yours for you. I will inform you of what I know/believe. This is Ernie's and my decision. We have made this decision based on the history of the holiday and the fact that there is no good that comes from fear. Halloween revolves around fear-- we can't even go into the store without the girls being frightened by some ghost or goblin used to decorate or posed for display to be sold.



HALLOWEEN! Harmless? or Hazardous??



The History of Halloween


CELTIC NEW YEAR


October 31 is the most important day in the satanic year. It marks the Celtic new year, and is always at the end of the growing season, thus it became the "Festival of Death." On this day, the god of the Celtics was to have called up the spirits of the wicked dead who had died during the past year. At the same time, other evil spirits arose and went about the countryside harassing the people. On October 31, the Celtics expected to be harassed by ghosts, evil spirits, and demons; and it was no fun and games to them! They would light bonfires to guide the spirits to their own town and to ward off evil spirits.

THE DRUIDS

The Celtics had satanic priests called Druids. On October 31, the Druids went from house to house demanding certain foods, and all those who refused are cursed. The people were tormented by means of magic. As they went, the Druids carried large turnips which they had hollowed out and carved in demon faces as charms. Each one was believed to contain the demon spirit that personally led or guided that priest - his little god. Costumes were worn at times to hide the identity of the Druid as he would threaten people with curses if they did not comply with the food he demanded.


DIVINATION

Those who practiced fortune telling and divination found that this was the night that they had the most success. They called upon Satan to bless their efforts. One form of divination was to put apples in a tub and bob for them. The one who first successfully came up with an apple without putting it in his teeth was to have good luck throughout the year. They would then peel the apple and throw the peeling over their shoulder and quickly look around. They expected to see a vision or an apparition of the one they were to marry.


SACRIFICES

These things happened several centuries before Christ. Sacrifices were made to the gods, especially the god of death: Sam Hain (pronounced Sah - win). Sacrifices all the way from vegetable to human were offered. This went on and on and in some parts of the world still go on today.

THE 8TH CENTURY

In the eighth century, the Pope, in an effort to get the people to quit the festival of Sam Hain, invented All Saints Day (Nov. 1). This was an attempt to get the people to turn away from the horrible observance of Sam Hain. All Saints Day was intended to honor the martyrs of the Roman persecution. It didn't work. It never works to Christianize a pagan holiday. The holy and the profane don't mix!!

THE MIDDLE AGES

In the middle ages there was a great revival of satanic practices, witchcraft, and magic - like there is today. During this time, the belief developed that witches traveled on broomsticks to the black sabbaths (witchs' celebration help every October 31) to worship Satan. They were guided by spirits in the form of black cats. The Druids worshipped cats believing them to be reincarnated evil people.

CHURCH INVOLVEMENT

This festival of death has survived all of the efforts of the Church to stamp it out. The Church is joining the opposition by celebrating this festival. The devil has been very successful in invading Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter, providing counterfeits for the real thing. Halloween is different. It has always been satanic in nature. Satan has deluded the Christians into celebrating his festival. All Saints Day became All Hallows Day and came to be called in the western world All Hallows Eve, and then All Hallows Een. Finally, the word was reduced to the way we have it today, Halloween. That's where the name came from, and even if it is called All Hallows Evening it has nothing to do with the Christian faith and it never did!

The bottom line is this: Halloween has been so deluded that many parents don't even realize all the symbolism there is in trick or treating, wearing of costumes, decorating with jack-o'-lanterns, and all the rest that goes with this evil holiday. October 31 is the night that Satanists and occultists the world around look forward to for giving the most honor to Satan and praying to him intensely for the fall of the Church of Jesus Christ and the destruction of families. It is the night of the human sacrifice to Satan. It is the biggest day in the life of a Satanist. It is not an innocent holiday!!

MODERN HALLOWEEN

Now let's look at the present day celebration of Halloween. Isn't the whole theme one of darkness, death, fear, threats, destruction and evil? There are witches, broomsticks, bats, owls, ghosts, skeletons, death, and monsters. We dress our children as demons, witches, ghouls, monsters and werewolves and send them out into the streets in the dark to reenact the Druids' practice of demanding food from people under the threat of tricks (or curses) if they don't comply.

We take not a turnip, but a pumpkin and carve demon faces in it and decorate with it. At Halloween there will be apple bobbing, divination, fortune telling, haunted houses, candles lit, and spirits called up. There will be seances and ouiji boards in the name of fun and excitement. There will be sacrifices of dogs, cats, rats, chickens, goats and even humans!

You say, "We don't take it seriously." But the devil does and so does God! Particularly this is true when the church which He purchased with His blood builds haunted houses in its fellowship halls so that the little lambs who have been entrusted to its care can be terrified and opened up to invading spirits of fear, torment, and confusion. HOW THIS MUST GRIEVE THE LORD!

Halloween has never been a Christian holiday and it has no place int the life of a born again believer in Jesus Christ. In fact it is an abomination to God and we should take our stand firmly against it and all it entails. As we look into its history, we find that its roots go deep into heathenism, paganism, Satanism, and the occult; and the modern expression is no better!

SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES
Hosea 4:6
Ezekiel 44:23
Deuteronomy 18:9-14
James 1:27
2 Corinthians 6:14
Philippians 4:8
Deuteronomy 7:25-26
1 Thessalonians 5:21-23
1 Corinthians 10:19-23


OTHER SOURCES
American Encyclopedia
Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia
Student's Encyclopedia
The Standard Reference Work
Collier's Encyclopedia
Illustrated World Encyclopedia
The Columbia Encyclopedia
World Book Encyclopedia


MAJOR SOURCE
Message by Tom McKenny entitled,
"Festival of Death"

4 comments:

  1. i'd just like to make a note that christmas, on dec 25th, 'probably originated with the ancient "birthday" of the son-god, Mithra, a pagan deity whose religious influence became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries A.D. Mithra was related to the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, and his worship spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Rome was well-known for absorbing the pagan religions and rituals of its widespread empire. As such, Rome converted this pagan legacy to a celebration of the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice period. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples.' (http://www.origin-of-christmas.com/)

    and easter was derived from ostara, 'the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."' (http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm)

    that's not what we celebrate at all, but that's where the holidays started.

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  2. cool beans!!!
    thank goodness Liz is having her beautiful fall festival where we can rejoice in God's bounty and harvest....there are christian alternatives and our kids will be the wiser and more holy for them! amen! love ya sis! sharon

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  3. Thanks Tana, I knew that, but here is where I find a hard time and thus my decision... I have a hard time finding Christ in scary. Now some people can and do not experience the scary, but last year at Trunks of Treats at my church there were ghosts, dead brides, vampires, zombies... It is hard to focus on celebrating God in the midst of this as part of the celebration. At Christmas this is why we celebrate Christ's birth and Easter His Ressurection. It is easier to focus on Him. We do not focus on the big red man or the bunny. MAybe I am being convicted to not even treat them as we do now as a fun character during the holidays-- they do not belioeve in either... But they are no longer scary to either of my girls so this is a big difference. Just saying-- love to you both!!! Thanks for your comments!!!

    Oh yeah and God looks at your heart, so if you can worship Him as you celebrate and it is all about Him, I say go for it, but for some reason I am not able to do this, so I will remove the offending eye-- so to speak. :D
    At Christmas In my heart I am throwing Jesus a grand birthday party and celebrating the gift God gave us in Him and at Easter well... you know! My heart is pure and focused on Him... So we are celebrating the end of summer or a fall festival which celebrates God's glorious riches he has given us!

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  4. I am glad to see another fellow Christian follow this "thought-line" on Halloween. I sent the above to Elizabeth a couple yrs ago, and then to Sharon this year. Several years ago, I felt such an uncomfortable feeling, doomy gloomy dark foreboding fellings! I continued to pray over what to do, trying to justify that we didnt dress up in yucky stuff, we didnt decorate the outside of the house...etc...but when the above "Halloween, Harmless or Hazardous" came to me, I realized when I was reading it, that it was my answer. We do not do anything....instead we try to go to the movies (if an appropiate one is playing) so that we are not even home. I know this woudl be a good time to send out Biblical pamphlets and speak to others about Christs love...but this is a season when they arent listening, at least I dont think so, although, any time is appropiate for planting seeds. Above anything else, it really bothers me when a church tries to make Halloween and "happy sweet time"...it just cannot be that way, it is what I believe! others will disagree, and that is fine, everyone should obey the convictions THEY have, the convictions Christ lays on their heart!! In the past, any church I have been to that tries to make a safe and happy place for the kids, it is still the same to me as anything else, it is just inside the Church building (God's house) and there isnt any beer or drugs being passed around or a fear of having to check the kids candy when they got home....to mt, it was no different than any other place at Halloween.

    We also do not talk about Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny...we do talk about St Nick., he was real and he was a man who did wonderful things at Christmas, but to me, the holiday is NOT about him, it is about taking a specific day and remembering Christ' birth....the same with Easter, it is taking a specific day and remembering his death and resurrection. It has nothing to do with the Jolly fellow or the mystical bunny who drops eggs in a basket for you.....eventho, both of those holidays are pagan in their history, they do still revolve around Christ. Halloween does not, there is nothing to remember concerning Christ...as for fall or harvest stuff, that comes with Thanksgiving...but I dont have a problem celebrating it in October. I also think if you choose to, when kids come to your house, giving them a pamphlet on how to be saved or giving them Bibles is awesome! But to lure the kids to church under the pretense of something the kids like to do, and then witnessing to them, to me it is double standard. Dont ask me How I come to that comclusion, because I dont know, it is just a feeling.

    Thx for posting this in your blog for this week....I pray many come to understand the history and will decide to forego Halloween from here on after.

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