Halloween
Trick-or-treating began on my street last night, with a group of little ones dressed up as ghosts and witches and vampires, their Mums with them. I thought about how excited the children must have been getting all dressed up like that, and going around with their friends getting loads of sweets. I remember when I was a kid how I used to love it, and would never have dreamt of giving anything deeper a second thought.
To be honest, had I not experienced the occult in the way that I did later in my life, I still may not have thought any more deeply about Halloween now. I still may have seen it as just a bit of harmless fun.
Last year I wrote a post all about this. Is Halloween just a bit of a fun, or is there a good reason why we as Christians should think twice before getting into the spirit of it? Some of you will have read that post last year, and some of what I say today is a repeat of that, so you’ll be familiar 
My road to coming into relationship with God came as a result of being involved in the occult when I was in my late teens. After coming out of this background, God showed me His thoughts about occult practices which are throughout the Bible, in particular that these practices are “abomination” to Him Deut. 18:12. This is a strong word, and it means that God hates, loathes, detests and is repulsed by these practices. He really is not neutral about it.
Not only did that help me to realise what spiritually dangerous territory I had been treading through my past involvement, but it also became relevant for me regarding things like checking my horoscope in the paper, watching certain programmes on TV, and also, my thoughts on Halloween.
My understanding is that Halloween has its roots in an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. It was believed that on this night the divide between the human world and supernatural world was at its weakest and that it was possible for the spirits of the dead to return and bring harm to the living. One way that these harmful “tricks” could be avoided by these spirits was by leaving out “treats” in the form of food and drink.
This evening was also an opportunity for people to commune with the spirits to foretell the future. It is believed that the devil himself was also called upon to tell people about their future.
The Bible clearly tells us that God does not want us to practice such things as fortune-telling and divination, so I question then whether it’s a good idea to join in with Halloween when part of its history is understood to have involved these.
For me, I see that Halloween is marked by beliefs and activities that go against God’s Word and offend Him a lot. Because I want to please Him, my decision is to part ways with the event. I love the way The Message puts this verse where God says to us, “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me” 2 Cor. 6:17-18. And where Paul says,”… dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God” 2 Cor. 7:1.
The other reason I have chosen not to go along with Halloween is definitely a result of my past experiences of the occult. It affected me in ways I didn’t expect like developing extreme levels of fear in my life at the time that I had not lived with before. I know that as harmless as it may seem, the supernatural realm is real. Not everyone may be affected by the occult as I was, and getting involved with Halloween for most people, may never lead to anything deeper in a spiritual sense. For me though, all it took was an intrigue in the things of the occult set up years earlier by the smallest exposures. For somebody, this may be found in Halloween or in the practices associated with it.
What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? 2 Cor.6:15.
Thanks for sharing about this Birgit. A few christian blogs have had posts in defence of the practise so I did read about it again myself, and you have confirmed what I understood about the root of this. And like you say, whatever the pleasures of this tradition, why would we want to be involved in anything that does not glorify Him in every way.
I’m glad you are faithful to tell of your experience. The more we speak the truth, shedding light, we participate with God in restraining the darkness.
I’m hoping now that my kids are all young adults that they’ll listen to others’ testimonies…since I’m now relegated to being an imbecile. (It happens to us all around this time. I hear I gaiin my intelligence back when they get close to thirty. We’ll see…)
Thanks, Birg. Love you xo
Um, just dropping by to let you know that I gave you an award on my blog because I think you are awesome! http://www.angiewashington.com/2009/11/lovely-lady-lovely-blog-award/
Dear Rain, Michelle and @ngie, thank you so much for each of your replies – I will be back to write more soon, but @ngie, I just wanted to say thank you SO much for your award, I just thought it was so lovely and it made me so happy today
You are such a blessing!
Your comment is so encouraging Rain, thank you. As I mentioned in the post I’m not sure if I would have thought any further about Halloween and its origins had I not lived through real spiritual darkness, and then had the Lord reveal to me through the Bible how much He detests the practices that go along with it. It makes it hard to see Halloween as a bit of harmless fun after that
And I like the way you put it at the end, seeking always to glorify Him 
Love and blessings to you!
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You’re such an encouragement too, Michelle, thank you
A pastor reminded me recently about that verse in Revelation, that we overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (12:11), so I thought Halloween might be a good time to write again about it. Every time I think about what God has done, I’m filled with such gratitude. It’s amazing to see His hand on our lives as we look back, don’t you think?
Love you!!
You give the best advice ever Michelle – your children will definitely come to see that if they haven’t already, don’t worry!
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You are so lovely @ngie, I think I’ll have to give the award right back to you. It really made me smile, receving this from you, thank you my friend! xo
Thank you and praise be to God for your article on the dangers of H. I have come across your site via another site which shares in the same mind and spirit on this topic. I found your two blogs after reading what some other Christians are saying about how H is just good fun to be had by all, which I was horrified to see. When I was a very young child, (and now I am 58) I was confinced of the error of following after H, not by any merit of my own; I believe the Lord revealed to me that H is totally against His Word, His path, and His ways. This was very much connected to the fact that when I was five years old my mother told me of how she visited a fortune teller with some friends when she was seventeen. You can imagine what a seventeen year old girl might be expecting to hear as her fortune. Well my mother was told that within a period of two – two days-two weeks-months-or years from that day – she would be totally paralysed. Can you imagine the horror of hearing such a thing as a seventeen year old – and as a five year old? Well, two years after the visit to the fortune teller, my mother contracted polio during the epidemic of the thirties, was taking to the hospital choking for breath. By the grace of God, the doctors were able to help her. But they told her that if the infection in her spine had been one inch higher up in her spine, she would have been totally paralyse and in an iron lung for the rest of her life. As it was, she spent the next eleven months in several different hospitals recovering, walking out with two crutches. She eventually went to two canes, then one cane, then no canes, but had a brace on her left leg from the knee down, hooking into her shoe to keep her foot from flopping. All that was paralysed was that leg from the knee down to the foot.
Well, when I heard this story at the age of five, I of course didn’t connect it to H, but later on I did. About the same time, I realized that Jesus was Jewish, and wondered why people in my family and outside my family seemed to have something against Jewish people. I believe that God directed my thoughts on that topic as well – Jesus was/is Jewish, His people are Jewish, He loves His people, and we should love who He loves. Now it has been since the 80’s that I have learned about the many Christian/Jewish ministeries ministering the Jewish people in the name of Jesus and leading them to know that He is their Messiah. Also that there are many Christians who have a heart for Jewish people.
Praise to Jesus! We serve a faithful God, who is always loving.
annsavedbygrace