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The True WMSCOG | March 28, 2024

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This Is Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween

This Is Why I Don't Celebrate Halloween

If you are a Christian, you should not celebrate Halloween

On October 31st, children dress up mostly in grotesque costumes and go door to door requesting candy from strangers. I’d bet that the majority of adults also once participated, possibly singing a song, knocking on peoples’ doors and making an offer they couldn’t refuse – “Trick or Treat?

It may seem like a cute and mischievous celebration now, but the reality is that Halloween comes from an ancient pagan festival for the dead.

Halloween refers to the night preceding the Catholic ‘All Saints Day’ (also known as All Hallows or Hallowmas) celebrated on November 1st. This celebration was designated by Pope Gregory IV (827-844) in 835 AD. It was established in order to commemorate the departed faithful souls, (which were believed not to have been purified), to reach heaven. The Catholics believe that there is a place called purgatory, and that the souls who did not receive forgiveness of sins on this earth can go there to receive forgiveness. Catholic priests sold indulgences to the relatives of these souls so that their loved one could go to heaven faster, how convenient.

It is common knowledge that there are no records in the Bible about celebrating “All Saints Day”, nor is there any evidence about this nonsensical teaching. Though “All Saints Day” and “Halloween” are ridiculous celebrations, let’s briefly learn about their origins and historical backgrounds for the sake of accuracy.

What Does “Halloween” Even Mean?

The word “Halloween” came from “All Hallows Eve,” which means the day before “All Saints Day”. Through the latter corruption of the English language, the terms became consolidated and known as “Halloween”. As we can see the video above describes the origin of the name and the reason why it is celebrated today.

Where Did This Celebration Come From?

All the customs of Halloween come from many folk customs around the world. Historians generally agree that Halloween came from the special day celebrated by the ancient Druids, the educated and priestly class of the Celtic region. The Celts were the first Aryan people who came from Asia and settled in Europe. The Celtic religion presided over by the Druids had beliefs in various nature deities and ceremonies to worship them. The Celtic people who resided in northern France, United Kingdom and Ireland were immersed in occult arts and worshiped nature such as oak trees and mistletoe.

The Celts also worshiped the sun god Belenus, especially during the summer festival Beltane (May 1st), and another god who was “the lord of death” or “of the dead” during the winter festival Samhain (October 31st). Human sacrifices were offered during both festivals. The Celts believed they were descendants of the god “Dis,” a Roman name for the “god of the dead.” The Celts and their Druid priests started their New Year on November 1st, which they considered the start of winter, the harvest and the beginning of the dark; this time of the year was usually associated with death. The Celts believed that on the night before the New Year (October 31st), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and that ghosts, evil spirits and witches returned to earth, roamed the earth. They worried that these spirits might ruin their crops, so in order to frighten away the evil spirits they lit large bonfires in honor of the sun god Belenus.

Since they thought these evil spirits might play tricks on the living, they dressed in grotesque masks and costumes typically consisting of animal’s heads and skins, danced around the bonfires, pretending as if they were being pursued by evil spirits. They offered food to the ghosts so that they would feel entertained and welcomed. If food was not provided, they believed these evil spirits would cast spells on them. They believed it was the most favorable time for divination convening marriage, luck, health, death, and it was also considered as the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.

Roman customs added to the Druid traditions after Rome conquered Britain in 43 AD. For 400 years Rome conquered and ruled Celtic land. During this time, two Roman festivals were integrated into the festivities; “Feralia” and a celebratory day for the goddess Pomona. Feralia commemorated the passing of the dead in late October. As Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruit and trees; her celebration serves as the root of the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

Halloween is Popularized

On May 13, 609 AD, the Catholic’s feast “All Martyrs Day” was established in the Western Church in Rome. Pope Gregory III (731AD – 741 AD) changed the celebration date to November 1st. He also decided to include all the saints alongside all martyrs. A few hundred years later, in 1000 AD, the Catholic Church designated November 2nd as “All Souls Day” in order to honor the dead. “All Souls Day” integrated activities similar to the Pagan traditions involving bonfires, parades and dressing up as saints, angels and devils. This celebration was eventually called “All-Hallows Eve,” eventually becoming today’s “Halloween”.

During the latter half of the 19th Century, Irish immigrants also came to play a part in the making of Halloween. Americans began dressing up in costumes and going from door to door requesting food or money. Round-shaped, sweet breads (soul cakes), were baked and given as a way to commemorate the dead souls. The Catholic Church encouraged giving soul cakes as a means of replacing the ancient practice of leaving food for the dead spirits. Halloween lanterns were originally carved out of turnips, but soon changed to pumpkins; an easier alternative.

And so, around the 1800’s Halloween became a day for parties, games, food, and festive costumes. The fear and horror once closely associated with Halloween had slowly faded away. Today, Halloween has been transformed into a highly marketed holiday. Americans spend around 2.5-3 billion dollars celebrating Halloween each year, making it the second largest spending day, just behind Christmas.

You may be thinking “I still don’t get what is so wrong with Halloween!”

This Is Why I Don't Celebrate Halloween

Outwardly, Halloween seems like just a fun night. However, if you are a Christian, Halloween is not just that. Keeping pagan traditions severs our beliefs and faith towards God. Keeping Halloween is essentially proclaiming that dead spirits can return to the earth and give us good or bad luck. If we appease the dead souls they will give us good luck and if we don’t, they will give us back luck. This is a tremendous and ridiculous claim. It is also unbiblical.

The Bible says that when a person dies, his spirit returns to God and waits for judgment.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 – “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Revelation 20:11-13 – “Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books…and each person was judged according to what they had done…”

The spiritual world is controlled by God, meaning that both blessings and curses come according to our behavior towards God’s commands and will. It is absurd to expect blessings by offering food to the dead. And yet, this is exactly what Halloween is about. We should not interpret the spiritual world like this.

Luke 16:26 – “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”

Through Revelation Chapter 20 and Jesus’ parable about the rich man and Lazarus, it is clear that after a person dies, there is a great chasm fixed between heaven and hell. The person who dies will be judged according to what he has done on this earth.

We Should Not Worship God the Way Pagans Worship Their gods

There is no question that the celebration of Halloween comes from pagan origins. However, God had already warned us to never worship Him in the same way the pagans worship their gods.

Deuteronomy 12:30-32 – “and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.’ You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifice to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it.”

God already knew that His people would see practices from other religions, and that they would attempt to worship Him in pagan ways. So God strictly warned against this. Why would God warn us from worshiping Him in the same way pagans worship their gods?

1 Corinthians 10:20 – No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.

Halloween is a pagan festival in which participants offer food to the dead. According to the Bible any pagan sacrifice (offering) is given to demons, so we absolutely must be attentive and careful. We should recognize that churches or prophets following pagan festivals such as Halloween prove themselves to be false. On an individual level, we must be cautious about participating in these festivals. Keeping them makes us participants in demon worship and pulls us further away from God.

In the World Mission Society Church of God, we do not celebrate Halloween, nor any other pagan ritual. Instead, we keep the Feasts of God as they are testified in the Bible; the same ones Christ and the members of the Early Church observed.

But… how is it that we even know about the Feasts of God? Why is it that the World Mission Society Church of God does not keep Halloween while numerous other churches choose to do so?
The reason we know and keep the Biblical feasts, not the pagan rituals of the world, is because Christ Ahnsahnghong came to this earth and showed us the truth of the New Covenant.

So this October 31st,instead of dressing up in some weird outfit, why don’t you grab your Bible and stop by the nearest World Mission Society Church of God. You will see how the word of God is the real treat for our soul, without any sort of tricks involved.

Comments

  1. Matthew C

    To me, it’s obvious that Halloween is pagan. How can a Christian participate in pagan celebrations? It’s one thing for someone who says they don’t believe in Jesus to celebrate Halloween, but for those who profess to be Christian… well they should be ashamed of themselves. People make so many excuses, and for what? Candy? For children to have fun? So people willingly betray God for some candy and “one night of fun”?

    I’m so happy that someone showed me the truth. After all, Jesus did say, “…the truth will set you free.”

  2. Maura

    This is absolutely amazing, thanks to Father and Mother for revealing the truth and opening our eyes and hearts to recognize it.

    Such a common question “what’s the big deal?” The big deal is that those who claim to believe in God are doing something detestable in God’s eyes, that’s the big deal.

  3. Berto

    Thank God for this video. It still surprises me how people still celebrate Halloween after hearing of its origin. This video allowed me to realize that some people just don’t care for truth. Thanks to Father and Mother for putting that in my heart and reminding me everyday that I am not alone; there’s more of us— God’s children out there.

  4. Patricia

    Wow I give all thanks to God Elohim for allowing me to keep the true feast of God and the Passover. I use to celebrate Halloween not knowing I was in complete spiritual danger. Satan is so crafty and makes things appear to be innocent when in reality it’s evil and demonic. Again thanks to Father and Mother for bringing me to the WMSCOG!

  5. Portia

    I wasn’t raised celebrating Halloween so when I learnt of its history it was easy to not celerbrate it, but they’re people I care about who still celebrate this festival so I am happy that this article was created – it’s a great tool to testify about the falsehhood behind Halloween!! Thanks to F/M for allowing us to see the light and hopefully I can use this tool to let people realize the truth.

  6. Elliot A.

    WOW! It is amazing to see that there is so much truth available to shed light upon these seemingly harmless pagan feasts. I had no idea that Halloween was so deeply rooted into worshipping demons and dead spirits. Some of it is obvious when you see people dressing up like devils with pitchforks, the cliché ghosts and other nightmarish creatures. It is actually very sad to see because obviously some people, especially children, have no idea that dressing up as their favorite characters like Batman, Spider-Man, Dora the Explorer, and so on is leading them to worship other false gods displeasing God. I wonder God feels about it.

    It is even more amazing to see the excerpts from the Bible that clearly identify how I should live rightly in the eyes of God not satan and those seeking to capitalize on ignorance. With halloween earning so much money, it is clear that the authorities and businesses care more about money, another god to some, than true God Almighty. We all probably have even seen certain stores that pop up out of nowhere just for the season then disappear right after. Some blatantly show the evil spirit within their logo boldly proclaiming they are the spirit of halloween. Truly, God is not pleased with these spirits leading people astray.

    Now would be a great time to show people, especially our family and friends, all of these truths hidden right in front of our faces. Wow!

  7. Kenneth A.

    I am in complete agreement with all the comments about Halloween, in particular on how so much money is spent one this day(2.5-3billion dollars). The sad truth is that as soon as one holiday ends another begins with no thought towards why we choose to celebrate a new holiday every month. If you ask most people they will say I dont care how a holiday started I’m doing it because of tradition, family, or it makes my children or mother happy and so on and so on and so on. The one who ultimately created all of these pagan holidays could not be more happier that innocent children are taking part in an activity that originated in demon worship. People even get paid 3 billion dollars to advertise more aggressively to perpetuate this fantasy world to babies who roam the streets begging for candy. Actually,every pagan holiday is detestable to God Elohim! Christmas,easter or halloween, all have one thing in common, each originated from pagan rituals established before Christianity!!!!!!!To truly be saved in this world you must come to the true Church, the World Mission Society Church of God that sheds light on all the truths of the Bible and that has Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother who care without limit for every soul wandering in this spiritually dark world. That you so much God Elohim for your infinite love!!!!!!!

  8. Kimberly

    Wow God is so clear. If you participate in Pagan traditions you are participating with Demons. I’m Sorry I rather participate with God who can give me salvation then with Demons. The world has turned there backs to God numerous church partake in this Holidays and other Holidays and its clear proof God is not with them. I’m so happy God has opened my eyes to see the truth and I no longer celebrate Halloween!

  9. David

    The Bible says that God the God of the living not the dead and to not to do as the pagans do so why would anyone who claims to be alive in Christ have anything to do with celebrating dead AND EVIL SPIRITS???? The people who do simply surround themselves with teachers who tell them what their itchiness ears want to hear…….that halloween is an innocent celebration for the kids. Adam and Eve were innocent like children intil the serpent deceived them so he continues his work to this very day. Thanks to Father and Mother that we have been taken out of the darkness by the glory of Father’s light!

  10. Davina

    Honestly, even without knowing the meaning and origin of Halloween, isn’t it quite clear that every bring is related to darkness at that time? Skull and bones, blood, and horror movies. It’s pretty clear that everything about Halloween is about darkness and enjoying evil things. It’s pretty scary to involve especially children in something like this where we constantly try to stop children from being tainted by all these detestable things! I for one will never celebrate Halloween again! Thanks to God!!

  11. Kofi

    This article is pretty awesome. At first glance, it might seem like we’re overreacting about a “harmless holiday” but that’s not the case. God can see everything in the physical and spiritual to us so when something exists not beneficial for our spirits He knows and tries to protect us through the words of the Bible. After all, who’s the only one who wants to harm our spirits? If God says don’t do it it’s because who is behind it? Answer this question for yourself. I hope more people come to Church of God with a heart willing to learn!!

  12. Yema

    To some degree I think most people can feel it’s not right for a Christian to celebrate Halloween, but because of the lack of knowledge as to why it shouldn’t be celebrated and the spiritual harm it does people come to overlook it thinking it’s harmless and fun. For those who are serious about salvation and following God correctly, we can appreciate the information in this article and also regard the day as spiritually dangerous. I thank God for allowing me to know the truth behind every practice – the practices that are from God such as Passover & Sabbath) and even the ones that are not (such as Halloween & “All saints Day.”)

  13. ariel

    We must do must be according to the Scriptures . Rather than being destroyed heathen gods let served only to serve God fully . let’s keep only feast of God. so that let’s receive salvation.

  14. filliajenkins

    So many people think that all the customs of Halloween are pretty funny and perfectly innocuous cultures!
    But, don’t be fooled by what it appears to be. We should know exactly what it meant spiritually.
    According to the Bible any pagan sacrifice (offering) is given to demons, so we absolutely must be attentive and careful.
    I give thanks to Christ Ahnsahnghog who has came to this earth and let us have spiritual discrimination power thru the truth of the New Covenant.

  15. Michael H

    My favorite part was the video! And yeah Halloween is NOT Christian and it’s definitely weird.