Halloween-and its Pagan Origins

Did you know that celebrating Halloween is fairly new to the American culture? Celebrating it in America only goes back about 100 years.

It’s pagan roots go back much further-over 2,000 years. According to history.com, the Celts originally celebrated their new year on November 1st. They believed that the evening before was a time when the veil in the spiritual realm was at its thinnest, allowing dead spirits, and ghosts, to wander the earth. 

The celebration was known as Samhain. It marked the end of the harvest, summer and began the dark, cold winter.

Their tradition would include spirits (dead relatives) that would give them words to help them through the harsh winters. (fortune-telling) They would have bonfires, and dress in costumes so that the spirits wouldn’t recognize them.

In 43 AD, Rome conquered much of the Celtic territory. They added their touch to this Samhain, combining their celebration of the dead with the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, Pomona. (this added bobbing for apples)

In 609 AD, Pope Bonaface IV dedicated the Pantheon Temple to honor all Christian martyrs. This introduced Samhain into western culture.

In the late 1800’s, Americans would embrace this as a holiday to bring communities together.  It began with “play parties” to celebrate the harvest and included ghost stories, singing, dancing, costumes and fortune telling.

By the mid 1900’s these Fall Festivals would become common in the United States.

As immigrants started flooding America, specifically those of Celtic roots, Halloween would become a part of our culture, as well. Today Americans spend more than 11 billion annually on Halloween. (2nd to Christmas)

Halloween with its pagan roots, celebrating darkness, demons, fortune-telling, witchcraft and evil, would become a part of our culture, including movies, haunted hay rides, haunted houses, and more. It would seem that we have completely embraced this practice that may be more evil than we can comprehend.

Join me tomorrow as we delve into Scriptures to see what God has to say about this blurring of truth and deception.

*www.history.com