Every year on October 31st millions celebrate Halloween by dressing up as witches, devils and demons.

The day isn't just a celebration for adults, it's also an occasion for children to go from house to house, often in disguise to yell trick-or-treating.

The name Halloween derives from the Roman Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day, the festival All Saints or All Hallows (»hallow« means »to make holy« or »to consider something sacred«). It is celebrated on November 1st. All Saints' Day commemorates those saints who do not have a special name day in the Roman Catholic church year. The day before All Saints' Day was All Hallows Eve called, meaning the eve of All Saints' Day - and Hallows is Eve after all Halloween become.

After Encyclopaedia Britannica For example, the origin of Halloween dates back to a festival of the Druids, an order of pagan priests in ancient Gaul and pre-Christian Britain: "In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic festival of Samhain was celebrated on October 31, when summer was drawing to a close.

This date was also New Year's Eve in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times and the occasion of one of the fire festivals of antiquity, where great beacons were lit on hilltops to drive away evil spirits. The date was related to the driving of cattle from the pastures. Laws and leases were also renewed. The souls of the deceased visited their old homes on this day (it was believed) and the autumn festival took on a sinister meaning because it was said to be haunted by ghosts, witches, goblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds. It was the time of placating supernatural powers that controlled the processes of nature.

The Celtic festival of Samhain marked the beginning of winter and consisted of the eve and the day itself (October 31st and November 1st). It remained popular among the Celts even after the Christianization of Britain in the fifth century. The Christian Church in Britain adopted the Samhain festival by placing All Saints' Day on that date. Until the end of the eighth century, All Saints' Day was celebrated on May 13th.

As the British custom of celebrating All Saints' Day on November 1st spread to other countries, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) officially moved the festival from May 13th to November 1st.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia claims the reason was "insufficient food for the numerous pilgrims who came to Rome in May," but concedes that some believed "the November festival originated in Gaul and was immediately adopted by Rome."

Samhain customs survived in the Celtic areas of Britain: Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Over time, many lost their religious significance, and All Saints' Eve became a secular festival, 'although many traditional Celtic beliefs can still be attributed to that eve. Anything related to divination remained popular that evening. Adults wore imaginative disguises and masks, imitated supernatural beings, and visited the homes where they were often offered food and drink,” wrote Leonard N. Primiano in the “Halloween” entry in the Encyclopedia of Religion.

Irish and Scottish immigrants brought All Saints' Day customs to the United States. After mass immigration of Irish people during the potato crop failure and subsequent Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1852), Halloween was celebrated nationwide.

The custom of children going from door to door shouting "trick or treating" also dates back to the ancient Druid priests who went from house to house asking for both food for their own needs and sacrifices to their gods. If they were not given food in a house, they would cast a demonic spell on the house. Historical sources claim that one inhabitant of this house actually had to die within a year.

The druids carried large turnips that they hollowed out inside and carved a face on the front. This represented the demonic spirit on whose power and knowledge they depended. The turnip was lit from the inside by a candle and was used by the druids as a lantern when they went from house to house in the evening. When this custom came to America in the 18th and 19th centuries, turnips were not as common. Therefore, the pumpkin took the place of the turnip.

Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church has not issued an official position specific to Halloween, its rejection of the occult and demonic precludes any endorsement of this type of festival.

Halloween and its customs have no roots in scripture or the Christian community. They are firmly rooted in occult and pagan practices. Today, however, these origins have been forgotten or are played down. However, any practice that derives from the occult is inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture (Leviticus 3:20,6).

Since many today no longer believe in the existence of a devil and his demons, they see no danger in mocking these "religious relics of the past." The children are taught that there is no such thing as witches and evil spirits and that it is fun to dress up as a ghost or goblin. The modern denial of Satan and demonic powers is clearly contrary to Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible affirms the existence of Satan and demonic spirits (Genesis 1:1; Job 3,1:1,6; Matthew 8,31:12,9; Revelation XNUMX:XNUMX)

In education it is important that we do not plant false ideas in children's minds. The Bible says, "Train the youngster into the way that he should go, so that when he grows old he will not turn away from it." (Proverbs 22,6:XNUMX) To tell you it's safe to imitate evil spirits would be against God's sake.

God warned Israel in the Old Testament not to get involved with the occult. “There shall be no one found among you who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, or one who practices divination, or magicians, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or one who banishes spirits, or a spirit-investigator, or a clairvoyant, or someone who addresses the dead. For whoever does such a thing is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD your God will drive them out of their possession before you.« (Deuteronomy 5:18,10-12) Because the occult is more active today than ever , this advice still applies today.

Participating in Halloween may seem like innocent fun to both children and adults, but it is one of Satan's many ways of tricking people into believing that the world of spirits and demons is safe to play with.

Although Ellen G. White, the co-founder of the Adventist Church, has never mentioned Halloween, she nevertheless warns against playing with spiritism many times. “Many shudder in horror at the thought of questioning a spiritistic medium. But they are tempted by the more attractive forms of spiritism," she said Evangelism on page 606.

Seventh-day Adventists know that spiritism has many faces. Some appear to be more harmless and funnier. Nevertheless, they lead children and adults away from God's truth and can become a stepping stone to further entanglement with the occult.

This comment first appeared in Perspective Digest, the Journal of Adventist Theological Society.

Courtesy of the author and review editors from:
Gerhard Pfandl, What Every Christian Should Know About Halloween, Adventist Review, 23. October 2015