Halloween is a major holiday, second only to Christmas, with an estimated $6 billion dollars spent annually by Americans. From children dressing up for trick-or-treat to adults getting into the spirit with their own costume parties, Halloween has become deeply rooted in American culture. Have you ever wondered where Halloween came from? Is it an innocent and fun holiday to be practiced by true Christians today? Does God have anything to say about Halloween?

The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the Celtic peoples who lived 2,000 years ago in Western and Central Europe. They practiced a pagan religion known as Druidism. Their priests and wizards (the Druids) were well versed in astrology and magic. This religion also held to the belief of the "immortality of the soul". According to this Celtic-pagan religion, the spirits of those who had died roamed the earth on the evening of October 31st. To ward these spirits off, the Celts made offerings of food and drink. They also wore costumes and endeavored to tell each other’s fortunes.

Anciently, this antiquated forerunner of Halloween was called Samhain. To commemorate the event, the Druids built sacred bonfires where rituals were performed that at times involved human sacrifices. This was done to honor the Druid deities.

About the time of the first century A.D., the Celtic lands were conquered by the Holy Roman Empire. It is well known that the Romans blended their own pagan practices with Celtic traditions. In the 800s, Pope Boniface IV designated "All Saint's Day" on November 1st as a date to honor saints and martyrs. A documentary about Halloween that appeared on the cable History Channel revealed the following about this holiday:

" It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse, meaning All Saint's Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween."

It was during the period between the late middle ages and the Renaissance (from the 14th to 17th centuries) that the association between the supernatural and Halloween became entrenched in society. During this period, it was also believed that on Halloween, ghosts came back to the earth and to their homes. Residents would wear masks and dress up in costumes in the hope that the spirits would recognize them as fellow ghosts and leave them alone. People would also leave bowls of food outside their homes in the belief that the ghosts would be satisfied and would not need to enter.

Europeans immigrating to America brought the varied customs associated with Halloween with them. In colonial times this included telling ghost stories and partaking in all kinds of pranks. The Puritans, however, rejected Halloween because they considered it a pagan holiday.

In America, during the middle 1800's, millions of Irish immigrants popularized celebrating Halloween on a national scale. Americans would dress in costumes and go house to house asking for either money or some kind of food. The remnant of this custom today is what we call "trick or treat".

The tradition of trick or treating can be traced back to England where All Souls Day parades were held and poor citizens were allowed to beg for food. Families would give beggars "soul cakes" if the recipients would promise to pray for the families’ dead relatives. The Catholic Church did not discourage this practice because it replaced the custom of leaving food outside the home for roaming spirits. This exchange between the poor citizens and homeowners was termed "going a-souling". In time, rather than the poor citizenry, children began to go house to house asking for food or money.

Another tradition that is deeply imbedded in today’s Halloween culture is that of the Jack-o-lantern. A Jack-o-lantern is a pumpkin that is usually placed on the front porch. A grotesque face is carved into the pumpkin and a candle is placed inside. The origin of this seems to stem from British folktales, one of them being that an actual person named Jack O' Lantern was banned from Heaven and Hell, and was condemned to wander the earth carrying his lantern. The colors of orange (from the pumpkin) and black (for the darkness) figure prominently in Halloween celebrations today.

No one would dispute that Halloween still carries with it the themes of death, witches, and an evil spirit world. Modern parents have no qualms about letting their children dress up as goblins, ghosts, or hideous monsters. Neighbors think it is fun to decorate their yards with fake dead corpses or plastic body parts in order to give a good scare to the trick-or-treaters, all in the spirit of fun. But is there really a spirit world? And if there is, should we make fun of it? Does the Bible have anything to say about spirits that roam the earth? It does.

The Bible tells us, in fact, there is a real spirit world. Most importantly, we are told that God is a spirit (John 4:24); the angelic world is composed of spirit (Hebrews 1:7); and Satan and his demons are also wicked spirits. Satan is revealed as one who is bent on destroying people:

1 Peter 5:8: Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

The Bible explains that Satan is a real being, and that he has deceived the whole world:

Revelation 12:9: 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. KJV

It is Satan who has inspired false religious teachings, traditions, and practices that have nothing to do with following what God says! Such is the practice of Halloween. This is what God tells us in Deuteronomy 18:9:

“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.”

Halloween has nothing to do with following God. We saw earlier that its practices involve believing in ghosts and performing rituals simulating (or anciently involving) human sacrifices supposedly pleasing to pagan deities.

The Bible tells us there is only one God (see I Corinthians 8:6, I Timothy 2:5, and James 2:19). And this is what God instructs in Deuteronomy 13:4:

“You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice. You shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. “

Nowhere in the Bible does God instruct us to keep or observe Halloween. So we should ask, Will Halloween be observed in the future after the return of Christ when God's kingdom will be founded on the law of God? Notice what we find in the prophetic book of Micah 4:1-2:

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.”

Those who follow God today walk in the way He commands them. If you want to show God you are willing to follow Him, just say NO to Halloween. It’s not that difficult. God’s faithful people have been doing it for centuries!