Some Christian groups love to proclaim that Halloween traditions are based on the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain. They tell us that at this time of year the ancient peoples of the British Isles celebrated magic rites because the door between our world and the spirit world would open. Celtic occult practices loosed demons on the night of Samhain, which we now observe as Halloween. Christian parents would need to shield their families from Halloween practices, if this story of Samhain were true, but it's not. To say Halloween’s connections to anything “ancient” are, at best, extremely tenuous, would be grossly overstating the facts. Virtually all of the customs associated with the modern secular celebration of Halloween developed only in the past 500 years and have no connections to ancient pagan religious practices. What is definitively known about Samhain (that's SAH-wen, BTW) would fit on about a page and a half of paper. What gets passed around the Internet as “history” and “fact” is mostly speculation and utter nonsense. The primary source of what is known comes from the books of the Ulster Cycle. By most historical accounts, Samhain proper was preceded by three days, and followed by three days. In some accounts it’s only a three-day celebration (not a seven day). Samhain seems to have been a time to prepare for winter, to welcome in the dark half of the year, cull the herds and celebrate the final harvest of the year. One particular activity that these old Gaelic texts seem to suggest was very popular at Samhain was…. horse racing. That sounds a lot like many European holidays today from October-January. The texts also speak of it as a time to pay tithings, gather taxes, and the holding of a judicial assembly (much like the Manx ‘Tynwald Day’). There is zero evidence that it was a religious observance, that it entailed any ritual, that it was a celebration of the dead, or that it opened the Celtic year. Anything else asserted to be associated with Samhain is either pure wishful thinking or absolute nonsense. There is zero evidence the Celts ever donned costumes of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Costuming for trick-or-treat comes from about 1930's America. The concept of trick-or-treat dates to about then as well. It has no ties to mumming, guising or souling. Historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. There is no continued ancient tradition. Pagan Romans avoided the ashes of their forebears, but Christians looked upon the graves of their dead as having spiritual importance. Christian cemeteries were not final resting places; the grave was only temporary. Christians looked forward to the bodily resurrection of their brothers and sisters, and visiting the grave of those who slept in Christ testified to this belief in the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ had rent the veil that separated the living and the dead. The early catholic church did not merely boast a universality over space, but it also claimed a temporal universality. Could death really separate the saints whether living or dead now that Christ has risen? Christians gathered at the tombs to celebrate because in this way the members of the church who still lived could include in the celebration the members of the church who had died. Heaven and earth were joined, in a sense, when Christians both living and dead simultaneously worshiped the God who would one day reunite them. All Saints' Day was a nice addition to the liturgical calendar because it gave all Christians the opportunity to celebrate the martyrs' victory over death. After all, not every city in the Roman Empire had a local martyr shrine because not every city had experienced persecution. Why should martyr-less cities lose the blessing of celebrating what Christ has done through his saints? As I said, it wasn't the pagans who were fascinated with the dead; it was the Christians, because it's only the Christians that believed that the dead don't stay dead. Summer is over and the days are getting darker. What better time to acknowledge that we live in a fallen world? What better time to remember the martyrs who died during the dark days of persecution? But even though things are dark, we celebrate with joy. We can laugh as we dress our children in images of death because we know that death no longer has a hold on God's people. Though things look dark, we mock the darkness and we mock death because we know that we haven't been abandoned to the darkness and that in the darkest days of the year, Christmas will come, and the days will get brighter. Some readers will still be wary of Halloween after this explanation. Some will say, "But isn't the Roman Catholic cult of the saints an idolatrous syncretism based on Pagan hero cults?" The answer is, no; that's Enlightenment propaganda. Others will ask whether Catholic superstition about the saints is really any better than pagan superstition. I would suggest asking these questions: Do I believe the martyrs should be remembered? Do I believe that the dead will rise again? Do I believe the power of Christ has conquered death? If you answered yes to these questions, then you believe the fundamental doctrines that motivated the historic celebration of All Saints' Day and Halloween. When we celebrate Halloween, we are definitely participating in a tradition with deep historical roots. But those roots are firmly situated in the medieval Christian past, not an ancient pagan one.
By grace, through faith🫶🏽🤍
Bless ya bro🫶🏽
Thank you :)
Some Christian groups love to proclaim that Halloween traditions are based on the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain. They tell us that at this time of year the ancient peoples of the British Isles celebrated magic rites because the door between our world and the spirit world would open. Celtic occult practices loosed demons on the night of Samhain, which we now observe as Halloween.
Christian parents would need to shield their families from Halloween practices, if this story of Samhain were true, but it's not.
To say Halloween’s connections to anything “ancient” are, at best, extremely tenuous, would be grossly overstating the facts. Virtually all of the customs associated with the modern secular celebration of Halloween developed only in the past 500 years and have no connections to ancient pagan religious practices.
What is definitively known about Samhain (that's SAH-wen, BTW) would fit on about a page and a half of paper. What gets passed around the Internet as “history” and “fact” is mostly speculation and utter nonsense. The primary source of what is known comes from the books of the Ulster Cycle. By most historical accounts, Samhain proper was preceded by three days, and followed by three days. In some accounts it’s only a three-day celebration (not a seven day). Samhain seems to have been a time to prepare for winter, to welcome in the dark half of the year, cull the herds and celebrate the final harvest of the year. One particular activity that these old Gaelic texts seem to suggest was very popular at Samhain was…. horse racing. That sounds a lot like many European holidays today from October-January. The texts also speak of it as a time to pay tithings, gather taxes, and the holding of a judicial assembly (much like the Manx ‘Tynwald Day’). There is zero evidence that it was a religious observance, that it entailed any ritual, that it was a celebration of the dead, or that it opened the Celtic year.
Anything else asserted to be associated with Samhain is either pure wishful thinking or absolute nonsense.
There is zero evidence the Celts ever donned costumes of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Costuming for trick-or-treat comes from about 1930's America. The concept of trick-or-treat dates to about then as well. It has no ties to mumming, guising or souling. Historical similarity does not equate to historical sameness. There is no continued ancient tradition.
Pagan Romans avoided the ashes of their forebears, but Christians looked upon the graves of their dead as having spiritual importance. Christian cemeteries were not final resting places; the grave was only temporary. Christians looked forward to the bodily resurrection of their brothers and sisters, and visiting the grave of those who slept in Christ testified to this belief in the resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ had rent the veil that separated the living and the dead. The early catholic church did not merely boast a universality over space, but it also claimed a temporal universality. Could death really separate the saints whether living or dead now that Christ has risen? Christians gathered at the tombs to celebrate because in this way the members of the church who still lived could include in the celebration the members of the church who had died. Heaven and earth were joined, in a sense, when Christians both living and dead simultaneously worshiped the God who would one day reunite them.
All Saints' Day was a nice addition to the liturgical calendar because it gave all Christians the opportunity to celebrate the martyrs' victory over death. After all, not every city in the Roman Empire had a local martyr shrine because not every city had experienced persecution. Why should martyr-less cities lose the blessing of celebrating what Christ has done through his saints?
As I said, it wasn't the pagans who were fascinated with the dead; it was the Christians, because it's only the Christians that believed that the dead don't stay dead.
Summer is over and the days are getting darker. What better time to acknowledge that we live in a fallen world? What better time to remember the martyrs who died during the dark days of persecution? But even though things are dark, we celebrate with joy. We can laugh as we dress our children in images of death because we know that death no longer has a hold on God's people. Though things look dark, we mock the darkness and we mock death because we know that we haven't been abandoned to the darkness and that in the darkest days of the year, Christmas will come, and the days will get brighter.
Some readers will still be wary of Halloween after this explanation. Some will say, "But isn't the Roman Catholic cult of the saints an idolatrous syncretism based on Pagan hero cults?" The answer is, no; that's Enlightenment propaganda. Others will ask whether Catholic superstition about the saints is really any better than pagan superstition. I would suggest asking these questions: Do I believe the martyrs should be remembered? Do I believe that the dead will rise again? Do I believe the power of Christ has conquered death? If you answered yes to these questions, then you believe the fundamental doctrines that motivated the historic celebration of All Saints' Day and Halloween.
When we celebrate Halloween, we are definitely participating in a tradition with deep historical roots. But those roots are firmly situated in the medieval Christian past, not an ancient pagan one.