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The History of Halloween

HeIsRisen2018

HeIsRisen2018

Dramione love 3333
Member
This topic and question is mostly for KevinK, (because I know he has talked about it before but I forgot what he said) but anybody who wants to talk about it or knows the answer can chime in. Everybody knows that we celebrate Christmas because we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, we celebrate Easter because we celebrate His death for our sins and His resurrection, we celebrate Independence Day because that's when America won Independence from Britain, and finally we celebrate Thanksgiving because we celebrate the feast where the pilgrims made peace with the Native Americans.






My question though is why exactly do we celebrate Halloween? Where did trick-or-treating come from? How about carving Jack-O-lanterns? Where exactly did that name come from anyways? Especially since I think that Halloween used to be about witchcraft and stuff like that. (I'm talking real witchcraft here not the kind that you see in movies and hear about in stories.)
 
Halloween is a contraction of (All) Hallow's Evening, i.e. is the evening before the Christian feast of All Hallows' Day, which was to remember the dead.

However, it is said that many of the customs that have come to be associated with Halloween originated from pagan customs.

Jack-o-lanterns are supposed to represent the dead, or spirits, or things that arise from hell like demons. It is believed to have originated in Ireland.

Trick-or-treating was based on leaving food and drink out for the visiting spirits, and later handed out to visitors making their rounds in the neighborhood honoring the dead.

Not sure about the witchcraft stuff, other than a holiday commemorating the dead could surely attract occultish customs.
 
KevinK said:
Halloween is a contraction of (All) Hallow's Evening, i.e. is the evening before the Christian feast of All Hallows' Day, which was to remember the dead.

However, it is said that many of the customs that have come to be associated with Halloween originated from pagan customs.

Jack-o-lanterns are supposed to represent the dead, or spirits, or things that arise from hell like demons. It is believed to have originated in Ireland.

Trick-or-treating was based on leaving food and drink out for the visiting spirits, and later handed out to visitors making their rounds in the neighborhood honoring the dead.

Not sure about the witchcraft stuff, other than a holiday commemorating the dead could surely attract occultish customs.
Click to expand...





Well according to this article the name Jack-O-Lantern comes from this old urban legend which explains what the pumpkin represents and I'm guessing that the candle that we light and put inside the pumpkin is supposed to ward them away. My question is though, since magic doesn't actually exist like we see in movies and TV what is real (forbidden) witchcraft anyways?





www.history.com

How Jack O’Lanterns Originated in Irish Myth | HISTORY

Before we carved pumpkins, the Irish chiseled creepy faces onto turnips.
www.history.com www.history.com
 
Allowing children to participate in the celebration of Halloween may appear to be quite harmless on the surface, but the spiritual implications are far from Christian. In today's world, fortune-telling, Ouija boards, ESP, telepathy, horoscopes, voodoo, clairvoyance, yoga, hypnosis, magic, transcendental meditation, Eastern religions, reincarnation, metaphysics and many other practices are expressly forbidden in Scripture. They are related to the occult and satanic forces. Therefore believers should have nothing to do with them. Note the following Scriptures:

"Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 19:31)

"Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance" (1 Chronicles 10:13)

"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." "A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads." "I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Leviticus 20:27, 20:6)

The Bible very clearly instructs Christians to have nothing to do with the practices of darkness. Halloween is a rite with pagan, demonic roots. The Celtic people, who lived over 2,000 years ago, feared the evening of October 31st more than any other day of the year. It was the eve of the lord of the Dead. To celebrate, the people built bonfires, wore masks and costumes in order to prepare for the arrival of spirits. Fire rituals and divination were part of their celebration. Pagan priests even offered human and animal sacrifices.

Read these scriptures as to what God has already said:

Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:14; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Romans 12:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:22; 3 John 1:11; Matthew 5:13, 2 Corinthians 2:15; Jeremiah 10:2-3; Hosea 4:6, 7; - Ephesians 5:1, 8-11
 
HeIsRisen2018 said:
Especially since I think that Halloween used to be about witchcraft and stuff like that. (I'm talking real witchcraft here not the kind that you see in movies and hear about in stories.)
Click to expand...

Used to be, Sister?! Used to be??!! It very much still is. You know how drug dealers like to buddy up to the younger neighborhood kids? Get em yoiung, get em for life and all that? Well it's the same thing with Satanist's, witchcraft and halloween. Make everyone think it's benign and just something nice to do for the children. It's all about the children...but that is actually a lie and is designed to plant seeds of the wrong sort into the children's spirit's.

Ok, I'll bow out now and not destroy your thread, but you did ask! So I chimed in.
I wont even pass out candy to trick or treaters because I feel as if participation in such pagan holidays would make me guilty of same. Like I condone such activities and I certainly do not!
 
Anto9us2 said:
Some say Christmas and Easter are full pagan elements too...

BOO!
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That's what I say, but everybody has a choice whether or not they wish to participate and like Edward already said, I asked so I was fully prepared for the naysayers to put in their :twocents. It doesn't bother me though. :) (As I'm writing this I am busy watching The Wolfman. :lol)
 
Anto9us2 said:
I may make a virtual costume, I dunno.
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Lol! Whatever you want to do buddy it's up to you. :wink I also heard somewhere that the phrase trick-or-treat used to be in a literal sense. Where kids would play pranks on people if they didn't get their candy. At my age virtual trick-or-treating and buying a bag full of candy and eating the trick-or-treaters' leftover candy is all I get lol! :lol
 
I also just wanted to bring up a very important point. No matter what the background of Halloween let's re-examine what it is today.




Halloween: A pretty big holiday on the last day of October that involves children dressing up in costumes, going trick-or-treating for candy, and carving faces on pumpkins. Parties, hayrides, games, and watching scary movies (which are fake) are also traditions.





Yeah, maybe I'm missing something here but it seems like just a lot of fun to me. :shrug
 
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HeIsRisen2018 said:
That's what I say, but everybody has a choice whether or not they wish to participate and like Edward already said, I asked so I was fully prepared for the naysayers to put in their :twocents. It doesn't bother me though. :) (As I'm writing this I am busy watching The Wolfman. :lol)
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Yeah, and it is good to have both perspectives. I prayed about this stuff a lot in the past and the Lord taught me that Christmas and Easter is ok to celebrate but we are to...make the holiday about giving glory to God...and teaching the children what it is really about rather than teaching them that Christmas is all about presents (That presents are ok but use moderation and don't go overboard) or eating on Easter. Then it is perfectly fine to celebrate those holidays. But He did not say anything about Halloween is ok to me...so I can't go that far, lol!
 
I wasn't to add a caveat, the pilgrims didn't invent nor even start the idea of thanksgiving, the French and Spanish and others who had colonies in the new world once they arrived had the same idea of giving thanks for the first meal and making the journey. the first one to have actually occurred was in st. Augustine with ponce de leon and the Timucuan chief and others eating a meal together in 1565, and for a few years they commerated it.

remember often what is taught as history also will have some type of bias and also propaganda.
 
I,need to read up Pensacola. They found the earlier settlement that predates st.Augustine
 
Halloween should be handled with great care. There are many dark pagan twists to it and many practices that do still happen today that are very much forbidden by scripture.

Personally, I will hand out treats with tracts with them. I rarely dress up, but if I do, I make sure it is not something that resembles evil/the occult and nothing scary. So no wizards, vampires, witches, or demons for me.
 
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