I’m probably preaching to the choir, but nevertheless a warning must be ushered since we live in the last days of great apostasy, and many are ignorant to the historical facts surrounding halloween.
The word “holiday” comes from “holy day,” which means that it is a sanctified, set apart kind of day, not something common. The concept of holiday has been throughout history something of an actual sacred day. Holidays meant something. They had a sacred meaning. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Easter. God came into holidays, giving them the sense of sacredness. At a certain point in time, nothing is sacred anymore.
When holidays aren’t holy any more, halloween becomes as “holy” as any other holiday. Religious holidays are mostly corrupted and watered-down beyond recognition in the 21st century but there is still one religious holiday that is untouchable in our politically correct culture, and that is halloween. Make no mistake about it, halloween is a religious holiday.
Halloween is an occult unholy day, deriving its name from “All Hallow's Eve” — the day before the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) holiday of "All Saint's Day" on November 1. According to the AmericanCatholic.org, halloween was adopted by the RCC as a day of "communion with the saints,” who are still allegedly paying for their sins in purgatory and for those who've either paid their sin debt themselves or were "prayed out" (more like "paid out") by someone still alive. A person could obtain a plenary indulgence by saying a particular formula of prayer performed on Nov 1. In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Even or “holy evening” and eventually shortened to the current halloween. On November 2, the RCC celebrates All Souls Day. The RCC teaches the purpose of these feasts is to remember the dead, whether officially recognized by the RCC as “saints” or not, and those who departed purgatory for heaven. It is an alleged celebration of the “communion of saints.”
"Purgatory" is unknown to the Bible, one of the many “doctrines of devils” (1 Tim 4:1) that floods Rome. It is based largely on the apocrypha and RCC tradition that was formulated into a cohesive doctrine of the church at the Councils of Florence and Trent.
But the RCC did not inaugurate halloween. It was originally a Celtic religious holiday. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. The dead would roam the earth seeking living bodies to possess. Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the neighbourhood in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess. The holiday was known as the Feast of Samhain, and was the High Holy Day of the Druidic pagan religion. The Druids were the priestly caste of the ancient Celts and polytheistic pagans who also deified elements of nature. They were reputed to have possessed “the ancient knowledge” or witchcraft. There is little doubt that the Celtic Druids worshipped Satan, and there is plenty of documentation on the “ancient knowledge.”
Later the Romans would adopt the Celtic practices as their own. In the 1st century A.D., Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The ancient Romans worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses, together with strange mythical creatures like minotaurs, centaurs, and so on. The thrust of the practices changed over time to become more ritualized. As pagan belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a 19th century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Catholics would walk from village to village begging for “soul cakes,” made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they promised to say on behalf of dead relatives of donors. They falsely believed the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to purgatory and then on to heaven. The custom of halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing Irelands potato famine.
Halloween’s activities focus on fear, death, demons, evil and the occult. A former high priest in the Celtic tradition of Wicca (witchcraft) said,
"Halloween is purely and absolutely evil, and there is nothing we ever have or will do that would make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus."
He’s right. As Christian religious celebrations are being secularized, halloween keeps growing in popularity. And as it grows in popularity, halloween's evil and Satanic foundation reveals itself more and more in its celebration. It is an object lesson to Christians of the reality and existence of Satan and a testimony to his status as “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2) and the “god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4).
If anything, halloween is the “holiday” where Satan is unmasked and exposed. In Jer 10:2, speaking directly to this issue of pagan religion, the Bible warns to “Learn not the way of the heathen.” People that celebrate halloween must decide, “if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal [the Devil], then follow him” (1 Ki 18:21). People must choose between two contrasting paths, one that leads to life, blessing and eternal bliss and the other to death, cursing and eternal damnation.
Path one, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” (Jer 6:16a)
Or path two, “But they said, We will not walk therein.” (Jer 6:16b)
Truly saved people are a separated people.
"For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: . . . And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Eph 5:5-11)
If you’re not a separated people, then you’re unsaved. Salvation is cultural separation. When God saves us, He separates us from the culture. If you are worldly or have a propensity to gravitate towards the things of the world, to love the things of the world (1 Jn 2:15-17), you need to be born again.
A “salvation” that isn’t culturally separate isn’t salvation. In 2 Cor 6:14-18 we see the cultural separation that takes place in repentance unto salvation, where the repentant sinner turns from unbelievers, from the wicked, from idolaterers, from his or her sins and self to God with faith in Jesus Christ and that separation continues on after salvation where they do not fellowship with the unsaved, including false professing believers.
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
A Christian as light has characteristics that pertain to his nature and lifestyle that are incompatible with the darkness descriptive of the unconverted man. He especially does not share a common culture, including halloween. He is radically different than the unsaved—he isn’t to cooperate, share, or associate with such. In 2 Cor 6:17-18 we see this connection to salvation. Those who don’t separate from the world and its way, God will not receive and He will not call these non-separatists His sons and daughters. Those God saves He also separates.
If you celebrate this holiday in any fashion, you need to urgently,
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor 13:5)