Are There Christian Origins In Halloween?

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A Personal Introduction

Hi, everyone. Today I’m going to be discussing a topic that most Christians deem as the opposite of Christian, and that topic is Halloween. And as a small disclaimer, you’re most likely going to be surprised about what I have to say. First and foremost, I love Halloween and I always have since I was a child. My first novel I read as a child was a Goosebumps book with many other Goosebumps books to follow. My favorite show as a kid was “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”  Even to this day, I travel to various theatrical haunted houses every year, and I even went to Sleepy Hollow in New York and Salem, Massachusetts, both within the same week to celebrate the Halloween festivities.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Christmas will always reign as the supreme holiday in my world. During the Christmas season, I don’t even want to think about Halloween. But Halloween is a very close second. And because of this, Christians often tell me that I can’t be a Christ follower while celebrating Halloween or they express a concern for me due to the fact that I celebrate Halloween, or exhibit a great interest in the fact I’m able to do both.

But regardless of what people think or say, the fact is they see Christianity and Halloween as two opposing forces. So today I’m here to tell you that you can definitely be a Christian who celebrates Halloween if, and only if you keep the origins of mind, and if you celebrate in a sin free way.

Halloween & Samhain

First and foremost, and I have to address this, considering this is the largest pushback that I receive from Christians regarding Halloween, is that most Christians, and even just anyone in general, typically believe that the origins of Halloween are rooted in the Celtic Pagan holiday of Samhain it’s actually spelled “Samhain,” but it’s pronounced Samhain.

Samhain was an ancient pagan Celtic Fall festival held on October 31st that celebrated the end of fall and the beginning of winter, as well as the start of a new year. And the vast majority of people are either unaware that Halloween is a Christian holiday with Christian roots, or they tend to think that the Christian origins of Halloween were an attempt by the church to Christianize a pagan holiday, kind of like how the church Christianized pagan celebration of Yule with the Christian celebration of Christmas. However, after a ton of research from both Christian and non-Christian sources, I found something very interesting. And that’s the fact that both Samhain and Halloween existed at the same time, but one did not influence the other. Samhain did not influence the Christian roots or customs of Halloween and Christians did not influence Samhain with their costumes.

In fact, the church and Rome was completely unaware of what Samhain was until long after Halloween or Allhallowstide, as we’re going to be discussing here shortly, was established. So essentially what happened was this-there were two holidays, one pagan holiday and one Christian holiday, which were held at the same time, and coincidentally, held similar customs.

So now that we know that Halloween or Allhallowstide and Samhain are separate, we can now dove into the Christian roots of Halloween. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that although Halloween is a Christian holiday that originated in the church, some of the traditions and beliefs behind it didn’t start with the scriptural foundation.

As early Christians in a post-Bible era, they had an unfortunate tendency of holding beliefs that contradicted Scripture and deemed them as “biblical.” And depending on what your denomination you are, you might or might not agree with some of the customs. However, the beliefs and customs evolved over time and were spread across several denominations as opposed to the very beginning where it was only just one denomination, and also due to its evolvement, it also became more scripturally friendly.

So for the sake of not misleading anyone, I’m going to be eliminating the aspects of Halloween origins that contradict Scripture but still provide you with a solid historical and scriptural significance of the holiday, as well as what you can do as a Christian to celebrate-and no, I’m not going to ruin the holiday nor make it boring for you.

Halloween Roots In Sukkot?

So here are the roots. And believe it or not, the roots of the theology actually lie in the Old Testament, specifically with the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. Now don’t get me wrong, Sukkot and Halloween are completely different celebrations and by no means saying that they’re the same by any stretch of the imagination. But what we know about Sukkot sets the stage for what our roots are for Halloween.

The early church calendar was based on the Jewish liturgical calendar and the celebrations were split into Spring Feast and Fall feasts. The spring feasts are what Jesus fulfills in his actual life, but the intention of the fall feasts is to point to what God is going to do in the future. We have a few fall feasts, all of which were discussed in our Neighbor Collective series over the past few weeks.

But the one I want to go over with you today, as I just stated, is Sukkot. Yes, the large focus of Sukkot was to dwell in booths, but it also had another focus. It had an agricultural focus. It’s the concept of celebrating the last fruits or the final gathering of the harvests. And yes, I do mean this in a theological sense. What I’m saying is that God will gather all a scattered Israel and through Israel, all the nations to the temple in Jerusalem. 

The Church & The Saints

So fast forward the clock a few thousand years later. The year is 609 A.D. and Emperor Phocus gave the Pantheon in Rome to Pope Boniface IV who rededicated it on May 13th under the title Santa Maria ad Martyres (or St Mary and All Martyrs).

This was known as All Martyrs Day, and eventually, this date will be moved to November 1st. But the designation of November 1st as the Feast of All Saints occurred over time. Pope Gregory III dedicated an oratory in the original Saint Peter’s Basilica in honor of All Saints on November 1st and this date then became the official date for the celebration of the Feast of All Saints in Rome.

And eventually, a couple of hundred years later, by 1000 A.D., this evolved into a three-day-long celebration called Allhallowtide, which consists of October 31st being All Hallows Eve (or All Hallows Evening, All Holy Evening, eventually shortened the Halloween), November 1st being All Saints Day, and November 2nd being All Souls Day. All Hallows Eve was the Holy Evening before All Saints Day, which All Saints Day was a day to remember and celebrate (but not worship) the Saints, and All Souls Day pretty much covered everyone else. It’s a day of prayer and remembrance for the Saints departed with anticipation of seeing them again at the final gathering.

Now this three-day celebration was also called a Triduum of Death. Now, I know that sounds super morbid, but just hear me out. This is a period of the liturgical year to mock death and remember the dead, specifically the martyrs, Saints, and all the faithfully departed Christians. Now the word “hallow” itself means holy. So, for example, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” So when we say “All hallow,” we are saying “all holy.”

Modern Halloween Traditions Begin Forming

By the 1500s, our current Halloween traditions for Allhallowstide started to unfold, such as dressing up, wearing black to remember the departed saints (which is kind of where we get our Gothic esthetic of Halloween) and trick-or-treating, which back then trick-or-treating was called “souling.” “Souling” is where children would dress up as saints and walk door to door and offer prayers to the members of the house in exchange for a soul cake.

Soul cakes were this kind of cookie pastry thing that was made from fall spices and had a cross in the middle. And honestly, I saw a recipe for it. I never had it, but I saw a recipe for it. It looked pretty good, to be honest. And sometimes, while still in costume, the children would perform biblical plays for the owners of the house. However, that’s only one origin we have dressing up for Halloween-and it seems innocent enough-dressing up as Bible characters and praying.

But what if I were to tell you that even the spooky costumes of Halloween started in the church? Well, it did. The tradition of wearing scary costumes or dressing up as scary monsters on Halloween is a Christian tradition, and it was done to mock evil in face of the Victory of Christ Cross as a reminder that evil and death will no longer have dominion over Christ and His church also is a reminder of the horrors of hell so we can avoid it, and also to scare away demons so that All Saints Day can be properly celebrated.

I’ll be the first to tell you that due nowhere in the Bible does it say to wear a scary costume to scare away demons, but does call us to spiritual warfare. So if you want to wear something out of the ordinary while waging spiritual warfare, then by all means go for it. God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, but the inward appearance.

Also by this time, Allhallowstide became such a huge holiday in the church that Martin Luther deemed October 31st as Reformation Day because Halloween, being the eve of All Saints Day, was entirely appropriate day for Luther to Post is 95 Theses against indulgences since the Castle Church will be open on All Saints Day, which he knew was going to draw one of the largest crowds of the year, specifically for people to deal a large collection of relics. So this just goes to show how huge Halloween actually was the church.

Then by the 1700s, we got our ever-so-famous jack-o-lanterns. But what you probably don’t know is that jack-o-lanterns were originally carved from turnips, which were way, WAY scarier, to say the least. Seriously, look up a turnip jack-o-lantern and you’ll believe me when I tell you that it’s pure nightmare fuel. But the conversion from turnips to pumpkins came a short time later. But there is an old wives tale called The Legend of Stingy Jack, which kind of originated the jack-o-lantern.

Although it had no scriptural basis, Christians started to use jack-o-lanterns as symbols of God’s light in the darkness, as well as the souls of the saints and martyrs in heaven. These were called soul lights or soul lanterns. Actually, whenever kids would go souling, they would typically take these hollowed-out pumpkins with a candle in the middle to kind of guide their way in the darkness.

The “Merger” of Halloween & Samhain

But through time, because these customs of Allhallowstide and Samhain were so similar, not to mention at the same time, they started to get confused with one another and ultimately started getting associated with the occult. So here are a list of activities you should not do on Halloween if you are a Christ follower-immorality of any kind, getting drunk (or under the influence of anything for that matter), fortune telling, going to psychic mediums, casting spells, practicing magic (regardless of whether it’s black or white magic), holding séances, having any affiliation with the occult -and yes, that even means Ouija boards.

Scripture makes it very clear to completely refrain from these things, so don’t dabble with it even once. Even if you think it’s just a one-time innocent game, we cannot be complicit with sin even if we think it’s small.

God, Halloween, & Sin

Everyone labels “sin” as something that separates us from God, and that is definitely, definitely true. But unfortunately, it doesn’t tend to go deeper than that for most people. And because the description has become almost cliche in a sense, people don’t tend to understand sin as they should. So in order for us to understand sin, we first need to understand God.

Most people see God as this huge dude with a beard and a white robe in the sky with a loud, deep voice who smites people who sin. But a more realistic description is this-Creator, Sustainer, eternal life, beauty, joy, love, peace, hope, happiness, abundance, health, divine, pure, knowledge, strength, forgiving, healing, graceful, and essentially anything positive that you can think of. And because of these and because of the all-powerful nature of God, all these words can be used as both an adjective and a noun sense because not only can you describe God as these qualities, but these qualities are the essence of God Himself.

As humans, we can never understand God at the fullest. He is way above our grade. But now that we understand Him better, I should say we have we now have better understanding what happens when we sin.

Some people say that all sin is equal, while others say that some sins are worse than others and vice versa. But regardless of your stance on it, the fact is that the heart, mind, body, soul and spirit are all connected. Therefore, all parts must be guarded, even from a secular sense. We can identify why some sins are obviously bad, such as stealing, murder, etc. but from a Christ-centered stance, we need to dove deeper.

 So for example, most people don’t like their enemies. That’s normal human nature. So say that you hate your enemy. You’re quiet about it, you even act nice to their face and you don’t cause any destruction in their lives. But although you’re not physically doing anything in retaliation to them, just that small bit of hatred in your heart can spread to your mind, soul, spirit, and in some cases, even your body. Actually, some studies have actually shown that levels of mental and emotional anguish can even take a toll on your physical health. So when we let that small ounce of hatred, any sin for that matter, in our hearts, minds, souls, or spirits, we’re robbing ourselves of that majestic peace, love, beauty, and joy that our God provides us.

Therefore, when we sin, no matter how mild or major we think it is, we’re basically digging our own hole. So if we want to experience the beauty of God at the fullest, we can’t let even the smallest seed of sin in our hearts, minds, body, souls or spirits, because that quickly spreads into all other areas. In some cases can even root themselves in the foundation of our very lives.

The Do’s of Halloween

Now that you know what sin is, and now that you know not the sin, even on Halloween, now we can dove back in the Halloween. So now that you know the “don’ts” of Halloween celebration, here are the do’s:

Carve a jack-o-lantern, dress up, host a Halloween party, pray for one another, wear black and remember the departed saints, light candles, trick-or-treat, host a Halloween party, bob for apples, get to know the Saints in your life better, use Halloween as a time to spread the gospel and wage spiritual warfare – and dress up as something super scary as you do so! There’s nothing in the Bible that says you can’t dress up as something scary and I know I’m going to get the pushback of “Oh, well, it’s what it represents.” Listen, the costume is NOT representing anything and there is ZERO scriptural basis to support that. But YOU are doing the representing.

So if you like and want to celebrate the spooky esthetic of Halloween, then by all means go out and do so. But one thing I advise of you is that you strongly evaluate yourself prior to celebrating the spooky part of Halloween. If you’re someone that can’t be given an inch without taking a mile, then just simply don’t do it.

I like to compare the spooky part of Halloween to alcohol. Some people can drink a few beers, know when to stop, not get drunk, and be fine with zero impact on their lives or their mental, emotional and spiritual status. But for others, all it takes is one small sip of alcohol before becoming plastered a short time later, and even relapsing into alcoholism. It’s the same concept with the spooky part of Halloween. I don’t want you starting off with spiritual warfare and then jumping into the occult. So please, evaluate yourselves ahead of time and use your discretion.

Halloween Can Be Celebrated In A Holy Way

Now that I’ve warned you, you can’t potentially accuse me of becoming a stumbling block. So you don’t have to avoid Halloween as a Christian or use some sort of church fall festival or trunk-or-treat as some sort of alternative.

You can celebrate Halloween the way it was intended and have fun while doing so because remember – our church are actually the ones that created it. So now I want to dive back into Sukkot. How is Sukkot related to Halloween or Allhallowstide? First, we have to remember what “All Hallows” means, which is “all holy” or “all saints.”

In reference to the Feast of Tabernacle or Sukkot, it refers to the final gathering of all humanity to be at our final destination with God and the saints forever. Through Jesus’ cross and resurrection, it reveals the beginning of something. Jesus glorified humanity, which Paul’s reveals as the spring feasts, but Allhallowstide is the eschatological gathering of all humanity.

So then again, how can we celebrate? Well, a ton of ways like what I just mentioned. But the most authentic way is to get to know the saints in your life better and keep devoting your life to the Lord. We’re all meant to be saints and to show love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are also saints.

Let’s Learn From Those Who Have Come Before Us

And we are all going to be together in God’s Kingdom someday. Plus, you’re going to be living with these people literally forever, so you might as well get used to them. But remember, you are NOT WORSHIPPING the Saints. That is the biggest pushback I get – is that it’s about worshiping saints. It is NOT about worshiping saints, but it’s about worshiping God.

This celebration is about recognizing and reflecting on the faith of the saints as a means to learn from them. The same concept as whenever we read the Bible and we see the works of Moses and Paul and all these other major Bible figures, we learn from them. I hope this little theological history lesson gave you an insight as to what Halloween is and that you can definitely celebrate Halloween as Christians.

So Happy Halloween, Neighbor Collective. Take care!