 If judged only by
money, how much people spend on this month-long
spectacle in North America would put
Halloween in second place as favorite holiday.
(Sources claim between $3 and $14 billion is
spent in the USA alone). The rise in use of
Halloween lights is gaining rapidly to push
the event upwards in prominence towards first-place-by-a-longshot
Christmas. Even without the lights, this
event has been ingrained into the minds and
cultural practice of North Americans for
centuries. Question is, does it really merit
all this financial investment and acclaim?
If you
ask your local Wiccan priestess or witch
coven, you find out this is not only a
favorite time of the year, but for most of
them Halloween is their favorite day of the
year. This is a special day of observance for
them (we refrain from calling it "holy",
although many pagan practitioneers would call
it holy). For them, it is not Halloween, but
Samhain (or Samhaine, pronounced "sow in"),
an ancient Celtic holiday.
Exactly
what is Samhain? It seems over the
centuries, it has come to mean slightly
different things to different pagan
practitioneers. There are several things
common to the various beliefs and practices.
One is the notion that Samhaine is basically
"New Years Day", thus the falling
leaves are noted as a sign for when the new
year begins. (Note: for the majority of
peoples in the world, spring is considered
the time of new year). Another very common
notion is that Samhaine is the day on which
the veil or separation between the worlds of
the living and the dead is the thinnest.
Thus, rituals are performed to invoke the
dead along with attempts to communicate with
them and receive counsel.
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We derive current
Halloween symbols and motifs from the
occultic Druid figure Lord Samhain, ruler of
darkness and of the dead. Druid rites, which
predate Christianity, took place in deference
to Lord Samhain, who was considered powerful
and dangerous. It was also believed that on
the eve of New Years Day, October 31, the
spirits of those who died in the prior year
rose up to find passage to the netherworld.
Many historians state that in earlier times,
human sacrifices took place as a kind of
appeasement to these spirits. Our specific
Halloween practices date to the mid-1800s,
when Irish immigrants began to enter the USA
in droves following their famous potato
famine in Ireland. At this time, Irish (Celtic)
culture, ways and ideas started to pervade
American culture, including the carving of
pumpkins (instead of potatoes) as Jack-O-Lanterns.
So what
are we to do about Halloween? If you
yourself continue celebrating this pagan
holiday with deep roots in the occult,
consider this. You are celebrating along with
millions of witches, Wiccans and other pagans
who claim this as their most special day of
the year. Whatever you are doing on this
evening, they are out there performing
seances and rituals to communicate with the
dead and with evil spirits. This kind of
thing is very displeasing to God, who is
sovereign Lord over all.
You
should not force others to cease their
observance of this pagan holiday, but you
could warn them about what they're involved
in. Halloween is touted as a colorful,
imaginative celebration appropriately suited
for children. But there is no imagination in
what the witches and Wiccans celebrate. The
goddesses and spirits of the dead which they
contact are real demonic spiritual forces
whose power and influence they have no way of
escaping on their own. That is not child's
play.
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