Today, most professing Christians, observe Halloween, giving little thought to its origins. Often parents dress their children, and sometimes even themselves, in costumes depicting such gruesome things as vampires, devils, witches and ghosts.

These same parents often teach their children to approach total strangers and receive candy and other treats. Needless to say, this is an activity which the same parents would insist was unacceptable on any of the other 364 days of the year.

Many homeowners who profess to be believers, decorate their homes with black cats, ghosts, goblins and pumpkins carved in the shape of hideous faces, etc. Again, at any other time of the year, these same people’s neighbors would be complaining to the local officials over these bizarre practices.

It is only natural to question the origins of such strange activities. Let us take a look at where these customs came from and thereby attempt to determine whether they are the sort of pastimes in which a Child of YHWH should take part.

We can trace the roots of Halloween directly to the pagan activities of Samhain. The Encyclopedia of Religion states in regard to this day’s festivities: “On this occasion, it was believed a gathering of supernatural forces occurred as during no other period of the year. The eve and the day of Samhain were a time when the barriers between the human and supernatural worlds were broken. The souls of the dead, were thought to visit earthly inhabitants, and humans could take the opportunity to visit the domains of the gods.”

The celebration of October 31 as “the night of the living dead” is more than mere kiddie fun. It is a commemoration of occult practices, including divination.

Many parents allow their children to participate in the same practices used to conjure spirits of the dead and seek advice on one’s future. Even the popular Halloween game of apple bobbing is derived from sorcery used to find the identity of one’s future spouse.

We read in the Bible that those who practiced such things, upon receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior, turned away from these evil works. Acts 8: 9-13 says, “But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who used to practice sorcery in the city, and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one, to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that great power of God." They listened to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching good news concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself also believed. Being baptized, he continued with Philip. Seeing signs and great miracles occuring, he was amazed.”

According to the Encyclopedia of Religion, “Fiery tributes and sacrifices of animals, crops and human beings were made to appease supernatural powers who controlled the fertility of the land,” and “Samhain acknowledged the entier spectrum of nonhuman forces that roamed the earth during the period.”

The Encyclopedia of Religion also states, “huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirit” and “ The souls of the dead were supposed to revist their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the tie to placate the supernatural forces controlling the processes of nature. In addition, Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divinations concerning marriage, luck, health and death. It was the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.”

Many sources acknowledge that the jack-o-lantern or pumpkin with a demonic face carved in it, originated in the Satanic practice of human sacrifice. It was customary for those who stole children for this purpose to leave a hollowed out pumpkin, or turnip in some areas, as an exchange for the stolen child.

Sadly, some church leaders have adopted this celebration to serve their own purposes. This process of “Christianizing” things which run far contrary to YHWH’s will as taught in His Word continues to the current day.

In medieval times, November 1, was renamed “All Saint’s Day.” A common term for saint in those times was “Hallo” and the proceeding evening of October 31, became known as “All Hallows Eve,” from which the modern term of Halloween is derived.

Sadly, many church leaders began to accept pagan customs as a means of drawing in larger numbers of people. Worship of gods and goddesses, demons and nymphs was replaced with prayers to dead saints and pagan worship of the dead was merely dressed in a new garb.

However, the Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 6: 14-18, “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from among them, And be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

When Yeshua was accused of casting out demons by Beelzebub, He explained that such was not possible. Mark 3: 22-27 says, “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul,’ and, ‘By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.’ He summoned them, and said to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can't stand, but has an end. But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will plunder his house.’”

Why then do so many in today’s nominal, professing Church embrace the spirit of Halloween, which in fact is so very unholy? Have they forgotten the promises given YHWH’s Word concerning people who continue knowingly in such activities?

Revelation 18: 23 says, “The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived”

In Isaiah 47: 8-9 we read, “ Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.”

Leviticus 19: 31 says, “Don't turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don't seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God.”

Again, Deuteronomy 18: 10-12 says, “There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you.”

YHWH calls His Children to a different standard. Instead of superstitions and myths, He tells us to look to Him for blessings, and direction for our future.

In I Peter 13-16, we read “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ -- as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy; for I am holy.’” While most professing Christians never bother to research the true meaning of this statement, we read in Leviticus 20: 26-27, “You shall be holy to me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine. A man or a woman that is a medium, or is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”

We know that YHWH brought even kings to the dust of death for failing to acknowledge His commandments. I Chronicles 10: 13-14 reads, “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of the word of Yahweh, which he didn't keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire thereby, and didn't inquire of Yahweh: therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.”

Modern celebrations of Halloween may appear to be harmless, but the spiritual implications of dabbling with the spirit world are extremely serious. Fortune-telling, Ouiji boards, telepathy, astrology, voodoo, clairvoyance, magic and such are related to occult and Satanic forces and are therefore forbidden in Scripture.

Yeshua tells us in Matthew 22: 37-38, to love YHWH “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” YHWH alone is the giver of life and all good things and to give recognition to false gods by imitating practices that honored them, is idolatry.

November 1 also marked the coming of shorter days. To appease the god Bel, who is actually the Caananite Baal of the Bible, human sacrifices were offered in the festival. In later a chapters we will discuss the true identity of Baal and the exact degree to which his own worship practices, as well as those of his wife Ashtaroth and her son Tammuz have crept into the modern Church.

The first century Church followed both Hebrew Scriptures and the teachings of Yeshua and, therefore, despised such pagan customs. They recognized October 31 and its festivities as blatant demon worship.

Even the Apostle Paul instructed believers in I Corinthians 10: 20-21 saying, “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don't desire that you would have communion with demons. You can't both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.”

In the eighth century B.C., YHWH allowed the northern kingdom of Israel to be destroyed by the Assyrians. II Kings 17: 17-18 says, “They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.”

They were His people, but had turned their hearts from Him. They had forgotten the Law of their God, in which He had commanded in Deuteronomy 12: 29-32 that, “When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land; take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God: for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods. Whatever thing I command you, that shall you observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

So the question remains, “Can Halloween be ‘Christianized?’” Now that you know the facts, it is up to you to decide what to do with them.