We Orthodox Christians, are obliged to carefully examine every form of engagement with secular worldly matters, including various entertainments, celebrations and customs. We Orthodox Christians should thoroughly consider, whether our participation in secular and non ecclesiastical activities, is in accordance with our holy Christian Orthodox Faith.
In the past month, the secular world has been reminding us all, that ‘Halloween’ is approaching. Children in schools are actively drawing pumpkins, witches and bats. Parents are thinking about how to acquire or how to tailor the ideal costume for their children – to go from house to house „scaring“ the neighbours and asking for sweets. Shop windows grin and leer with images of skeletons, vampires, werewolves and various demons. Many parents will agree to take children out on the evening of ‘Halloween’ 31 October, after sunset, even though this custom is completely foreign to Orthodox Christianity and to say the least it is strange!
Many parents in the desire for their children not to be ‘different’ from the other children, will participate in ‘Halloween’, justifying it by saying that „it’s all just fun for children and that there is no deeper meaning to it“.
Here is the actual background of ‘Halloween‘.
The custom has its origin among the pagan Celtic peoples in Ireland, Great Britain and Northern France. They believed that life is born from death. So they took the end of autumn, when nature dies, as the start of their New Year. It was when according to their belief, the time of darkness, decay and death begins. On that day, they would extinguish the fire in their home hearths and darkness would reign everywhere.
According to pagan Celtic tradition, the souls of the dead would completely fall under the power of god Samhain, the prince of death, who had to be appeased with a sacrifice on New Year’s day. Samhain would allow the souls of the dead to visit their family homes on that day. Hence, the custom of „masking“ in costumes, as spirits, witches and demons. In this way, the living would enter into a ‘mystical communion’ with the dead, through the act of imitating the dead and wandering in the darkness.
According to pagan belief, the souls of the dead coming for a ‘visit’ were exhausted from hunger and begged for food. So it was necessary to feed them, hence the custom called ‘trick or treat’. If someone among the living did not ‘treat’ the souls of the dead, the vengeance ‘trick’ of the god Samhain would befall them.
At the time when these pagan Celtic people accepted Christianity, when they became Christians, the Church established the feast of ‘All Saints’, on 1 November (in the East, this feast is celebrated on a different date), precisely to eradicate the occult custom ‘Halloween’. On the eve of the feast of All Saints (‘All Hallows Eve’), an All Night Vigil was served in church.
However, those people who still remained in paganism and occultism, reacted by intensifying their dangerous rituals. So that, the night before the Christian holiday of ‘All Saints’, became the night of witches, sorcery, invocation of evil spirits, demons and other occult activities.
There were even instances of theft and desecration of sacred objects. Thus, the attempt of the Western Christian Church, to oppose the pagan custom ‘Halloween’ failed.
It is clear that we, Orthodox Christians, can not and must not participate in such an idolatrous celebration, at any level (even if it is ‘just fun’ for children), because it directly represents a denial of our Lord Jesus Christ and our holy Christian Orthodox Faith. If we agree to ‘mask’ our children and let them go out in the darkness to ask for sweets, we thereby voluntarily agree to commune with the dead, whose god is not the Celtic deity Samhain, but Satan himself, the prince of evil.
The ‘treats’ the children receive will not represent an innocent gift to children, but they are an offering to the devil himself. Let us remember that our ancestors Orthodox Christians, from the earliest centuries would have rather chosen death, in the most severe torments, than to agree to offer a sacrifice to idols and thereby deny Jesus Christ, who commanded us: „You shall have no other gods before Me“.
In today’s spiritually impoverished world, severe blindness and laziness prevail. Whereby it is easy to convince almost anyone that the origin of such holidays is insignificant and that ‘Halloween’ is ordinary harmless fun.
Behind such a claim lies atheism. A distancing from faith, one’s roots and the negation of the existence of both God and the devil. Our Holy Christian Orthodox Church teaches us, that God alone is the judge of all our deeds and that by our deeds we serve either God or Satan and that no one can serve two masters.
Therefore, instead of ‘extinguishing the fire in the home hearth’ on ‘Halloween’, let us light the oil lamp, before the family Slava icon. Let us pray to God to grant us the courage to be and to remain different, to endow us with the strength to persevere on His path and for God to deliver us from the evil one.
