STAND & COMFORT Newsletter
Email NEWSLETTER #6
By Ed Tarkowski

October 10, 2001

#1 The History Of All Hallow's Eve

Many present-day Halloween customs are directly descended from the Celtic peoples of the British Isles and France. From 200 B.C. to 200 A.D., these tribes shared an organized religion - Druidism. Druid priests were shamans and necromancers, who foretold the future and taught that souls did not die, but that those of the good passed at death into new-born children, while sinful souls were relegated to live in the bodies of animals. Well versed in astrology, magic, and the mysterious powers of plants and animals, the Druids gathered in oak forests or by lakes and rivers to conduct their rituals. Among their gods were Cernunnos (the horned god), a Sun god, the god of the cauldron, and Sanheim (Lord of the Dead).

October 31st, a joint feast honoring Sanheim and the Sun God, was the most important religious event of the Celtic year. The new year began on November first, and on its eve, time appeared to belong neither to the old year nor to the new. The Druids believed that sins of the evil dead could be ezpiated through gifts and sacrifices to Sanheim, who had the power to decree in what form their existence would continue, as animals or humans. The sacrifices were grisly. Horses were burned, as they were sacred to the Sun God. Black cats, which were either friends of witches or transformed into witches themselves, were also thrown into the fire. But for Sanheim, Lord of the Dead, humans were sacrificed. Men were imprisoned in wicker and thatch cages built in the shapes of animals or giants, and put into the fire. By observing the way they died, the Druid priests saw and pronounced omens of the future.

Besides the sacrificial fire, other huge bonfires were built, on hilltops and in the villages. These fires were kindled to rejuvenate the sun, and to guide the good spirits on their journey as well as banish the evil ones. Tables of food were prepared for the spirits, in hopes that they would be pleased and help with the magical spells and curses invoked during the feast. Afterwards, villagers wearing masks and costumes led the ghosts away from town. Secular researcher Richard Cavendish writes,

"The singers and dancers went from house to house in blood-curdling masks and costumes which may have been meant to protect them against evil and which were probably also tangible representations of what lurked unseen in the night.

"It is these masks and disguises which have descended to children, who visit the neighbors for the offerings which once belonged to the dead and play small malicious tricks on those who refuse them" (The Powers Of Evil).

Although the formal Druid religion eventually died down, its beliefs and rites were continued by groups of people throughout the centuries. One of these, worship of the horned god, was continued by the wicca, or witches, across Europe. Witches' Sabboths were held several times a year, with the main celebration on October 31st. During the Sabboth, the participants dressed in animal skins and heads and danced frantically in a circle. Some danced naked, and straddling branches or broomsticks, invoked the horned god for an abundance of crops and an increase in the fertility of animals. Magical potions were brewed in cauldrons, and a horned animal was sacrificed and eaten. Interestingly, some of the witches actually thought they could fly, as they rubbed their bodies with a "sacred flying ointment" before the dancing began. The ointment, absorbed through the pores, actually contained drugs which speeded up the pulse rate, confused the mind, and numbed the feet. These sensations, probably exaggerated by previous fasting, convinced the witches of their flying ability when astride their broomsticks.

Although Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and the British Isles in 58-52 B.C., the "civilizing" effect of the Roman Empire on the barbarian Celts took another two or three hundred years. During this period, many of the Roman festivals were incorporated into Celtic worship. The feast of Pomona, the goddess of orchards, was moved to coincide with the celebration of Sanheim, and the Roman Feralia, a festival for the dead, was also absorbed into the worship. One of the goddesses worshipped at Feralia was Mania, who became an ogress who frightened small children. In the same spirit of accomodation, many of the old Druid rites were willingly accepted into the religious system of Rome. According to the New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, the Romans, being a practical, unimaginative people, embraced many of the gods of the people they conquered:

"This utilitarian spirit which they had shown in constructing their own religious system led them without effort to build on their own soil the temples of the peoples they had defeated. These foreign gods whom they had installed in the family circle, as it were, were new protectors who joined those who already stood guard over the Roman family and city."

The Roman Empire continued in its paganism for another three hundred and fifty years after Caesar's conquests. But during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., Christianity was at first tolerated, then officially established as the religion of the Empire. All pagan sacrifices were forbidden and temples were closed, and in the sixth century, the emperor Justinian the Great denied all civil rights to the unbaptized. Unfortunately, these forced, mass conversions failed to change hearts. The new converts brought to their new religion many of the beliefs and traditions of the old. John Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, writes,

"Thus, at the first promulgation of Christianity to the Gentile nations, they could not be persuaded to relinquish many of their superstitions, which rather than forego altogether, they chose to blend and incorporate with the new faith."

Worse still, in the spirit of syncretism, the church accommodated these "superstitions" in the hope that the nations would eventually "remove error from their hearts." In a letter to his missionaries in England, Gregory the Great advised that the temples of the idols not be destroyed along with the idols:

"If those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God ... and because they are used to slaughter many oxen in sacrifice to devils, some solemnity must be given them [the people] in exchange for this ... [therefore, on the saints' days, they should go to the former temples and] ... kill cattle and glorify God in their feast, and return thanks to the Giver of all things ... there is no doubt that it is impossible to cut off everything at once from their rude natures."

This advice was given in the year 601; six years later, the Emperor Phocas gave to Pope Boniface IV the second-century Pantheon, where the pagan Romans had prayed for their dead. Boniface reconsecrated it to the Virgin Mary and the Christian martyrs, and the church began using this former temple to pray for their own dead. Then in the year 834, the major celebration in the Pantheon, All Saints' Day, was deliberately moved from May to November first. It seems there were more rude-natured former pagans who'd just been conquered and converted, and their traditional festival for the dead was celebrated on October 31st. So for the sake of these Norsemen and Saxons, keepers of the Druidic/Roman cults of Sanheim, Pomona, and Feralia, the "Christian" feast for the dead was substituted for the pagan rites. But not really. The old cult lived on among the people, and by the Middle Ages, the eve of All Saints' Day (All Hallows E'en) was not only still celebrated, but had become a favorite of witches and sorcerers.

Halloween didn't arrive in America in full force until the 1840s, when thousands of Irish families fleeing the potato famine arrived. By this time, the beliefs and practices of the Druids had been kept alive for over two thousand years, and they were readily accepted anew by the inhabitants of Christian America. As the traditions caught on, Halloween's connection with All Saints' Day wore thin. But its close relationship with the occult, downplayed at first as "just pretend," has recently pushed its way to the forefront. Satanism, real sacrificial Satan worship, is practiced by kids who, twenty years ago, would have been stealing pumpkins. Witchcraft, magic and sorcery have come out of the closet to meet the company. And embracing it all under its protective wing is the New Age Movement. For those too civil for cauldrons of witches' brew, the New Age offers a "sacred pseudonym ointment": Spiritism can be called channeling; witchcraft, visualization; and amulets, energizing crystals. Blinded by technology to the spiritual realities of life, 20th century America has come almost full circle. Sanheim, the Lord of the Dead, will still be honored this October 31st, but Christians, who should know the truth and be able to discern the darkness, don't have to be a part of it. Instead, let us honor the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered death and has been raised far above all rule and authority, principalities and powers and is the head of His body, the Church.

#2 Halloween Traditions And Superstitions

Rituals associated with Halloween have spread throughout the world, changing in form and detail but remaining essentially superstitious. The fear of evil spirits and the absence of truth concerning death are two themes which link these modern Halloween practices:

In Czechoslovakia, families remember the dead by eating special cakes and drinking cold milk "to cool the souls roasting in Purgatory."

In Mexico, parents hold festivals at home for children who have died. They arrange tables with toys, skull candies, funeral cakes, and other treats for the departed children.

In Scotland and Wales, people still set blazing bonfires near their homes to keep the evil spirits from their doors. Inside, each family member drinks a special "brew" blended from cinnamon, nutmeg, Drambuie and the yolks of eggs, which is believed to ward off spirits that may have snuck past the blazes. In our local area, some people still carry out the family tradition of burning fires as late as midnight on Halloween.

Marked stones tossed into embers of a bonfire on Halloween were used to divine the future in North Wales. Praying, the family marched around the fire, and then retired for the night. It was believed that if a person's stone was missing in the morning, he would be dead within the year.

Some believe that a child born on Halloween will have supernatural powers, such as the faculty of perceiving and holding conversations with spirits of the dead.

The number thirteen was avoided like a plague because that was the number of attendants at the Last Supper. It is common belief that witches' covens always have thirteen members: 12 witches and Satan.

In Europe, horseshoes were placed over doors to scare off witches that may come calling, since witches were very much afraid of horses.

A black cat crossing one's path is supposedly bad luck, because cats were witches' companions, or "familiars." The spread of The Black Plague was greatly intensified because of this superstition, as cats were destroyed and the rat population increased, spreading the Plague throughout Europe.

One didn't walk under a ladder leaning against a wall because of the triangular shape (a sacred symbol of religion). If a person did so, he had to knock on wood, because the wood represented the cross.

Though God did not speak of Halloween traditions in His word, they do nullify the word of God, breeding fear and manipulation of the spiritual realm through rituals. God, in His word, has given us the truth and that truth sets us free not only from such pagan traditions, but the fear and manipulative tactics they breed to control the spiritual realm.

God also spoke of superstitions, though not those specifically of Halloween. Of superstitions, He said,

Isa 2:6 You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. (NIV)

Later, He said to Isaiah,

Isa 8:19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Our fellowship is with the Father, Jesus Christ His Son in the Holy Spirit who has brought the truth of eternal life and the peace and joy of His kingdom to us as believers.

This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times.

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