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Is Halloween evil, or is it Pagan?
- Thread starter Riders
- Start date
Guitar's Cry
Disciple of Pan
The modern Halloween is a mix of pagan and secular elements. Certainly, Halloween is partly inspired by All Souls, but the elements that remain, like trick or treating, are more medieval folk custom rather than Christian tradition.
exchemist
Veteran Member
Halloween MEANS All Hallows Eve. The proper spelling is Hallowe'en, in which e'en is a variant of eve or evening. So it's Christian, the day before All Hallows, i.e. the vigil of the feast of All Saints, Toussaint.
It should be remembered that the "saints" in Christianity are all the dead who have been accepted into heaven, not just the canonised saints to which the church pays special attention. So All Saints is a time to remember the dead who have gone before us. This is probably the origin of the various games connected to ghosts etc.
Of course, nowadays it has been blown up by American commerce into a ridiculous and tedious pantomime, but that's just what happens when people see a way to make money out of it.
I'll say I feel for sure that its not evil.
Like @Guitar's Cry says, it comes from a mix of cultures and times. Around here, I feel Dia de Los Muertos shows in bits and pieces, too, to add to it.
I try to keep it joyful but reverent. Its a time to remember our dead. The kids always leave out a portion of their trick or treating spoils for the 'ghosts'. The kids(and husband) look forward to dressing up and carving pumpkins all year. Sometimes we have a special meal with our Pagan friends.
I try to keep certain elements out of it(like the horror movies) because I feel it cheapens the feel. But, to each their own.
Erebus
Well-Known Member
It can be both if you're celebrating it properly.
Build a wicker man for the trick or treaters and they might leave you alone.
My Halloween tradition is to put on a Captain Kirk mask inside out and then go around stabbing people.
It is a lot of fun and not at all evil.
It is a lot of fun and not at all evil.
amorphous_constellation
Well-Known Member
Wait a minute though. In the Christian system, is anyone actually in heaven yet? And when they get there, do they still have some kind of a body, either modified (per paul), or the one that rose up on judgement day? The idea of ghosts does seem to me like an interpolation, starting mostly with the new testament in the bible, where there is a marked increase in 'possessed' people, or speculation on immaterial beings. That isn't really there that much, in the old testament.
The Roman empire, on the other hand, being highly cosmopolitan by the time it went into Israel, would surely be in a strong position to pollinate biblical ideas with more radical ideas from abroad. Christians would need to work on debunking such a thesis, if they were to convince me of anything
I don't do anything... at 68, don't feel like dressing up and going candy hunting.
It is neither good or bad. It is what you do with it that makes it good or bad iMO
Others in this thread have already covered the origin of Samhain/Halloween. I agree with their assessments
I think outside of America, everyone just adopts the US custom of Halloween just so they can get free lollies (candy) lol
Growing up, Halloween was always strictly “an American thing” but nonetheless it was fun so why not participate. It has grown since, but it’s no where near the celebration as in US. There’s little local events held by the council for the holiday. Like festivals, concerts, activities for kids and other things.
For me I tend to watch the various Halloween specials of my nostalgic and now fave shows.
Watching slasher films and other fave films.
As a kid I remember in my “kids club” my parents had me go to, some Halloweens, we would watch and laugh at the “Satanic Panic” like US reactions.
Mind you this kids club was literally hosted by a local Church and even they found this humorous lol
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Augustus
…
As with all the "Is Easter/Halloween/Christmas pagan?" questions, the answer is no, not really.
The holidays were all Christian, and were adopted for Christian reasons, rather than being some kind of cheap marketing ploy.
Most of the "X is Pagan" myths developed out of Protestant anti-Catholic polemic, 19th C Romanticism where people wanted to create links to an imaginary rural past. They have been popularised in the modern age by anti-theists who want to paint Christianity in a bad light and neopagans who want to find the vestiges of ancient ancestral traditions.
If there is any link, then some of the ways that the modern festivals are celebrated might have pre-Christian roots, although this is also significantly overstated.
Many things that seem very unchristian to us today, would have had different understandings and symbolism in medieval folk Christianity. You can never rule out the possibility of indirect cultural influence to some degree, but this is generally very different from claiming "X is pagan".
Sand Dancer
Currently catless
I love to decorate, dress up, hang out with fun folks, etc. It's pagan and really fun. I never celebrated when I was a conservative Christian and I totally missed out.
Sand Dancer
Currently catless
Wow, you don't look 68.
"Is Halloween evil, or is it Pagan?"
Yes
Yes
As someone here said: “a mix”…
“The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain.”
—Excerpt from Halloween 2022 | HISTORY
(Interesting article, mostly.)
IMO,
1 Corinthians 10:21 applies.
But who really cares, right?
(Besides me and 8.7 million others for sure. No doubt there are more people.)
“The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain.”
—Excerpt from Halloween 2022 | HISTORY
(Interesting article, mostly.)
IMO,
1 Corinthians 10:21 applies.
But who really cares, right?
(Besides me and 8.7 million others for sure. No doubt there are more people.)
Augustus
…
Not the most accurate article (despite its name, history.com is very inconsistent source).
There is no real evidence for much of the "pagan" rituals they were made up between the 17th and 20th c.
It was common to have a pre-winter festival, but having seasonal festivals in agricultural societies is hardly intrinsically "pagan".
Samhain wasn't a festival of the dead, but end of (agricultural) year/pre-winter is a fairly natural time to think about spirits or death/mortality due to winter being a deadly season in pre-modern times.
There may be some cultural commonalities, but these are not pagan origins.
I think evilness of Halloween depends on how you have it. I don't like it's current form and I don't have it.