Celebrating the Season

Yesterday we celebrated our annual Fall Festival here at Olivet.  We purposely have a Fall Festival as an alternative to Halloween.  Most of our adults probably remember Halloween as simply a fun part of growing up.  You may have questions about Halloween and Fall Festivals--Isn’t the term, Fall Festival, just another name for Halloween?  If it isn’t Halloween, then why have it at Halloween?  Isn’t Halloween a time of innocent fun featuring costumes and candy?

The answer is that Fall Festivals are meant to be an alternative to Halloween.  They are held on the night of Halloween or on the weekend near Halloween to give children and families an alternative to what is essentially a pagan holiday.  The origins of many of the practices associated with Halloween are found in the pagan religion of the Celts and the practices of witchcraft.  October 31 was the Celts’ New Year’s celebration.  They believed that during this time evil spirits and the souls of the dead entered into the world of the living.  The Druids (Celtic priests) sought to appease the evil spirits and souls of the dead and to prevent them from bringing harm.  They lit huge bonfires to guide the spirits, they performed sacrifices - including human- and they left food out for the spirits, hoping that a “treat” would prevent an evil “trick.”  In time people would dress up as evil spirits and go from house to house demanding food in exchange for the “spirits” leaving the home unharmed.  They carved demon faces in hollowed out turnips and lit them with candles (they did not have pumpkins in Britain and Ireland).  Over time the symbols of witchcraft and superstition (witches, brooms, grave markers, hunched black cats etc…) were introduced as well.

So, the origins and the practices of Halloween are rooted in paganism and witchcraft.  But isn’t it just for fun?  We don’t really believe in that stuff.  You may not believe in it, but many do.  October 31 is truly a religious celebration for those who practice pagan religions, Wicca, and various other forms of witchcraft.  Paganism and witchcraft have increasingly moved into the mainstream of modern culture.  You may ask why we celebrate Christmas and Easter—don’t they have pagan roots also?  Yes they do.  But the difference is that we have made Christmas and Easter Christian Holidays.  We do not celebrate pagan religion or witchcraft at these times; we celebrate Jesus Christ.  Fall Festivals and Harvest Festivals are meant to do the same thing—to provide a holiday that can be fun and exciting while still showing honor and respect to God.

The Bible in both the Old and New Testaments clearly warns believers to avoid witchcraft and pagan worship.  You may say that when we celebrate Halloween, we’re just having fun.  But if we celebrate Halloween using the costumes, decorations and practices which symbolize paganism and witchcraft (ghosts, goblins, witches, fear, death etc…), then we are decorating God’s house with items that symbolize things that God condemns. 

Does this mean that we can’t dress up and decorate?  No, it just means that we should not use the things, which symbolize what God condemns, in order to celebrate.  Let’s have fun.  Let’s be leaders.  Let’s honor God and his son, Jesus Christ, in all that we do.

 In Christ,
Bro. Bruce