Posted on 11/01/2015 7:32:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
This year, 64 percent of all Americans will celebrate Halloween, but I will not be one of them. For me, it is a wretched, horrible holiday that celebrates the darkest side of humanity, and it is deeply rooted in ancient pagan traditions that would get people thrown in prison if they attempted to duplicate them today. With each passing year, the sexually suggestive costumes being marketed to our young girls become even skankier, the horror movies become darker and even more demonic, and the number of Americans that participate in occult ceremonies just continues to grow. In fact, it has been estimated that the number of self-identified witches in the United States is doubling every 30 months. Those that are deeply into the occult take this holiday very seriously, and the dark forces that they are dealing with are very real. So no, I don’t want anything to do with this festival of death. In no particular order, the following are 18 reasons why I don’t celebrate Halloween…
#1 I don’t want anyone in my family to observe a holiday that celebrates death, witchcraft and the occult. This year, millions of Americans will participate in activities that could potentially open up a door for demonic activity.
#2 The average American spends $74.34 on the holiday. I would rather save the money.
#3 Millions of women use Halloween as an excuse to dress like street walkers, and millions of men use Halloween as an excuse to act like sexual predators.
#4 Even little girls as young as three years old are being dressed up in sexually provocative costumes. What kind of message does this send to them?
#5 Dressing up little children as ghosts, demons and vampires is not healthy for them. In recent years, there has been a trend to make costumes for children as hellish as possible.
#6 Originally, costumes were worn on October 31st “to change the personality of the wearer to allow for communication with the spirit world“. For 11 years in a row, dressing up as a witch has been the number one costume choice for adults in the United States.
#7 In ancient Britain, the festival known as Samhain was celebrated on October 31st. It was supposedly a day when dead souls would revisit their old homes. Personally, I don’t want anything to do with contacting the souls of the dead.
#8 According to the History Channel, Samhain was also the day when the Druids “gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities”.
#9 As I have written about previously, the fastest growing religion in America still practices a holiday known as “Samhain” to this very day.
#10 According to Wiccans, Halloween is the time when the veil between the living and the dead is considered to be the thinnest. They believe that on this day their god “dies” and is reborn every year on the Winter Solstice. This year the winter solstice falls on December 22nd.
#11 In ancient times, the resurrection of the sun god required human and animal sacrifice. The following is what occult expert Bill Schnoebelen says that the Druids would do at this time of the year…
Druids worshiped the sun god, called by names like Bel (Ba’al?) or Chrom. On October 31, they believed that he died and went into the kingdom of the dead, Anwynn. The purpose of Samhain was to insure his return. Even witches admit this involved human sacrifice.
Both animal and human blood were believed to be needed to resurrect Bel on Samhain. Human blood was believed to open the gates of Anwynn and released the spirits for a night. Thus, October 31 came to be associated with ghosts. This is not just history. Samhain is still celebrated by Pagans and is the most solemn ceremony on their “religious calendar”.
#12 To this day, animal torture and sacrifice is still practiced on Halloween by occultists. Many animal shelters will not adopt out black cats during the month of October for this very reason.
#13 In the early seventh century, a Catholic Pope known as Gregory the First decided that the best approach to ensure the continued spread of Catholicism was to “christianize” existing pagan holidays and practices…
As a result of their efforts to wipe out “pagan†holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples’ customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.
#14 The tradition of “trick-or-treating” was one of the existing pagan traditions that was later “Christianized”…
The idea of trick-or-treating is further related to the ghosts of the dead in pagan, and even Catholic, history. For example, among the ancient Druids, “The ghosts that were thought to throng about the houses of the living were greeted with a banquet-laden table. At the end of the feast, masked and costumed villagers representing the souls of the dead paraded to the outskirts of town leading the ghosts away.â€
As already noted, Halloween was thought to be a night when mischievous and evil spirits roamed freely. As in modern poltergeist lore, mischievous spirits could play tricks on the living—so it was advantageous to “hide†from them by wearing costumes. Masks and costumes were worn to either scare away the ghosts or to keep from being recognized by them
#15 The tradition of carving out a “Jack-O-Lantern” also comes from paganism. The following comes from wicca.com…
Turnips were hollowed out and carved to look like protective spirits, for this was a night of magic and chaos. The Wee Folke became very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting humans. Traveling after dark was not advised.
And as Bill Schnoebelen has noted, pumpkins eventually replaced turnips, but the meaning remained the same…
Here it’s a pumpkin, but in Europe it was often a turnip, or a skull with a candle in it. This serves two symbols, 1) the lord of the Dead, a “god†just like a Buddha – in short, an idol. 2) The fearsome face represented the god, Samhain, who would drive off less powerful demons that night. The lights in the Jack-o-Lantern symbolize the “faery fires†or “Will’o the Wisps†which were believed to be the lost souls flitting through the night. They also hearken back to the huge Samhain “balefires†which were lit to help conjure back the god from the darkness.
#16 On all Satanic holy days, there are children that get ritually abused. This has been documented repeatedly, and yet most people (including most Christians) don’t want to hear about it.
#17 For Satanists, Halloween is one of the most important celebrations of the year. On page 96 of the Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey wrote the following…
“After one’s own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween.”
#18 The Scriptures are very clear about this sort of thing. Deuteronomy 18:9-13 says the following: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults with the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord”.
So what about you?
My kids dressed as a dairy queen and as Peter Pan. We visited with neighbors and exchanged candy. Insofar as anything was scary, a couple carved pumpkins and my “Punisher” t-shirt, methinks kids should have a time to explore the natural emotion of fear in a safe context.
As for pagan connections, there are just 365 days a year, which I’m sure 10,000 years of 40,000,000,000 people have managed to pack some objectionable content into each day of. It’s what we do with today that counts; if you don’t want to participate, fine... others can make a good time of it regardless of what strangers choose to.
Yak. I thought it was only Michael Medved who crapped his pants over Halloween.
That’s just the problem! Halloween used to be about kids dressing in costumes & collecting candy. Harmless stuff.
When did it become an adult thing? I thought make-believe & costumes were meant to delight children’s minds.
OK, IMO Halloween symbols of the harvest are fine. However, skeletons, tombstones, the occult, & other symbols of death creep me out. I’ve already had enough experience with death, grief, & its aftermath to see any entertainment value.
And maybe a little background: `hallowed eve’ is followed by All Saints’ Day, which is followed by All Souls Day. Yes, the Church appropriated pagan observances and to good effect.
I generally agree with the author. Now, tell me to lighten up.
Since the original custom in the US was to celebrate All Saints Day, and have one more family and community fun night before the onset of winter...Yeah, I think those things honor God.
I appreciate your position. I just don’t agree with it.
Who is correct? As Ben Carson said the other night, “We will know soon.”
Dang you’re right. Will have to rectify that. At least they got Twix.
“Anyone who uses Wicca.com as a source is not credible.”
Not to mention the “Satanic Bible”, whatever that is, which states that Walpurgisnacht is on May 1st.
I think Snyder is a nitwit who takes all of the witchy-wannabe Wicca idiots far too seriously.
If you keep the event in proper context, there is no harm done.
This is a serious issue. Where is the authority to change pagan holidays or rituals into Christian ones?
Same goes for what if they find new books in the Bible like: “The Gospel of Peter”.
But: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
465 reasons why I don’t care
15. and 5-10 tall.
So a “Red Dragon” belt then?
I celebrate Oct. 31st every year with great joy. Reformation day is a gift to the Church and the modern world. A Mighty Fortress is our God.
The other insignificant happenings on that day I mostly ignore.....
Author comes across to me as one of those cruel holier-than-thou Christians that leave those fake $10 bills to hard working waitresses...and get annoyed when she doesn't like it.
That constitutes counterfeiting.
I agree. It’s no accident that “Halloween” has a repeated vowel at the end. You know what else has a repeated vowel? That’s right, “Pool”. If we don’t nip this in the bud, we’ll have our kids hanging out in pool halls.
Yeppers, trouble right here it River City, it is.
Nope, notice its a different size from the real $10 and only has some of the artwork.
Found out about those from waitresses that dreaded working the Sunday lunch shifts, they're sold in bible stores.
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