All Hallow's Eve

All Follows Evil

All Saint's Day celebration at a cemetery
in Poland to honor the dead.

Having been raised a Catholic, it was nothing for us to celebrate "All Hallow's Eve", commonly called Halloween or "All Saints' Day".  This commemoration is defined as:

All Saints Day is when the [Catholic] Church commemorates all saints, known and unknown. The eve of All Saints is known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween...On All Saints Day, we celebrate these saints of the Lord, and ask for their prayers and intercessions. The whole concept of All Saints Day is tied in with the concept of the Communion of Saints. This is the belief that all of God's people, on heaven, earth, and in the state of purification (called Purgatory in the West), are connected in a communion...

The vigil of the Feast (the eve) has grown up in the English speaking countries as a festival in itself, All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. While many consider Halloween pagan (and in many instances the celebrations are for many), as far as the [Catholic] Church is concerned the date is simply the eve of the feast of All Saints...The day after All Saints day is called All Soul's Day, a day to remember and offer prayers up on behalf of all of the faithful departed.

Traditional Customs: Visiting Cemeteries and Giving "Soul Cakes" to the poor [an ancient custom where people beg for bread in return for praying for the spirits of the dead in the household].

Catholic Liturgy of the Hours All-Saints Prayer:
Father, All-Powerful and ever-living God,
today we rejoice in the holy men and women
of every time and place.
May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire [human sacrifice], or that useth divination [clairvoyancy, palmistry, horoscopy, soothsaying], or an observer of times, or an enchanter [cast spells], or a witch, or a charmer [using magic], or a consulter with familiar spirits [one contacting, asking, or inquiring of the dead], or a wizard, or a necromancer [communicating with the dead to obtain hidden knowledge or mysteries]. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God." Deuteronomy 18:9-13

Beyond the fact that we have absolutely no idea which "saints" are actually in Heaven or not, the Scriptures expressly forbid attempting to contact or have communion with those who are deceased.  Further, do the prayers of those who have died grant us God's forgiveness & love???  There is only one mediator who can make man worthy to receive God's forgiveness & love, and that is Jesus Christ.  Anything else is sacrilege and idolatry.  However the RCC's "All Saints Prayer" has their congregants attempting to commune with the deceased in the hopes that these "saints" prayers will make them acceptable to God. 

Early in its history, the Roman Catholic Church began embracing many pagan rituals with the intent of increasing its membership amongst those populations. The Catholic answer to addressing paganism was to assimilate the pagan beliefs.  In 601 A.D., Pope Gregory I issued an edict declaring that such pagan rites be enshrined into the Catholic Church so that the pagans' worship rituals to other gods would not be an obstacle to converting to Catholicism.  The pope writes in his epistle:

"[T]he temples of idols in that nation should not be destroyed, but that the idols themselves that are in them should be. Let blessed water be prepared, and sprinkled in these temples, and altars constructed, and relics deposited, since, if these same temples are well built, it is needful that they should be transferred from the worship of idols to the service of the true God...

And, since they are wont to kill many oxen in sacrifice to demons, they should have also some solemnity of this kind in a changed form, so that on the day of dedication, or on the anniversaries of the holy martyrs whose relics are deposited there, they may make for themselves tents of the branches of trees around these temples that have been changed into churches, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasts. Nor let them any longer sacrifice animals to the devil, but slay animals to the praise of God for their own eating, and return thanks to the Giver of all for their fullness, so that, while some joys are reserved to them outwardly, they may be able the more easily to incline their minds to inward joys. For it is undoubtedly impossible to cut away everything at once from hard hearts, since one who strives to ascend to the highest place must needs rise by steps or paces, and not by leaps.

The RCC retained the pagan temples, replaced the idols of demons with idols of "saints", sprinkled some "holy water"; and now it was a place of worship for the Lord.  Instead of sacrificing to demons, they can now engage in those same practices in making sacrifices to God.

Is not this faulty logic the same being employed by many churches today?  "In order to get people to become Christians, we must allow them to continue their same demonic practices in the church that they did in the world.  We have to reserve for them some "outward joy" from their worldly traditions or the Gospel just won't be appealing enough to them.  Let them do what was done to demons as unto the Lord!"  This is the reasoning behind Rock music in the church, 'Christian' tattoos, etc.

Yet simply look at history to see if this type of approach is true or false.  Did embracing pagan rituals serve as a way to bring pagans "step-by-step" into Christianity as they turned away from paganism over time?  No!  On the contrary, instead of leading pagans to move away from these occult practices, the RCC has indoctrinated many into the same practices who would have otherwise not engaged in them. By embracing paganism, the RCC has been the primary means for spreading the occult globally.

How utterly wicked this assertion from Gregory I is.  Sacrifices made unto idols, worship to false gods, witchcraft, etc. is not an 'outward joy'; it is sin!  Is there beauty in that which God calls an abomination?  Do we need to appreciate the good in people's sin in order to win them to Christ?  If someone gets joy out of sin, does it become less sinful?  It is only the spirit of anti-christ who will tell you that you can disobey God and still be received by Him.

When we come to Jesus Christ, God does not tell us to turn from our "outward joys" little-by-little, so that forsaking these things won't be too much for our "hard hearts".  He gives us a new heart and says, "Go and sin no more!"  The fact that the RCC was trying to assimilate people with hard hearts merely shows that they were engrafting into themselves the unconverted.  They were not converting people to Christianity, but merely increasing the rolls of the Catholic institution.  Turning away from idolatry is not impossible in Christ, but is part of the inheritance we have in Christ Jesus in that we are made new creatures in Him.  How are we to "flee idolatry" and at the same time keep practicing idol worship, but doing it in the name of Jesus (I Corinthians 10:4-21; II Corinthians 6:17, 7:1; I John 5:21)??

Yet, the RCC would give the ritual a "new Catholic face" so to speak and, "BAM!" it is a Christian "holy day".  This is where many so-called "Christian" holidays come from...and All Hallow's Eve is no different.  It has its roots in the Celtic Druid tradition (a religious sect of witchcraft involving human sacrifice and spiritism).

"Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." Mark 7:13

Image of Samhain, the 'god of the dead'
during All Hallows Eve parade.

October 31st marked the end of the Celtic Druid calendar year and on this day, it was believed that their 'god of the dead', Samhain, released the spirits of the dead to temporarily mingle with the living.  The Celtics then would reach out to these spirits, including having rituals at cemeteries, in order to get blessings or knowledge from them.  They would also have to give out food to appease the malevolent spirits, so that these spirits would not play tricks on them.

In assimilating this pagan tradition, the Catholic Church simply made this a day to venerate and seek blessings/knowledge from the "saints".  However, it is still the same forbidden occult practices that God says is an abomination.

"Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."  III John 1:11

What the Catholic Church has done historically is not very different from what many churches do now in having "Fall Festivals" or "Harvest Parties" as an alternative for Halloween.  The RCC took a pagan ritual, gave it a Catholic makeover, and claimed this made it an acceptable Christian practice.  These churches have taken the Catholic ritual, given it a "Protestant" makeover, and claimed this made it an acceptable Christian practice.  WHAT is the difference?

Why do we continue to believe that we can absorb the things of the world, cover it with a Christian veneer, and make it Godly?  This is the same lie which undergirds much of what Catholicism has done, making many of today's churches just as "pagan" as that institution.  What part of "Come out from amongst them" and "Thou shalt not learn to do after these abominations" do we not understand?

"Abstain from all appearance of evil." I Thessalonians 5:22

Before you participate in Halloween activities (or allow your children to), make sure that you understand where these customs come from.

The History of Halloween and the Customs Behind It

By John Ankerberg

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Halloween, Human Sacrifice, Stonehenge And The Wicker Man

by Dr. Scott Johnson