Of course, halloween is NOT okay to observe and celebrate. This is so upsetting to see fellow Christians observing it and acting like it's okay. I know all about halloween. I used to love it and it was my favorite day of the year - before I got saved! Then I woke up to the truth. It is evil. It is a pagan observance. Celebrating it at all in any fashion is sin because it is a pagan observance with pagan roots and it completely contradicts the WORD OF GOD. We already have our own fall festival and it's called the Feast Of Tabernacles aka Sukkot which is the fall feast that God set up Himself for us to celebrate (which I just finished observing from 9/26/07 - 10/04/07 as it last eight days). Most Christians don't observe the feasts instituted by God because I believe they are being deceived by satan to not even think about those observances and because they are so caught up in their own "holidays" with pagan roots such as halloween, easter and even Christmas (which I would be happy to tell you about). But, God Himself said to observe the Feast Of Tabernacles:
Leviticus 23:2, 4, 37, 44, . . . the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts . . . . These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons . . . . These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations . . . the feasts of the LORD. (God instituted the holiday and requires us to observe it)
Zechariah 14:16-19, "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left . . . shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. . . . This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." (God requires us to observe it. And this is a prophecy talking about our future when Jesus rules the earth.)
This is a history of halloween from MS Encarta Encyclopedia:
"Many of the ancient peoples of Europe marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter by celebrating a holiday in late autumn. The most important of these holidays to influence later halloween customs was samhain, a holiday observed by the ancient Celts, a tribal people who inhabited most of Western and Central Europe in the first millennium bc. Among the Celts, samhain marked the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It was one of four Celtic holidays linked to important transitions in the annual cycle of seasons.
samhain began at sundown on October 31 and extended into the following day. According to the Celtic pagan religion, known as druidism, the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on samhain evening. The Celts sought to ward off these spirits with offerings of food and drink. The Celts also built bonfires at sacred hilltop sites and performed rituals, often involving human and animal sacrifices, to honor druid deities.
By the end of the 1st century ad, the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic lands (see Rome, History of). In the process of incorporating the Celts into their empire, the Romans adapted and absorbed some Celtic traditions as part of their own pagan and Catholic religious observances. In Britain, Romans blended local samhain customs with their own pagan harvest festival honoring pomona, goddess of fruit trees. Some scholars have suggested that the game of bobbing for apples derives from this Roman association of the holiday with fruit.
Pure Celtic influences lingered longer on the western fringes of Europe, especially in areas that were never brought firmly under Roman control, such as Ireland, Scotland, and the Brittany region of northwestern France. In these areas, samhain was abandoned only when the local people converted to Christianity during the early Middle Ages, a period that lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. The Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older religious traditions in order to win converts. For example, Pope Gregory IV sought to replace samhain with All Saints’ Day in 835. All Souls’ Day, closer in spirit to samhain and modern halloween, was first instituted at a French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe. Folk observances linked to these [Christian holidays], including halloween, thus preserved many of the ancient Celtic customs associated with samhain.
halloween traditions thought to be incompatible with Christianity often became linked with Christian folk beliefs about evil spirits. Although such superstitions varied a great deal from place to place, many of the supernatural beings now associated with halloween became fixed in the popular imagination during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 17th century). The jack-o’-lantern, originally carved from a large turnip rather than a pumpkin, originated in medieval Scotland. Various methods of predicting the future, especially concerning matters of romance and marriage, were also prominent features of halloween throughout the British Isles.
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Europe was seized by a hysterical fear of witches, leading to the persecution of thousands of innocent women. witches were thought to ride flying brooms and to assume the form of black cats. These images of witches soon joined other European superstitions as symbols of halloween."
There are many different resources on the Internet that you can find in order to know the origin of halloween. If you research the history of halloween, as I have, you will find that there is something very wrong about it and it's not only about decorating your house with witches and goblins. It goes even deeper than that. These are only a few Bible quotes that forbid and warn against such practices:
Colossians 2:8: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (NKJV)
Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (NKJV)
Exodus 23:24: "You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars." (NKJV)
Leviticus 18: "...According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD." (speaks of some of the abominations that they do) ..."Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled, lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God." (NKJV)
Deuteronomy 12:29-32: "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it."' (NKJV)
Mark 7: 6-9: He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men - the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition." (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 3:18-21: "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their own craftiness;' and again, 'The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.'"
BUT
2 Chronicles 7:14: "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
1 John 1:8-9: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
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