Halloween: History & Biblical Perspective

Index (For Easier Navigation):

1. What Is Halloween, and Where Did It Come From?

2. Samhain: The Older Seasonal Festival

3. All Saints’ Day, All Hallows’ Eve, and All Souls’ Day

4. The Development of Halloween Customs

5. How Halloween Came to America

6. What Scripture Says About All This

7. Trunk-or-Treat, Harvest Festivals, and Church Outreach

8. Follow God or the Traditions of Men?

1. WHAT IS HALLOWEEN, AND WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Every October, millions of Americans carve pumpkins, put on costumes, decorate their homes, and send their children door to door for candy. Witches, ghosts, graveyards, and haunted houses fill stores and TV shows for months. Most people who celebrate it do not care where it all came from and have never looked into it, and that includes the majority of Christians.

Many churches have gone a step further and built their own version of the night. They have Trunk-or-Treat events, Harvest or Alternative Festivals. But they keep the candy, and often the costumes, while leaving out what they consider is the darker imagery, believing that the day can be kept while ignoring the issues.

Like most syncretised holydays, Halloween has a layered history. Seasonal customs of the Gaelic world, beliefs about spirits and the dead, a so-called Christian feast, European folk practices, and the commercial culture of modern America all contributed to it. In this, we will look at that history from the beginning, starting with Samhain and All Saints’ Day, and then ask whether followers of Yeshua can take part in Halloween when most of its themes are in direct contrast to what Yahweh told His people.

2. SAMHAIN: THE OLDER SEASONAL FESTIVAL

Samhain, pronounced SOW-in or SAH-win, marked the start of winter in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Farmers had gathered their grain and fruit, livestock was brought in from summer pasture, and communities got ready for the darker months. Winter began on November 1, but the main celebrations took place on the evening before, October 31.

A. SAMHAIN AND THE OTHERWORLD

Gaelic tradition held that at the turn of the season the usual separation between the human world and the otherworld grew thin. Spirits and supernatural beings were believed to move freely, and the dead could return or become active. Later Irish folklore kept these beliefs alive in stories about dangerous spirits beings roaming around on Halloween night and in customs meant to protect a household from them.

In the tale Echtra Nerai, The Adventures of Nera, a man named Nera leaves the king's hall on Samhain night and he finds a prisoner who had been hanged, and the man asks for a drink. Nera carries the corpse on his back to find one, and the night draws him into the otherworld, where he sees a vision of destruction coming to his king's stronghold. The story shows that the link between Samhain, the dead, and the supernatural was part of how the festival was understood in Ireland long before Halloween existed.

B. SAMHAIN TRADITIONS

Feasting was the center of the holiday. Families and communities ate together once the crops were gathered, and many believed the dead came back to visit that night, so food was set aside for them too. In later Irish practice, households set out food or left a place at the table for departed relatives, and a fire was kept burning for them through the night.

Protection was a constant concern. Fires were lit in the open, and people took steps to guard themselves and their livestock from harmful spirits. People wore disguises and masks, and they told fortunes too. Young people used apples, nuts, and baked foods hiding rings and coins to learn whom they would marry and what the coming year would hold. The Scottish poet Robert Burns described a number of these practices in his 1785 poem “Halloween,” which includes divination, fairies, and witches as part of the night in rural Scotland.

3. ALL SAINTS’ DAY, ALL HALLOWS’ EVE, AND ALL SOULS’ DAY

A. EARLY COMMEMORATIONS OF MARTYRS

Early Christian communities remembered martyrs who had died for their faith, usually on the anniversary of the death and at the grave. These local commemorations came well before any feast of all saints, and different churches kept them on different dates. As the number of martyrs grew and the practice of honoring saints spread, churches began to observe days that recognized saints collectively. Eventually the church settled on one day for all of them.

B. THE POPES AND THE FEAST

Pope Boniface IV and the Pantheon

In 609 or 610, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome, a former pagan temple, to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs. The traditional date of that dedication is May 13. The Pantheon dedication is often cited as an early step toward All Saints’ Day, since it was a Roman observance honoring the martyrs and was held in a building that had been a pagan temple.

Pope Gregory III and the Feast of All Saints

Gregory III was pope from 731 to 741. He established a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica dedicated to all the saints, a development associated with the growth of the feast. After this, the feast became more widely accepted in the Western Church.

Pope Gregory IV and Wider Adoption

Gregory IV, pope from 827 to 844, is credited with spreading the November 1 feast across the Western Church. The traditional account says it took hold in the Frankish lands during the ninth century, where both the emperor and the church promoted it. By 900, a feast that began with local martyr commemorations was observed across much of Europe.

C. WHY NOVEMBER 1?

The Christian feast & Samhain fell around the same time of year. The church was spreading through regions where older religious customs were already established, and Christianization commonly meant syncretization, changing the interpretation and place of existing seasonal observances in community life rather than abolishing them outright. The relationship between All Saints' Day and Samhain is a significant part of the larger story of how Christian observances and older European traditions merged.

The dates and the popes’ decisions are documented. The reason the feast landed on November 1 is not. It is inferred from how the church handled older festivals in other regions, and the overlap with Samhain fits that pattern.

D. ALL HALLOWS' EVE: ORIGIN OF THE NAME

The name Halloween comes from All Hallows’ Eve. To hallow is to make holy, and a hallow was a holy person, a saint. All Hallows’ Day was another name for All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve was the night before it. Over time the phrase was shortened to Hallowe’en and then Halloween.

E. ALL SOULS' DAY ON NOVEMBER 2

All Souls' Day followed on November 2 as a day of prayer for the dead. It was established at the monastery of Cluny under Abbot Odilo, traditionally dated to 998 and spread from there through the Western Church. With All Saints' Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2, the three days from October 31 to November 2 came to be bound together in popular practice, joined by themes of the saints, the dead, and the supernatural. Prayers for the dead, offerings of food for them or praying visitors, and visits to homes to receive that food grew out of this stretch of days and shaped the door-to-door customs that followed.

4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF HALLOWEEN CUSTOMS

A. COSTUMES, MASKS, AND DISGUISES

In Ireland and Scotland, people dressed in costumes or disguised themselves during Halloween celebrations. The reasons given varied. Some wore disguises to frighten neighbors, some to hide who they were while playing tricks, and some, according to local tradition, to avoid being recognized by wandering spirits. These customs developed in a setting where spirits and supernatural beings were firmly associated with the night. Modern Halloween costumes descend from this practice of putting on a frightening or hidden identity for the occasion.

B. FOOD, SOULING, AND GUISING

Food, Spirits, and Offerings

As mentioned earlier, belief that the dead came near in this season led to customs of leaving food for them. Special foods were baked for the season, and a portion was set aside for the dead or given away in their name. Over time, giving food to the dead turned into giving food to visitors at the door, which is where the later practice of treating callers at Halloween comes from.

Souling

Souling is where much of the later door-to-door custom comes from. In medieval and early modern England and parts of Europe, the poor and children went from house to house around All Souls’ Day asking for soul cakes, small spiced cakes, and in return offered prayers for the dead of the household. People gave food and received prayers in exchange, and it is one of the earliest examples of visiting homes at this time of year for a gift. Children going door to door at Halloween are doing something close to what soulers did.

Guising

In Scotland and Ireland, guising meant going from house to house in disguise. They sang songs, told jokes, or performed in exchange for food, fruit, or coins. It became a regular feature of the Halloween tradition in those countries, recorded in Scotland by the late nineteenth century. It resembles American trick-or-treating closely, with disguised visitors, door-to-door visits, and rewards at the end, and it was one of the sources from which the American custom grew.

C. APPLE BOBBING AND SNAP-APPLE

Apples were closely associated with the autumn harvest, and their use in seasonal games became a popular part of Halloween celebrations in Ireland and Scotland. Apple bobbing involved placing apples in a tub or basin of water and trying to catch one by biting it without using your hands. Snap-apple was similar, but instead of floating in water, an apple was suspended from a string and players tried to bite it while keeping their hands behind their backs. These games were also associated with fortune-telling and courtship, particularly among young people, who sometimes used apples to try to discover whom they would marry.

D. JACK-O'-LANTERNS AND STINGY JACK

In Ireland and Scotland, people carved turnips and other root vegetables into lanterns for Halloween and set candles inside them. The carved faces were meant to look scary, and the lanterns were linked in popular belief with spirits and supernatural folklore.

One folktale explains the name. Stingy Jack, a drunkard and trickster, bargained with the Devil and tricked him more than once. When Jack died, he was refused entry to heaven and the Devil would not take him into hell, so he was condemned to wander the earth with a burning ember inside a hollowed-out turnip. The story documents a custom with a long history. When Irish and Scottish immigrants reached America, the pumpkin became the standard jack-o’-lantern because pumpkins were plentiful and far easier to carve.

E. WITCHES, GHOSTS, AND DEATH IMAGERY

Witches, ghosts, and skeletons all come from old beliefs about the dead and the supernatural. Samhain put spirits and the dead close to the living, Scottish and Irish folklore kept that belief and had witches out and active on Halloween night, and the Christian days from October 31 to November 2 centered on the dead. Witches represent magic, spells, and forbidden spiritual practice, and obviously Scripture forbids witchcraft.

Ghosts, skeletons, skulls, graves, and coffins come from that same belief, along with a long European tradition of drawing death in art and folk custom. Although they don’t each trace back to one ancient ceremony, over time they became the standard for the holiday.

The holiday has changed a lot over the centuries, and today haunted attractions and horror entertainment draw large crowds, while fortune-telling and séances show up at parties and events.

F. IRISH HALLOWEEN PRANKS

Pranks and mischief were a regular part of Halloween celebrations in Ireland. Children would play tricks on their neighbors, including something similar to ding-dong ditch. The Irish Schools' Collection, a collection of local traditions recorded in the 1930s, documents these practices in several communities. One account from Kinlough, County Leitrim, describes boys throwing cabbages and turnips at neighbors' doors on Halloween night. These customs show that the tradition of playing so-called "tricks" on Halloween was well established in Ireland long before it became part of the American celebration.

5. HOW HALLOWEEN CAME TO AMERICA

A. COLONIAL AMERICA AND IMMIGRATION

Halloween in Colonial America

Halloween was not celebrated across all of the American colonies equally. In New England, Puritan communities disapproved of Catholic feast days and of superstition, and the holiday found little room there. It was more accepted in Maryland and the southern colonies, where a wider mix of religious and folk traditions was tolerated. Its later popularity came by degrees and was not present from the start of the country.

Irish and Scottish Immigration

The larger change came in the nineteenth century with immigration. After the Irish famine of the 1840s, large numbers of Irish and Scottish moved to America. They brought all the customs with them. The disguises, gatherings, folklore, seasonal games, and visits to neighbors. These were eventually blended with the existing American practices and slowly spread into a broader celebration.

B. THE AMERICAN TRANSFORMATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION

The American Transformation

By the late nineteenth century, Halloween parties, costumes, games, seasonal foods, and pranks had become common. In the early twentieth century, city leaders, schools, and civic groups pushed for organized community celebrations to curb destructive pranks, which in some places had grown into serious vandalism. Over these decades Halloween shifted from a night of rural folk custom and mischief to one centered on family activities and neighborhood entertainment.

Halloween Becomes a Commercial Holiday

As the holiday grew, businesses produced costumes, decorations, candy, greeting cards, and seasonal entertainment, and in doing so helped set the familiar imagery and activities of the night. Halloween moved into schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, and community events, and the amount spent on it each year now runs to billions of dollars. Commercialization made the holiday broadly acceptable even to people who share none of the older religious beliefs, which is why many now see it as entertainment and nothing more.

C. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRICK-OR-TREATING

Modern trick-or-treating came from several earlier practices at once. Souling and guising supplied the pattern of visiting homes for food or rewards, and disguises and seasonal mischief supplied the rest. The phrase trick or treat first appeared in print in the 1920s, and the custom spread through the United States in the following decades. After World War II, a growing suburban population and the availability of individually wrapped candy established the familiar form.

6. WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS ABOUT ALL THIS

A. GOD'S PROHIBITIONS CONCERNING THE OCCULT

God addressed the practices at the center of Halloween's imagery point blank. In Deuteronomy 18, He told Israel, "There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who tells fortunes, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh." The list names the activities that come straight from Samhain, its folklore, and the modern holiday's witches, spirits, and fortune-telling.

Saying the same instruction in another way, Leviticus 19:31 says: "Don't turn to those who have familiar spirits, nor to the wizards. Don't seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God."

God treated sorcery and communication with the dead as serious offenses against Himself, and He did so in the same breath as His other commands. In Exodus 22:18 God straight out says "You shall not allow a sorceress to live." In no way did He suggest that it is irrelevant or a minor issue.

B. GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE TO BE SET APART

God’s commands against the occult were part of a wider call to be different from the nations around Israel. In Leviticus 20:26 God said, "You shall be holy to me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine." His people were Set Apart from the surrounding nations in what they did as well as what they believed.

Paul gives believers in Yeshua the same instruction. In Romans 12:2 he writes, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." In Ephesians 5:11 he teaches, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them," and in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 he says, "Abstain from every form of evil." Together these passages call believers to examine the traditions they practice rather than accept them because they are popular.

C. IS SOMETHING ACCEPTABLE IF IT IS JUST ENTERTAINMENT?

The usual defense of Halloween is that it is harmless fun and that no one means anything by it. A person's intentions and the nature of the activity are two separate things. God’s instructions about witchcraft, spirits, and the dead say what those things actually are. It does not matter what an individual person’s reason for doing them is. And they don’t make an exception for people who don’t take it seriously.

Halloween has taken all this and made it simply entertainment. A practice that God forbade does not become acceptable to Him because a society tries to separate it from its serious religious roots.

D. WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIANS WHO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?

A common argument is that Halloween is harmless when churches celebrate it. A Christian label or a sincere intention does not make a tradition consistent with Scripture, because the test of a practice is whether it agrees with what Scripture says and not who is doing it or how they feel about it.

Many so-called believers have accepted some form of Halloween as a normal part of family and church life. But the call to be Set Apart still applies to the believer who has made Halloween part of their religious and family routine, and it applies even more where the practice feels comfortable and familiar.

E. GOD FORBIDS ADOPTING PAGAN PRACTICES

God didn't simply prohibit specific occult practices. He straight out warned His people against adopting the religious customs of the nations around them. In Deuteronomy 12:30-31, He specifically told Israel not to inquire how those nations served their gods and then do likewise in their worship of Him. God said, "30 be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31 You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods."

How can we read scripture like this, look at modern holidays with pagan origins and think it's irrelevant for any believer in the Most High God? We cannot dismiss that instruction or justify religious syncretism simply because modern society has given those customs a different meaning or tried to water them down.

7. TRUNK-OR-TREAT, HARVEST FESTIVALS, AND CHURCH OUTREACH

A. CHURCH ALTERNATIVES

Many churches hold events on October 31 with candy, games, costumes, and family activities, and present them as a safer and more wholesome option than Halloween itself. The reasoning is that children are kept off the streets and away from the darker imagery. But we need to question whether just renaming it addresses the concern about taking part in the holiday at all. And that goes for dressing up your car instead of yourself as well.

Calling an event a Harvest Festival does not establish that it honors God. God gave Israel appointed times for celebrating the harvest, and October 31 is not one of them. Being that the date is the same night as Samhain and All Hallows' Eve, an event held that night carries that history no matter what it's called.

B. USING HALLOWEEN AS AN EVANGELISM OPPORTUNITY

The other argument is that Halloween gives churches access to families who would not otherwise come. An opportunity for outreach does not in itself justify adopting the practices or the timing of a questionable celebration. God never said for His people to reach the nations by taking on the nations' pagan customs, and the call to remain faithful to His instructions doesn't change because there’s a crowd or to draw a crowd.

C. EXAMINING OUR TRADITIONS AGAINST SCRIPTURE

The substance of an event counts for more than its label. If an activity keeps the date, the structure, the costumes, the candy, and the other features of Halloween, the question is whether the changes actually address the biblical concerns or only supply a Christian-branded version of the same celebration.

Most people receive their holiday traditions from their families and carry them on without asking where they came from. Familiarity and social acceptance do not show that a practice agrees with God’s instructions. A tradition does not become acceptable because its original religious significance has supposedly faded or because its modern form is commercial. Believers are responsible for testing their traditions against Scripture, including the practices that are common in the church.

Paul gives a standard that fits. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 he says, “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Some take this to mean anything is fine if the intention is good, but Paul writes it at the end of a chapter about food offered to idols, where he says in verse 20 that what the Gentiles sacrifice, “they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.”

James 4:4 adds the matter of loyalty: "You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Belonging to the surrounding culture has a cost, and the believer has to decide whether he will pay it.

8. FOLLOW GOD OR THE TRADITIONS OF MEN?

Halloween came from older seasonal traditions, beliefs about the supernatural and the dead, supposed Christian feasts, European folk customs, and the practices of modern America. This history explains how the holiday gained its recognizable themes and customs, from the carved lantern to the knock on the door.

The question for a believer is whether taking part in any of this agrees with what God told His people. Popularity, entertainment, family tradition, and church participation don’t change that. Followers of Yeshua are called to obey God even when it means turning down what the culture around them accepts.

Examine Halloween honestly. Read what God said about divination, sorcery, and seeking the dead, and take it seriously. Do not let cultural acceptance decide what a believer considers acceptable.