Halloween

There shall not be found among you anyone...who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who ‘casts a spell, or a medium, or a spirit, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord’ (Deuteronomy 18: 10-13)

Halloween, which was once an almost an exclusively American secular holiday, is gaining popularity in our society. I was in fact surprised that even my constituency’s RC organized such event this year. The last thing I expected from my child last week was when she asked for permission and 70 dollars to join the Halloween party on Sentosa. I gave a firm no and before I could explain my stand, she commented that my response has to do with my faith as a Christian. I was indeed happy to hear that remark for at least my child knows the basis of my life principles.

To me, Halloween is one of those celebrations where pagan cultures and practices been ‘Christianized’. It has its origin in the religious practices of the Romans and the Druids about 600 years ago. The Roman Catholic Church at that time decided to make the changeover from pagan religion to Christianity easier for the new converts, hence, allowed them to maintain some of their pagan feasts by celebrating them as "Christian" festivals. So instead of praying to their heathen gods, they would now pray to, and remember the deaths of saints. For this reason, the church decided to call November 1 the "Day of All Saints". The evening prior to this day was named, "All Hallowed Evening" which subsequently was abbreviated as "Halloween." 

Christian parents ought to see themselves as stewards of their possessions and protectors of their families. Christian young people should stay away from secular Halloween parties since these are breeding grounds for trouble and bring about social problems. I just don’t see how one can derives ‘fun’ from activities like colouring pictures of witches, listening to ghost stories, or wearing costumes associated with fictional characters-demons, monsters, vampires, werewolves, mummies etc. I came from a family deeply exposed to spiritualism because of my mum’s closeness to her childhood friend who is a powerful medium. No one should treat spiritualism lightly. It is real. My past experience makes me very sensitive to it, and embracing Christian faith has liberated me from the fears of such. 

In the book by Peter Wagner, Warfare Prayer, he gives an account of the influence of spiritualism in this city of Resistencia in Argentina. In that city, people all knew the names of the spirits that were ruling over it. San La Muerte, the spirit of death, was the most powerful. A large number of people there were so devoted to this spirit that they had tiny bone images of the idol surgically implanted under their skin or under their nipples, believing that this will assure them of a ‘good death’. There is also the spirit of division who brought terror especially to children at night. Curapi, is a spirit of sexual perversion, and Freemasonry, is the spirit of occult power.