HALLOWEEN
As Orthodox Christians we must carefully examine every
aspect of our involvement in the world, its activities, holidays and festivals,
to be certain whether or not these involvements are compatible with our Holy
Orthodox Faith.
For a while now everything in the outside world is reminding
us that Halloween is near: at school our children are busy painting pumpkins,
cutting and pasting bats, ghosts and witches and planning the ideal costume in
which to go trick-or- treating. Most of our schools, local community
organizations and entertainment on television, radio and press will share in
and capitalize upon the festival of Halloween. Many of us will participate in
this festival by going to costume parties, or by taking our children
trick-or-treating in our neighborhood after dark on October 31st. Most of us
will take part in the Halloween festivities believing that it has no deeper
meaning than fun and excitement for the children.
Most of us do not know the historical background of the
festival of Halloween and its customs. The feast of Halloween began in
pre-Christian times among the Celtic peoples of Britain, Ireland and Northern
France. These pagan peoples believed that physical life was born from death.
Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the “new year” in the fall, on the
eve of October 31st and into the day of November 1st, when, as they believed
the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. Instructed by their
priests, the Druids, the people extinguished all hearth fires and lights and
darkness prevailed. According to pagan Celtic tradition, the souls of the dead
had entered into the world of darkness, decay and death and made total
communion with Samhain, the Lord of death, who could be appeased and cajoled by
burnt offerings to allow the souls of the dead to return home for a festal
visit on this day. The belief led to the ritual practice of wandering about in
the dark dressed in costumes indicating witches, hobgoblins, fairies and
demons. The living entered into fellowship and communion with the dead by this
ritual act of imitation, through costume and the wandering about in the
darkness. They also believed that the souls of the dead bore the affliction of
great hunger on this festal visit. This belief brought about the practice of
begging as another ritual imitation of the activities of the souls of the dead
on their festal visit. The implication was that that any souls of the dead and
their imitators who are not appeased with “treats”, i.e. offerings, will
provoke the wrath of Samhain, whose angels and servants could retaliate through
a system of “tricks”, or curses.
In the strictly Orthodox early Celtic Church, the Holy
Fathers tried to counteract this pagan new year festival by establishing the
feast of All Saints on that same day (in the East, this feast is celebrated on
another day). The night before the feast (on “All Hallows Eve”), a vigil
service was held and a morning celebration of the Eucharist. This custom
created the term Halloween. But the remaining pagan and therefore
anti-Christian people reacted to the Church’s attempt to supplant their
festival by increased fervor on this evening, so that the night before the
Christian feast of All Saints became a night of sorcery, witchhcraft and other
occult practices, many of which involved desecration and mockery of Christian
practices and beliefs. Costumes of skeletons, for example, developed as a
mockery of the Church’s reverence for holy relics. Holy things were stolen and
used in sacrilegious rituals. The practice of begging became a system of
persecution of Christians who refused to take part in these festivities. And so
the Church’s attempt to counteract this unholy festival failed.
This is just a brief explanation of the history and meaning
of the festival of Halloween. It is clear that we, as Orthodox Christians,
cannot participate in this event at any level (even if we only label it as
“fun”), and that our involvement in it is an idolatrous betrayal of our God and
our Holy Faith. For if we imitate the dead by dressing up or wandering about in
the dark, or by begging with them, then we have willfully sought fellowship
with the dead, whose Lord is not a Celtic Samhain, but satan, the evil one, who
stands against God. Further, if we submit to the dialogue of “trick or treat”,
our offering does not go to innocent children, but rather to satan himself. Let
us remember our ancestors, the Holy Christian Martyrs of the early Church, as
well as our Serbian New Martyrs, who refused, despite painful penalties and
horrendous persecution, to worship, venerate or pay obeisance in any way to
idols who are angels of satan. The foundation of our Holy Church is built upon
their very blood.
In today’s world of spiritual apathy and listlessness, which
are the roots of atheism and turning away from God, one is urged to disregard
the spiritual roots and origins of secular practices when their outward forms
seem ordinary, entertaining and harmless. The dogma of atheism underlies many
of these practices, denying the existence of both God and satan. Our Holy
Church, through Jesus Christ, teaches that God alone stands in judgment over
everything we do and believe and that our actions are either for God or against
God. No one can serve two masters. Therefore, let us not, as the pagan Celts
did, put out our hearth fires and wander about in the dark imitating dead
souls. Let us light vigil lamps in front of our icons, and together with our
families, ask God to grant us faith and courage to preserve as Orthodox
Christians in these very difficult times, and to deliver us from the evil one.