Last updated on 1/1/99

A Viewpoint About Halloween and Witches
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About Witches And Halloween Habits

HIDDEN HUNTS OF HALLOWEEN
A Festival of Fright and Fear

by Daniel L. Schaffner, P.O. Box 118
             Yuma, Colorado 80759-0118

Phones: 970/848-5290 office or 848-0927 home

In a day when separation of church and state is pushed to the extremes, public schools, pre-schools, day care centers, clubs, and social gatherings are banning anything close to being religious. Christian witnessing is out, but in their activities pagan, occultic, earth, new age, and Satanic religious teachings and practices are allowed.

"Keep out the religious stuff" means keep out traditional or main stream Christianity. Free wheeling paganism, earth/nature religions, occultic practices, witches, and Satanist are allowed to have their "holidays" observed in schools, societies, and other organizations, as well as encouraged involvement by the whole society. Matter of fact, you are looked down on or made an outcast if you or your family doesn't participate.

Don't mention Christ Jesus at Christmas but everyone is to participate in "Trick or Treating" at Halloween. At school, work, etc. everyone is pushed into these activities that have their roots, symbolism, and meanings in paganism and the occult. If you get your windows soaped or yard T.P'd because you didn't join in the "fun," some will think you got what you deserved.

Decorating everything for Halloween, children learning songs of the season. Planning, finances and time are given by many individuals, so all will enjoy this "spiritual" time of the year. All you have to do is look what people decorate with and how they dress and you see where Halloween comes from. I wonder if we decorated classrooms and government buildings with pictures and symbols of what Christmas is based on, if they could stay up as the pagan objects do?

Pictures of the baby Jesus, songs about the event of a virgin birth of our Savior, etc. Or how about crosses, crowns, Christ Jesus risen from the tomb in pictures and songs instead of bunny rabbits and eggs at Easter. The bunnies and eggs are pagan symbols as well, but that's another season.

Let's look deeper into Halloween or the Festival of Samhain. All you have to do is notice the objects people decorate their homes, places of work, and any other place people gather socially. Walls, windows, yards, etc. are filled with symbols of non-Christian nature but that of other beliefs and lifestyles, other religions. These religious symbols point out the roots and the meaning of Halloween or Samhain.

October 31st was religious in nature ... a "sacred" time for the Celts. Their "priests" presided over the celebration of these tribal people. This ancient festival honored the Celtic god of death, Samhain. These people who lived in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and northern France, the Celts, believed that through their worship of Samhain the spirits of the dead returned to earth.

The tribes would put out their household fires and build one large bonfire in the center of each Celtic community. There would be sacrifices of animals, crops, and human beings to this god of death. Everyone would take fire from the consumed sacrifices and light their home fires. The people believed their house would prosper for the next year because of this fire from the one source.

In Ireland you still hear people refer to Halloween as "Satan's Watch". Druidism is in essence, the worship of evil spirits. These Celts were Druidical in religion and like other pagan groups, they believe the spirits dwelt in trees, plants, animals and other objects. The Druid priests had to worship and give "offerings" to them to insure the welfare and care of the worshippers.  

During the night of this festival, fortune tellers would use the remains of the burnt sacrifices to tell the fortunes of each family in the tribe. There were other divination practices associated with Samhain such as "Ducking for Apples." This was a marriage divination. The first to bite into an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. Apple peeling was another type of fortune reading. The longer the unbroken peal, the longer the life of the person doing the peeling.

The black cat is just one of many talismans. Witches of different persuasions own all kinds of talismans. Some are living, like owls, dogs, snakes, swine and very commonly cats. These talismans are thought to be indwelt by spirits, through which they receive information and power. Black cats, in particular, have come to symbolize the familiar spirits of evil, death and darkness because black, in the occult world, represents these things.

The Celtic religious teachers taught that the spirits of the dead rose up and wanted to invade every home this night. This evening brought the darkness of winter to these tribal people and they understood that with it came change. The earth goddess season was given over to the horned god (known at times as Pan) and evil spirits, ghouls, ghosts and demons roamed about seeking those whom they could devour. To deal with this problem, families would put out food for these unfriendly beings so the family wouldn't be "tricked". The people also dressed up in costumes and masks as they collected the food, and took it out of town, hoping these evil ones would follow the food out of the village.

Another item from the past is the Jack O' Lantern, which as one story has it, a man named Jack was turned away from Heaven and Hell. He then roamed the earth as a spirit carrying a carved-out turnip with a glowing coal for light. Satan was thought to have given him this coal from hell to light his path. This harbinger later became a pumpkin which symbolized a damned soul.

The colors come from the commemorative masses for the dead during November. The unbleached beeswax candles used in the ceremony were orange, and the caskets were covered with a black cloth.

Samhain became Halloween with a big help from the Roman church. In the fourth century, when the Roman church was young, we find many Irish records stating the fascination the monks had with the powerful Druids. Soon Druid priests were important members of these Roman nunneries and monasteries.

Pope Gregory (540-604) advised the Archbishop of Canterbury to retain the Celtic Druid sacrifices and celebrate them in honor of the Romanist saints. This act by the Roman church guaranteed that a holiday devoted to the Druid religion would live for centuries and advance into other countries.

Later, Pope Gregory III moved the festival "All Saints Day" from May to November 1. Pope Gregory IV decreed it an official holiday of the Roman church. "Halloween" comes from the Romanist name, "All Hallows Eve."

It is interesting that Halloween was not widely celebrated in the United States until about 1900. The founding fathers of this country must have had a reason why they didn't make Samhain/Halloween a holiday to be observed.

The Celtic people understood Samhain/ Halloween as being a day of death, not a day of honor to death or evil. Yet today, people laugh at and dress themselves, as well as their children, in evil, lawless, mean and cruel costumes the depict hideous crimes. This one season of the year, we encourage each other to celebrate things that the rest of the year we detest: murder, stealing, cruel jokes, scaring people, etc.

This holiday, that has its roots in pagan religion, is very much encouraged and condoned in our society. It is a dark side of life as well. If we allow this holiday to invade all areas of American life, then we should allow other religions to be expressed openly and freely in our society as well.

References:

"Halloween & Satanism" "The Two Babylons"

"Out Of Darkness - Exploring Satanism and Ritual Abuse"

"The American Book Of Days" "The Black Arts"

"The Complete Book Of American Holidays" "The Druids"

"Drawing Down The Moon" "The Occult, A History"

"Encyclopedia of Occultism" "Index To Occult Science"

"World Book Encyclopedia" "A Witches Bible, Vol. 1"

"The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology"

"The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft"

"The Secrets of Ancient Witchcraft With Witches Tarol"

"Celebrate The Earth - A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition"

"Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft"

"Ancient Ways - Reclaiming Pagan Traditions"

"The Witches Almanac" "The Famous Druids"

Take care and God bless. Type at ya later. My hopes & prayers are with you.

Just little Ol me - Dan