In the twentieth century, the claim that Halloween is thoroughly pagan, originating from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (“sowing”), has become widespread and often parroted. Proponents of this story argue that Halloween is simply a Christianization of this pagan spiritual practice, that Samhain is the Celtic Lord of Death, and that this celebration was in his honor. None of these things are true.
First, consider that the feast of All Saints is being moved from May 13 to November 1 under pressure from the German churches – a region that didn’t even know Samhain, let alone celebrate it or have reason to pressure the Church to move the date to “Christianize” a pagan holiday.
Secondly, reliable scholarship in anthropology, archaeology, literature and history will tell you that the only thing we really know about ancient Samhain festivals is that there was often a large celebration and bonfire around late October/early November to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. This is nothing to get excited about; festivals to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter season were popular throughout Europe and often featured bonfires (for burning organic waste material and cooking animals they couldn’t board in winter), feasting (all those animals!), and merriment. “No pre-Christian or medieval historical source clearly associates Samhain with any of the three pillars of the pagan hypothesis: the veneration of the dead, supernatural activities related to temporal proximity to the other world, or the celebration of a Celtic New Year’s Eve.”
Third, to the extent that a character named Samhain (or something similar) appears in Celtic folklore, he is at best a minor character – certainly not their God of Death.
It is It is true that many pagan cultures celebrated their god of the harvest around this time of year. After all, in agricultural societies, good harvests were of the utmost importance for their survival. As far as we know, these feasts for communal harvest deities were not a factor in the Church’s placement of the Allhallowtide celebrations. The irony of all this, of course, is that Christian communities who eschew Halloween in favor of alternative ‘harvest festivals’ are much closer to the secular and pagan rituals of the season than those who merely celebrate Halloween! That said, our God is a God who gives a bountiful harvest and who deserves thanks and praise for his provision.
So…where does all the misinformation about Halloween come from?
In part, it was a rumor spread by Protestants during the Reformation as a way to discredit and discredit the Roman Catholic Church. In part this was the work of Sir James Frazer at the turn of the centurye century that claims to have ‘discovered’ links between an ancient Celtic fire festival and the atonement of the dead. But these ideas became largely entrenched after the pseudo-scholar Margaret Murray published a pair of books claiming to have uncovered the secrets – including dates, rituals and secret priestly hierarchies – of the pre-Christian religions of Northern Europe. Her research methods and conclusions have been thoroughly discredited by real historians and anthropologists, but by that point the damage had already been done. Frazer and Murray’s work was voraciously seized upon and then vociferously defended by the neo-pagan movement of the last century.
Unfortunately, these untruths were further ingrained in the 1970s and 1980s by a man named Jack Chick. His deceptive cartoons claiming that Halloween is Satan’s birthday and that the Roman Catholic Church is actually a cult that worships ancient Babylonian gods (including their use of All Souls’ Day to worship the dead) were turned into tracts warning parents about occult-practicing pagans who poisoned candy and sought children to sacrifice to their dark master on All Saints’ Day. (And these aren’t even Jack Chick’s worst conspiracy theories!) Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of these tracts were widely distributed and the information actually found its way into the public consciousness, even though many were never able to trace the rumors back to their completely unsubstantiated source.
It should be noted that while Halloween appears to have no historical roots in ancient pagan practices, neopagans of the twentieth century and beyond still call October 31 Samhain and mark it as a special occasion in their rituals (thanks, Margaret Murray). Should this give Christians pause as we consider celebrating Halloween? Probably not. To a certain extent, things take on the meaning you give them. Is a black cat unlucky? If you want, or… it’s just a cat. Are Easter eggs a form of worship of an ancient fertility goddess? If you want, or… it’s just a nice seasonal treat. Are Christmas vegetables actually a tribute to the Roman god Saturn? If you wish… or they are a beautiful symbol of Christ’s everlasting, ever-living love. But… it’s Halloween pagan? If you want. Neopagans have certainly decided that this is so. But as Christians, we have a claim to the true origins of the holiday, alongside a range of important communal and religious traditions during Allhallowtide. There’s no good reason to turn down the holiday wholesaler.
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