September 15th, 2009 by Larry Diehl

From the lips of a Neopagan, (www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html)
Reporters are always asking us what we Neopagans “do” for Halloween. Well, usually we take our kids around our neighborhoods trick or treating, as carefully as any other parents. Those who stay at home may hand out commercially packaged candy to those who visit our houses (we might prefer to give out homemade goodies, but paranoia has made such treats unwelcome). Over the weekend, our circles of friends will have rituals that might include “dumb suppers” (silent, saltless meals) for the Ancestors, or separate “kid circles” and costume parties for our children — and we always wind up with at least as many kids as we started out with! Most of us will do some divination, give honor to those who have died in the past year, play traditional games, and meditate on our own mortality.
That’s what American Neopagans will do on Samhain. No blood drinking, no baby sacrifices, no crimes — just good, clean, all-American festivity with some ceremonial additions appropriate to the season and current events.
A student sent me an email asking me to sum up in more personal terms what Halloween means to me and other Neopagans. Here is what I told her:
- Halloween is the modern name for Samhain, an ancient Celtic holy day which many Neopagans — especially Wiccans, Druids and Celtic Reconstructionists — celebrate as a spiritual beginning of a new year. (me, Colossians 2:8 addresses this)
- Halloween is a time to confront our personal and cultural attitudes towards death and those who have passed on before us. (me: I agree that we need to have a proper attitude about death, after the physical death comes everlasting life)
- Halloween is a time to lift the veil between the many material and spiritual worlds in divination, so as to gain spiritual insight about our pasts and futures. (me: I don’t want to be lifting any veils that don’t reveal Christ. So please keep them down otherwise)
- Halloween is a time to deepen our connection to the cycles of the seasons, to the generations that have come before us and those that will follow, and to the Gods and Goddesses we worship. (me: I don’t desire to knowingly sponsor or enforce the worship of other god’s)
- Halloween is a time to let our inner children out to play, to pass on our childhood traditions to our children, and to share the fun with our friends and neighbors of many other faiths. So… Happy Halloween Everyone!!! (me: I prefer to pass on the truth of God to my children)
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God’s word clearly tells us to be like Christ: following in his footsteps, continuing his work and to have his attitude. God’s word goes even further warning us to avoid evil.
If Halloween is the modern name for the festival of Samhain, a festival that predates Christianity then why would you participate. He openly admits that Halloween is the time for lifting the veil between the material and spiritual worlds through divination (sorcery/witchcraft/magic)… I wonder what those other worlds are and more importantly who or what are they connecting with… WOW WOW WOW. AND THEY WANT ALL OF US TO CELEBRATE THIS WITH THEM.
God gave us some wonderful words to ponder for everyday life. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, (You say) “I am allowed to do anything, but (I say) not everything is good for you.
I refuse to remain silent on such a HOT subject. Seriously, what is lost if you choose to abstain from this ancient festival. Or we could reword it like this, what could be lost by willfully participating in this ancient celebration with eyes wide open?