{"id":695,"date":"2008-10-30T05:13:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T13:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=695"},"modified":"2008-10-31T05:26:18","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T13:26:18","slug":"some-halloween-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/church-history\/some-halloween-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Halloween Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/Halloween-Dublin.jpg\" alt=\"Halloween in Ireland\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">A Halloween scene in Dublin, Ireland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The following news item explains some of the origins of traditions associated with Halloween:<\/p>\n<p class=\"breadCrumb\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Kansas State Collegian<\/p>\n<div class=\"article\">\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Twist on Traditions<\/h2>\n<p class=\"author\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Shane Bishop<\/p>\n<div class=\"articleTools\"><a class=\"print\" href=\"javascript:window.print();\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"share\"><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/152\/addthis_widget.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script> <!-- AddThis Button END --><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"date\">\n<p class=\"published\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Published: <\/strong>Thursday, October 30, 2008<\/p>\n<p class=\"published\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">One of the most plausible theories on the origin of Halloween is that the  ancient Celts held an annual harvest celebration to mark the end of summer,  usually a spirit-centered event.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">However, people from many religious and  cultural backgrounds come together to celebrate Halloween and the fall season,  whether traditional or alternative.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cPeople indigenous to the isle of  Great Britain, people of Irish descent, viewed Halloween as a time diminishing  the void between the spirit world and real world,\u201d said Cien Conner, president  of the Alliance for Understanding Religious Alternatives.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">On that  holiday, known then as \u201cSamhain,\u201d it was believed that the dead were able to  mingle with the living and that ghosts and other supernatural beings walked the  earth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThey would carve out turnips and place lights inside them,  leaving offerings of food and drink, as a means of preventing spirits from  haunting them,\u201d Conner said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"published\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Ryan Hayden, senior pastor of University Christian Church, offered his  additional historical insight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cPhilosophically, Halloween was a time to  scare away evil spirits by wearing something deemed scary,\u201d Hayden said.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s  kind of funny, since I suspect demons were not scared of the costumes a few  hundred years ago any more than they would be now. In principle, Halloween  almost makes fun of Satanic power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">However, some religions, like Islam,  do not prefer its members to celebrate Halloween at all.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIt is not  [forbidden], but it is not encouraged,\u201d said Ibrahim Saleh, treasurer of the  Islamic Center of Manhattan. \u201cOur prophet Mohammed emphasized that we should  only celebrate our religious holidays. It is better to avoid it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIt is  really important to explain to our children \u2013 when our kids go out and celebrate  \u2013 that they know it is not a Muslim holiday, as it has nothing to do with our  religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Other traditional Halloween events like trick-or-treating are  rooted in historical customs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">For example, during \u201cSamhain,\u201d early  Christians would go from village to village begging for \u201csoul cakes\u201d made out of  square pieces of bread. It was believed in this practice \u2014 called \u201csouling\u201d \u2014  that the more cakes you gave, the more prayers would be said for dead relatives,  expediting their ascent into heaven. Irish children would also carve potatoes  and light them up, in commemoration of Jack, an Irish villain so wicked neither  the devil nor God wanted him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The word Halloween, however, comes from the  Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cFor Catholics, Halloween is the eve of \u2018All Saints  Day\u2019 and we encourage our kids to dress up as saints and know their stories,\u201d  said Rosie Rundell, pastor of associate at Seven Dolors Elementary School in  Manhattan. \u201cWe celebrate with [Catholic] mass on November 1st, it is a holy day  of obligation in honor of saints.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Perhaps I should add that when I attended Catholic school, no one suggested that we dress up as &#8220;saints&#8221;.\u00a0 This seems to be a more recent, more &#8220;politically correct&#8221;, spin on this pagan holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Halloween is one more pagan holiday that allows critics of Christianity to point out the false practices that many who profess it adhere to.\u00a0 It was adopted as an inappropriate compromise to attract members by Greco-Roman supporters&#8211;it is clearly not a biblical holy day.<\/p>\n<p>Real Christians do not celebrate Halloween.\u00a0 Do you?<\/p>\n<p><em>Three articles of possibly related interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/hallo.htm\">Is Halloween Holy Time for Christians? <\/a>This article provides some historical and biblical insight on this question.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/worship.htm\">Is There \u201cAn Annual Worship Calendar\u201d In the Bible?<\/a> This paper provides a biblical and historical critique of several articles, including one by WCG which states that this should be a local decision. What do the Holy Days mean? Also you can click here for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/holyday.htm\">calendar of Holy Days<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/earlychristianity.htm\">The History of Early Christianity<\/a> Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? <strong>Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Halloween scene in Dublin, Ireland. COGwriter The following news item explains some of the origins of traditions associated with Halloween: Kansas State Collegian Twist on Traditions Shane Bishop Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008 One of the most plausible theories on the origin of Halloween is that the ancient Celts held an annual harvest celebration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-doctrine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}