Sacrifices Of The Dead
Sacrifices
Of The
Dead
Each
year, on the last day of the Roman
month of October, millions of people seem to enjoy a night filled with
fun and games. Parties abound. The dressing up in
costumes that represent devils, demons, and witches are all part of the
tradition that is Halloween. "Trick or Treat" is the phrase for the
night and childish pranks are played. "Of course, this is all
done for
pleasure, and it is just for the children, they need to
have a nice time and enjoy life!''
The celebration of Halloween is an established custom in the United States, the British Commonwealth, and various Scandinavian Countries.
The Yearbook of English Festivals, by Dorothy Gladys Spicer, 1954, pages 153-157, are displayed, showing us the ancient meanings of Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. All of these are part of the ancient sacrifices of the dead.
ALL
HALLOWS' EVE
October
31. All Hallows' Eve or All Hallow
E'en, with its tradition of witches, ghosts, hobgoblins and sprites,
its games and incantations, still is a gay time for pranks and parties
in many North Country homes. Fun-loving Americans have borrowed from
their British ancestors many Hallow E'en games, such as apple-bobbing,
nut roasting and tossing of apple parings.
To ancient
Druids, the end
of October commemorated the
festival of the waning year, when the sun began his downward course and
ripened grain was garnered from the fields. Samhain,
or ``Summer's End,'' as this
feast to the dying sun
was called, was
celebrated with human sacrifice, augury
and prayer; for at this season spirits walked and evil had power over
souls of men.
Not until the
fourth
century did the pagan vigil for the god
of light give way to All Hallows, the mass for Christian saints; and
not until the tenth, did the
Druids' death feast become All
Souls', the day of prayer for souls that had entered rest. Cakes for
the dead were substituted for human sacrifice, fortune-telling for
heathen augury, lighted candles for the old Baal fires.
Gradually, the
last night of October—first
a Druid feast, then a Christian holy day—emerged as
a night of gaiety, when young people played games and read fortunes
from simple objects, such as apples, cabbages, or nuts.
Though many
old All Hallow
E'en customs have disappeared
survivals of All Souls' (November 2), as will be seen, still exist in
many communities. Soulers, not very unlike American Halloween mummers,
still make village rounds and beg for ``soul cakes,'' instead of
``something for Halloween.''
ALL
SAINTS' AND ALL
SOULS'
November
1 and 2
The early
English Church
called All Saints', the feast to
commemorate all
the saints, All
Hallows.
Hallow E'en, All Saints' and All Souls' (October 31, November 1 and 2,
respectively) share a common tradition. The three festivals concern
remembrance of departed souls. Hallow E'en, as already noted,
is celebrated with games and divination rites, since people once
believed spirits of the dead walked abroad on this night. All Saints'
and All Souls', on the other hand, are popularly observed with
"souling'' customs and plays. Originally, these demonstrations were
intended to honor the faithful departed and to ease the pain of the
bereaved.
"Souling",
or "Soul-caking", is the custom descended from
pre-Reformation times, of going about on All Saints' or All Souls' and begging
for cakes, in remembrance of the dead. The Soulers, singing
verses inherited from a remote past, are rewarded with "soul cakes."
Once soulers of certain
villages began their rounds with
services in the parish church, the cakes householders gave
were in exchange for prayers for the dead, a "charity'' for
the departed. In other words, soul cakes were intended as a bread dole
to the community poor. Bonfires, "to light souls out of purgatory,''
and the ringing of church bells, also characterized old-time
observances.
In
The
Book of Festival Holidays,
1964, by Marguerite Ickis, pages 123-125, we are shown the meaning
behind the traditions of Halloween.
The custom of holding a
festival at harvest time goes back
over two thousand years. The
last day of the year on the old
pagan calendar, October 31, served the triple purpose of bidding goodby
to summer, welcoming winter and remembering the dead. The
Irish built tremendous bonfires on hilltops to offer encouragement to
the waning sun and to provide a warm welcome for visiting sprites and
ghosts that walked about in the night.
More
fearful
of spooks than
spouses, folks
began
hollowing out turnips and pumpkins and placing lighted candles inside
to scare evil spirits
from the house. Why was the result
called a ``jack-o'-lantern''? Tradition says that an Irish Jack, too
wicked for heaven and expelled from hell for playing tricks on the
devil, was condemned to walk the earth with a lantern forever.
It was the Irish,
too, who initiated the "trick or
treat" system hundreds of years ago.
Groups of Irish farmers would go from house to house soliciting food for
the village Halloween festivities in the name of no less a personage
than Muck Olla (ancient god of Irish clergy). Prosperity was
promised to cheerful givers and threats made against tightfisted
donors. It was the custom for English children to
dress up in each other's clothes (boys donning girls' outfits and vice
versa) and, wearing masks, to go begging from door to door
for "soul cakes.''
Surprisingly,
Halloween
was scarcely observed in
the United States until the last half of the nineteenth century.
It is thought the large-scale Irish immigration had much to do with the
popularizing of the holiday...
From
The Book of Holidays,
1958, by J. Walker McSpadden, pages 149-153 are displayed here:
Halloween,
in spite of
the fact that it takes its name from a Christian festival (All Hallows
or All Saints' Day), comes
from pagan times
and has
never taken on a Christian significance.
There were
two different
festivals in the early world at this
time of year, and they are both represented in our own Halloween
activities. When you duck for apples, or throw an apple paring over
your shoulder to see what initial it makes on the floor, you are doing
as the
Romans
did—honoring
Pomona, the Roman goddess of orchards and especially of apple
orchards. And when you light a candle inside the jeering pumpkin face,
you are in a small way imitating the Celtic Druids of northern Britain
(described in the chapter on Saint Patrick's Day), who lit a fire to
scare away winter and the evil spirits who were waiting to come rushing
in when summer was over.
On that night
between October and November,
the Druids kindled great fires on the hills as a barrier against the
evil to come. (These Halloween fires still burn every year in many
places, but especially in Scotland and Wales). By waving
burning wisps of plaited straw aloft on pitchforks, people tried to
frighten off demons and witches, but just in case this didn't work,
they also put on grotesque and terrifying costumes. For if
you dressed in a horrible enough fashion and went trooping around with
the spirits all night, they would think you were one of them, and do
you no harm. This
is where the persistent Halloween custom of
"dressing up'' and wearing masks originated; and among the
children who come to the door on Halloween, calling "trick or treat,''
the most alarming costumes are still considered the best.
Other
northern peoples in
the Germanic and Scandinavian
countries also lived in terror of "the raging rout,'' as they called
the evil spirits whom they believed to be led by the great god Odin.
When one studies the origins of the customs of the Christian religion, one comes to the conclusion that the pagan worship was not banished from the world. The strongest pagan religions were just incorporated into Christianity.
The book, Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, 1980, by the Readers' Digest Association, corroborates this conclusion.
Although Christianity has
swept the world in a relatively
short time, as the histories of great religions go, the early
missionaries faced an uphill task. The pagans were reluctant
to give up their false gods and ancient practices.
So
the missionaries, unable
to convert them easily to an
entirely new code of worship, did the next best thing. They
took the pagan festivals as they were and gradually grafted the
observances of the new faith onto these festivals and the rites and
customs surrounding them.
Like
Christmas and Easter,
the festival of Halloween
originated in a pagan celebration, even though its name
derives from the Christian festival of All Hallows' or All Saints' Eve.
It was
introduced in the
seventh century to commemorate all
those saints and martyrs who had no special day to themselves and was
held on May 13. But in the eighth century All Hallows' Day was moved to
November 1, to counteract the pagan celebrations held on that date.
October 31,
the eve of
November 1, was the last night of the
year in the ancient Celtic calendar and was celebrated as the end of
summer and its fruitfulness. It was a festival that the Celts of
northern Europe marked with bonfires, to help the sun through the
winter.
Only since
the late 18th
and early 19th centuries has
Halloween developed into a festive time for children, with costumes,
lanterns, and games...
In the 17th
and 18th
centuries, however, it
was
customary for "guisers''—people in weird
masks and costumes—to go from house to
house, singing and dancing to keep evil at bay, or to go
about as representations of the ghosts and goblins of the night.
Trick
or treat
This
custom has survived
today in many parts of the world, as
a children's masquerade. In the United States costumed children go from
door to door in a ritual known as trick or treat. They usually carry a
sack and threaten to play a trick on householders if they are not given
a "treat'', in the form of candy or cookies.
The Halloween
lantern,
made
from a
hollowed-out pumpkin or turnip with a candle inside it, is a
relic from the days when food offerings were made to the spirits of the
dead.
Yahweh
Tells Us
Leviticus
19:31—
Do
not turn to
mediums nor familiar spirits.
Do not seek after them, to be defiled by them. I am
Yahweh.
Deuteronomy
18:10-11—
10
Let there not
be found among you one who
sacrifices his son or his daughter in the fire, who practices
divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,
11
Casts spells,
or who consults familiar spirits,
or a wizard, or a necromancer.
The tradition of Halloween is steeped in just the abominations Yahweh told us not to whore after. Consulting these abominations is worship. It is the worship of demons, and not of Yahweh.
I
Corinthians
10:20-21—
20
But I say that
the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and
not to Yahweh; and I do not want you to have fellowship with
demons.
21
You cannot
drink the cup of Yahweh and the cup of
demons; you cannot partake of Yahweh's Table and of the table of demons.
All of the customs of this pagan celebration called Halloween, which have come down to this sin__sick world as fun and games have originated with baal worship, which Yahweh hates.
Deuteronomy
4:1-2—
1
Hear now, O Israyl, the
Statutes and the Judgments which I
teach you to observe and do, that you may live, and go in and possess
the land which Yahweh, the Heavenly Father of your fathers, is giving
you.
2
You shall not
add to the Word which I command you,
nor shall you take anything from it, so that you may keep the
Laws of Yahweh your Father which I command you.
Add
Nothing To:
Take
Nothing From
We
realize that many Halloween articles
appear in different newspapers around the United States, but in each
article, the conclusion is: Somehow, all this pagan worship has now
been accepted by the Creator, and since it is now only in fun, there is
little or no harm in re-enacting these traditions. But, to coin an old
phrase, "a rose by any other name is still a rose.''
To know these traditions and customs are the worship of pagan gods, and then to still participate in them, is actually worse than not knowing at all! It is classified as an abominable sin to Yahweh.
Hebrews
10:26—
For
if we sin
willfully after we have received the
knowledge of the Truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
The worldly preachers claiming to follow the Scriptures are afraid to condemn these pagan practices. They are afraid to rock the big boat that brings them so much wealth, yet there is no Scripture that condones these practices. Search the Holy Scriptures from Genesis through Revelation and you will only find the warning to come out from among them.
Revelation
18:4—
And
I heard another voice
from heaven, saying: Come
out of her, My People, so that you do not partake in her sins,
and so that you do not receive of her plagues.
Yahweh commands us to follow His instruction, not adding to it, nor diminishing from it, that we may live.
Deuteronomy
4:2—
You
shall not add to the
Word which I command you, nor shall
you take anything from it, so that you may keep the Laws of Yahweh your
Father which I command you.
Revelation
22:14—
Blessed
are those
who keep His Laws, that
they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the
gates into the City.
There is no blessing from Yahweh for the practice of this pagan worship. Yahweh does pronounce many curses for these worshipers (Deuteronomy 28:16-68).
Preachers today condemn the
Laws of Yahweh, while they
condone these pagan practices. Whose side are they on? The Apostle
Shaul answers this question in:
Romans
6:16—
Do
you not know
that to whom you yield yourselves as
servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey__
whether of sin, which leads to death, or of
obedience, which leads to Righteousness?
Yahshua warned us, over and over, about false preachers who would teach against the Laws of Yahweh, while they serve Satan. He said you will know them by their fruits, as we find in Mattithyah.
Mattithyah
7:16-20—
16
You will know
them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
17
Likewise, every
Righteous tree brings forth
Righteous fruit; but a tree of evil brings forth fruit of iniquity.
18
A Righteous tree cannot
bring forth fruit of iniquity, nor can
a tree of evil bring forth fruits of Righteousness.
19
Every tree which does not
bring forth Righteous fruit is
cut down, and cast into the fire.
20
Therefore, by their
fruits you will know them.
Can you follow these false preachers who teach this pagan god worship? Will you accept the ways of baal any more, now that you know this way is condemned by the Word of Yahweh, your guide to Eternal Life?
