Is Halloween Pagan in Origin?

Facts from the original

• Many Christians find it difficult to decide whether or how to celebrate Halloween.
• Halloween appears to emphasize darkness, superstition, and fear.
• The assertion that Halloween is pagan in origin is untrue.
• The name Halloween is a combination of 'All Hallows'' and 'Even' or 'E'en', referring to the evening before All Saints' Day (November 1).
• The word 'hallow' means 'holy', as used in the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9).
• Early in church history, Christians began to celebrate the saints (heroes of the faith).
• By the 7th century, All Saints' Day was observed annually throughout the Christian world.
• Orthodox churches celebrated All Saints' Day on the Sunday after Pentecost.
• Roman Catholic churches celebrated All Saints' Day on May 13th.
• The origin of All Saints' Day and its Eve (Halloween) was entirely Christian.
• The alleged pagan connection stems from the Roman Catholic Church moving All Saints' Day to November 1st in the 8th century.
• Many scholars claim Christian leaders were attempting to Christianize a pagan holiday called Samhain, celebrated on the same day (pronounced 'sow-in', rhyming with 'cow').
• There are several reasons to dispute the claim that Halloween is pagan in origin.
• First, nothing is known about Samhain with certainty.
• Samhain appears to have been a celebration limited to the Northern Celtic people (especially in Ireland and Scotland), who had no written records before Christianization.
• Scholars have made unsubstantiated claims that Samhain was a day dedicated to the dead with human sacrifices and dark rituals.
• In reality, all that is really known about Samhain is that it marked a change of season.
• The name Samhain comes from an Old Irish word roughly meaning 'summer's end'.
• Second, by the time All Saints' Day was associated with November 1st, Christianity had been established in the Northern Celtic region for at least 300 years.
• There is no indication that pagan practices on Samhain concerned Rome (1500 miles away) enough to change a holiday's date.
• Third, Irish Christians originally celebrated the saints on April 20th.
• It is more likely that Irish Christians remembered the dead in April than on Samhain (November 1st).
• When All Saints' Day was moved to November 1st for Roman Catholic churches, the focus on the dead shifted with it.
• One scholar suggests November 1st may have been chosen simply so that pilgrims to Rome could be fed more easily after the harvest than in spring.
• In the 19th century, cultural anthropologist Sir James Frazer studied Northern Celtic practices on Hallowmas (the three-day period of October 31st, November 1st, and November 2nd).
• Frazer asserted that Hallowmas traditions were rooted in Samhain.
• Frazer claimed the ancient pagan festival had been a day to honor the dead.
• Although Christianity probably introduced the focus on the dead to Samhain, Frazer claimed the opposite.
• After Frazer, cultural anthropologists repeated and exaggerated his claim.
• Frazer believed Christianity was rooted in paganism and often tried to connect the two.
• It is peculiar that evangelical Christians have embraced Frazer's claims and suggested abandoning Halloween due to its supposed pagan connection.
• The reality is that Halloween is Christian in origin and its date selection probably had nothing to do with Samhain.
• It must be conceded that modern Halloween celebrations (at least in the U.S.) have largely lost their Christian heritage.
• It is unsurprising that a holiday celebrating death would develop a dark and superstitious character among non-believers.
• Death is mysterious and terrifying to those who do not know the gospel.
• Christians can celebrate the lives of those who have died in Christ because 'death has been swallowed up in victory' (1 Corinthians 15:54); it is nothing to fear.
• Though bodies die, the spirit will dwell with Christ (Philippians 1:21) until He returns to make all things new (2 Peter 3:13) and clothe believers with new glorious bodies (Philippians 3:20-21).
• Halloween provides an opportunity to contrast Christian and non-Christian views of death and share the hope in Christ.
• Instead of abandoning Halloween to the lost, Christians should reclaim it for God's glory.
• Christians should ask God to help them be light in the darkness and creatively bring the 'hallowed' back into Halloween.
• The New Testament repeatedly uses 'saints' to refer to all believers; when referring to heroes of the faith, the term is in quotes.