Halloween begins well over 2,000 years ago in the British Isles. Here, we find the holiday stripped to its most essential element: a night when Celtic tribes communed with the spirits of the ancestral dead. These grand and glorious pagan celebrations were assimilated by the Catholic church. . . Rather than extinguish old customs, the church leaders provided Christian versions of them: from the Middles Ages on, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day replaced the ancient Celtic celebrations of the dead. (Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt, Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1990 p. x) The Catholic festival of All Saints Day was also known as All Hallows Day, with the word "hallow" replacing "saints." The day before All Hallows Day (October 31) was recognized as All Hallows Eve. Eventually, All Hallows Eve became Hallows Eve; hallow’even; hallow’en and ultimately today’s Halloween. All Saints' Day perpetuated the pagan Samhain of November Eve. (Bonwick, James, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions, Dorset Press, 1984 (1986ed), p.87) Many traditional beliefs and customs associated with Samhain . . . continued to be practiced on 31 October, known as the Eve of All Saints, the Eve of All Hallows, or Hallows Even. It is the glossing of the name Hallow Even that has given us the name Hallowe’en. (Santino, Jack editor, Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN 1994 p. xvi) In 835, Pope Gregory IV "blessed" All Saint’s Day as a sacred "day of obligation," consequently on that day, the Catholic Church officially "ordained" Halloween. Halloween owes its very life and breath to the "blessing" of the Catholic Church. Samhain would have breathed its last breath many years ago if not for the "ordination" of the Catholic Church. Few holidays have a stranger or more paradoxical history than Halloween. Technically, it is the vigil of All Saints Day, observed by Roman Catholics . . . Halloween has clear connections with the rites of the druidic priests. . . (Douglas, George William, revised by Helene Douglas Compton, The American Book of Days, The H.W. Wilson Company, New York, 1948, p. 741) A perverse and blasphemous twist to Halloween concerns the name "Halloween." The word "hallow" means "holy, sanctify or consecrate." The popular Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9 begins with, ". . . Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. . ." The label "hallow" belongs to God the Father—Hallowed be thy name. Halloween was a night sacrificing young children to the worship of Baal. It is no accident that the name of history’s most hellish night, glorifying "death and hell," wears God the Father’s holy name of "hallow." The blasphemous name of "Halloween" clearly bears the fingerprints of Lucifer as found in Isaiah 14:12, ". . . I will be like the most High." • THE OCCULT & HALLOWEEN • While Halloween masquerades as childish fun and frolic, it’s serious business in the occult world. Witchcraft, Wicca, Satanism and paganism believe, on the night of Halloween, devils and spirits are unleashed. They perform their most hideous and potent rituals on the night of Halloween. Samhain: This is the "Witch’s New Year" and the primary Sabbat from which all others flow. (RavenWolf, Silver. Teen Witch, p. 42) Halloween is one of the four major Sabbats celebrated by the modern Witch, and it is by far the most popular and important of the eight that are observed. . . Witches regard Halloween as their New Year’s Eve, celebrating it with sacred rituals. . .
(Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 120) Halloween is also among Satanism’s most cherished days. Anton LaVey, founder of The Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible writes: After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween. (LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible, p. 96) Satanic High Priestess Blanche Barton, on The Church of Satan web site, praises Halloween: It [Halloween] gives even the most mundane people the opportunity to taste wickedness for one night. They have a chance to dance with the Devil . . . I see Satanists all over the world meeting in small groups this night and Hallowe’ens 500 years hence, to raise a glass to the Infernal Hosts. . . The Satanic Calendar decrees for Halloween: "One of the two most important nights of the year. . . Blood and sexual rituals. Sexual association with demons. Animal and human sacrifice—male or female." (www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/satanic_calendar.htm) Former occultist Johanna Michaelsen reveals, "Halloween is also a prime recruiting season for Satanists." (Michaelsen, Johanna. Like Lambs to the Slaughter, p. 192) • THE ORNAMENTS OF HALLOWEEN • The ornaments decorating Halloween came directly from the Druids and the occult. The popular associations of Halloween are derived from ancient Celtic and Druid pagan religious customs. (Mather, George A. and Larry A. Nichols. Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, p. 237) Samhain was a vital part of Celtic culture, its rituals were passed from generation to generation through the oral tradition of the Druids. The genesis of many of America’s Halloween traditions can be found in these ancient celebrations . . . (Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt, Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1990 p. 6) WITCHES are the reigning Queen of Halloween. If you’ve been lullabied by the gospel of Halloween that witches are harmless folks, wake up, witches worship the devil: In many instances, according to the confessions of the witches, besides their direct worship of the devil, they were obliged to show their abhorrence of the faith they had deserted by trampling on the cross, and blaspheming the saints, and by other profanations. (Spence, Lewis. An Encyclopedia of Occultism, p. 433) The witches held a party at Hallowe’en and the women . . . sold their soul to the devil, would put a stick in their beds anointed with the fat of murdered babies.
(Douglas, George William. The American Book of Days, p. 569) Although witches vigorously protest they have no dealings with the devil, under the heading, "A Witch’s God," the popular witch’s training manual, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice, plainly states: A Witch’s God. . . He is . . . Lord of the Underworld [Hell] . . . He is named . . . Baphomet . . . Lucifer . . . Baal. . . (Angeles, Ly de. Witchcraft: Theory and Practice, p. 60) The Lord God’s judgment upon witches should not be taken lightly. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22:18 JACK-O’-LANTERN: If Witches are the Queen of Halloween, the smiling jack-o’-lantern is the King. The demonic jack-o’-lantern leaves most historians baffled tracing its spooky origin. One popular tale, tells of Jack who tricked the devil in a deal for his soul. But the origin of the jack-o’-lantern is much more sinister. It arrives from the Druid’s ghastly reverence of the severed human head! They proudly decorated their houses and temples with bloody severed heads. The Druids believed the head housed the soul, hence the light or candle in the skull. The original jack-o’-lantern was not a pumpkin or turnip, but a severed human head! Trophy, charm, or ornament, the human head figured prominently in Celtic life. Warriors hung enemy heads on their houses as a show of prowess, and Druids, believing that the head harbored the soul, placed skulls in sanctuaries to ward off evil. (National Geographic, May 1977, p. 603) . . . they hang the heads of their enemies from the necks of their horses, and, when they have brought them home, nail the spectacle to the entrances of their homes. . .(Strabo, Geography) It is believed that faces, rather than other images or symbols, were originally carved onto the pumpkin because they gave the jack-o’-lantern the look of a head. The Celts of ancient times believed that the head was the most sacred part of the human body, for it housed a person’s immortal soul.
(Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 32) . . . the jack-o’-lantern is generally presented in its traditional form as a festive euphemism for the death’s-head, the triangular nose hole and rictus grin being the "dead" giveaways. (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween, p. 38) Carved and illuminated by a candle, they are symbolic of death and the spirit world. (Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday Symbols and Customs, p. 256) TRICK OR TREAT is another Druid inspired custom. Every year on Halloween, many children throughout the world dress up in costumes and go door to door in a ritual known as trick or treating . . . unaware that their innocent masquerade is actually the remnants of a Druidic religious practice from times most ancient. (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 11) Whatever the wrinkles, the root assumption is the same: trick or treat had its beginning in the Celtic dawn. (Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 82) MASKS & COSTUMES: Masks and costumes carry a long history in the occult and demon possession. Masks are contacts to the spirit world to invite the spirit to "possess" them. In rituals, a person wearing a mask of a god or spirit often feels possessed by the supernatural being. . . (World Book 2005, p. 263) The person wearing the mask feels internally transformed and takes on temporarily the qualities of the god or demon represented by the mask. (Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 218) BAT: "One of the animal shapes commonly used by these demons (or "familiars," as they were often called) was the bat. Bats and their blood were also used in the casting of spells (especially those of black magick), the brewing of potions. . ." (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 29) OWL: "On Halloween night, demons in the form of owls were said to have traveled with Witches and their cats . . . some were even believed to be Witches in disguise. . . (Interestingly, the owl was called a strix by the Romans—a word that means "Witch.")" (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 43)
"BLACK CATS were associated with darkness and death . . . they embodied demons who performed the witches’ task of maleficia against their neighbors. . . Black cats are said to be the devil himself." (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, p. 49) APPLES: "The practice of bobbing for apples at a Halloween party comes form our Pagan ancestors, who highly valued apple magick." (RavenWolf, Silver. Teen Witch, p. 42) SKULL: "An interesting symbol, the skull . . . It is prominent in Witchcraft and Demon worship as a celebration of death." (Burns, Cathy. Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, p. 388) • THE OBSCENE IN HALLOWEEN • Halloween has always wallowed in the obscene. Its horrid history is paved with vandalism, destruction and wickedness. The sickening depravity of razor blades in apples and poisoned candies of the 1970’s was a clear testimony to the evil of Halloween. Some say that Halloween brings out the evil side of human nature in certain individuals. The number of vandalism acts committed each year on Halloween certainly seems to support this. . . (Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 23) Halloween has always been a night of perversion and inversion—a night where misrule rules and decadence masquerades as decency. Halloween’s "best kept secret" is its romantic love affair with homosexuals. Halloween was the golden key that unlocked the homosexual’s closet of perversion. Halloween’s spirit of inversion, bestowed the homosexuals one utopian night to publicly flaunt their decadence and perversion. It is an opportunity to act out one’s desires or fantasies. . . Halloween is unquestionably a night of inversion. (Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 137) Halloween has always been a night of misrule and the outrageous. In recent years, it has been adopted by the gay community in America. . . (Morgan, Sheena. The Real Halloween, p. 42) The Halloween machine turns the world upside down. One’s identity can be discarded with impunity. Men dress as women, and vice versa. Authority can be mocked and circumvented. (Skal, David J. Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween p. 17) Halloween has done more for the current acceptance of homosexuality than any other event.
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