Halloween

--Baal's Halloween Connection
--Pagan - Catholic Roots of Halloween

--Purgatory, Ghost stories & Halloween

--Soul Cakes

--All Souls Day in Latin Anerica

--"Halloween" Summary

--Pope's of "Halloween"

--One of the 4 Sabbats of Witches

--What Would Paul say About Halloween?

--What does God think of "Vampires"?

--What does God think of "Werewolves"?

Baal's Halloween Connection

"The Druids also celebrated the festival of Beltane. 

The word Beltane (Beltaine, Beltinne, Beltain, Beiltein) literally means the “fires of Bel.” 

Bel is the same god called Baal. 

“…then the Druids lit the Baal-Tinne, the holy, goodly fire of Baal.”
Source: (Wilde, Lady Francesca Speranza. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland)
“The god whom the Druids worshiped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show, and . . . children were offered in sacrifice to Baal.”
Source: (Hislop, Alexander. The Two Babylons, p. 232)

The original Halloween was a hellish night 

of Baal worship and child sacrifice. 

Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel...
And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made.
2 Kings 3:1,2

Pagan - Catholic Roots of Halloween

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,

saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;

2 Corinthians 6:17

"The feast of All Saints has a long history in the Church and at one point enjoyed the pride of place of Octave, which is only reserved for Christmas and Easter these days. 

As Fr. Grunow points out over at Word on Fire, the feast began in earnest in the 7th Century:
The practice of a festival day to honor the whole communion of Saints, rather than that just a single saint, seems to happen for the first time in the Catholic Church with the consecration of the Pantheon as a public place for the Church’s worship. 

This happened in the year 609 (or 610) on May 13th. 

The Pantheon had been originally dedicated for the use of Roman religion as a place where all the gods would be honored. 

Boniface displaced the images of the gods from their shrines and gave the building over to the Saints of the Church, particularly the Martyrs. 

This was a kind of “in your face” to pagan culture. 

Gregory III

Boniface was saying that the old gods had been defeated and were defeated by the faith of the Church’s Martyrs… How we get from May 13th to November 1st is interesting. 

The festival of All Saints seems to emerge from the dedication of another Roman church that was consecrated by Pope Gregory III. The church is named St. Peter and all the Saints. 

It was a subsequent pope, Gregory IV, who extended the annual festival that commemorates this church dedication to the whole Church as All Saints Day. 

The extension of festivals specific to the Church of Rome is part and parcel of how the Catholic Faith becomes the underlying cultural matrix from which a new kind of European civilization would emerge." 

CatholicExchange

Purgatory, Ghost stories & Halloween

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
Isaiah 8:19

"Early Christians commemorated the deaths of martyrs on their individual saints’ days. As the number of martyrs grew, they began to put aside a day to commemorate all of them. This, as we have seen, was the origin of All Saints’ Day. It commemorated all saints “known and unknown,” including those not officially recognized by the church. Meanwhile, people prayed for the non-saintly dead. Religious communities kept lists of their dead members and said masses for them:
…Masses with Mementos of the Dead, that is, Masses for the Dead, were said continuously in a great many chapels or monastery churches after the ninth century. 

At Cluny, these Masses went on day and night…. It seems that various localities set aside one day a year for all the dead, that is, for those who, unlike clergymen and monks, were not assured of the help of their brothers–the forgotten people, the majority of laymen. (Philippe Ariès 159)

As with All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day was celebrated at different times in different places. In the 11th century, St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny, established November 2 as the date for the commemoration of All Souls’ Day at his monastery and all its daughter houses. 

The November observance spread from Cluny to other Benedictine houses and ultimately to the rest of western Christendom. It is no coincidence that it fell on the day after All Saints’ Day:
[All Souls’ Day] could be conveniently linked to the preceding festival, as saints were increasingly seen as intercessors upon behalf of departed souls facing judgment or suffering it. Indeed, by the high Middle Ages both festivals had become primarily a time at which to pray for dead friends or family members…. (Hutton 364)

Both days are intimately connected to the evolution of the concept of Purgatory, although both were celebrated before Purgatory was adopted as official church doctrine. Purgatory allowed people to feel they were giving material aid to dead loved ones by praying for them, requesting the intercession of saints, and paying for masses to be said. 

This led to abuses: religious houses essentially became factories that produced masses for the dead. The rich hoped that they could save their own souls by leaving massive bequests to pay for masses. Some bankrupted their families doing so (Ariès chap. 4).

As well as producing masses for the dead, monasteries also produced ghost stories. 

Purgatory gave doctrinal justification to ghost stories—lots of ghost stories. 

--While souls in hell could not return, 

according to most church authorities, 

--and those in heaven would not, 

--souls in Purgatory could return and had reason to do so. 

Ghost stories were used for propaganda: the ghosts returned and

asked for suffrages and masses.
Because of their association with Purgatory, certain rituals associated with Hallowtide were suppressed during the Protestant Reformation, though some traditions remained, such as begging for soul cakes." 

SI

Soul Cakes

....saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
2 Corinthians 6:17
"All Souls’ Day parades .....During the festivities, poor citizens

would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits." 

History.com

All Souls Day in Larin America

....for now shall I sleep in the dust; 

and thou shalt seek me in the morning, 

but I shall not be. 

Job 7:21

"In Mexico, Latin America and Spain, All Souls’ Day, which takes place on November 2, is commemorated with a three-day celebration that begins on the evening of October 31.

The celebration is designed to honor the dead who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween.
Many families construct an altar to the dead in their homes to honor deceased relatives and decorate it with candy, flowers, photographs, samples of the deceased’s favorite foods and drinks, and fresh water. Candles and incense are burned to help the deceased find the way home. Relatives also tidy the gravesites of their departed family members."
History

 "Halloween" Summary

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Isaiah 8:19 RSV

"Halloween is a combination of two worlds on several levels.

It is a mix of pagan and Christian;

the living and the dead;

ancient and modern civilizations;

folklore and history.

The origin of Halloween dates back to ancient times to the Celtic festival of Samhain. 

This pagan celebration marked the end of the harvest season on the last day of October. It was the end of the “bright half” of the year,

known as Beltrane, and the beginning of the “dark half,” Samhain.
Samhain, All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows) and All Souls’ Day, continued to be the night of Oct. 31. It combined the elements of the pagan beliefs and traditions regarding the world of the dead, communication between the living and the dead and related festivities. It was the festival of Samhain as well as the night before All Saints’ Day. That meant that Oct. 31 was known as All Hallows’ Evening or All Hallows’ Eve. It was shortened to Hallowe’en and later to Halloween."

LibertyVoice

Pope's of "Halloween"
"Before being celebrated on November 1, May 13 was when Pope Boniface IV (608-615) started All Hallows’ Day or All Saints’ Day. This was the day that the pope dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in the name of the Virgin Mary. All Saints’ Day was moved to November 1 by Pope Gregory III (731-741) when a chapel in the Vatican Basilica was dedicated to the honor of all saints. Later, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) made the day a Churchwide observance." 

LibertyVoice

One of the 4 Sabbats of Witches

Wiccan high priestess, Valiente, said of Halloween:

“Halloween is one of the four Great Sabbats of the witches that everyone has heard about. 

To witches, Halloween is a serious occasion, however merrily celebrated. It is the old Celtic Eve of Samhain.”
GoodFight

What Would Paul say About Halloween?

*Test all things; 

*hold fast to what is good. 

*Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

What does God think of "Vampires"?

Q: What does God say about Vampires?
A: there are NONE
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 / Revelation 20:5
"In folklore, a vampire is a malign spirit — usually believed to be a restless soul. The restless undead — that refuses to join the ranks of the dead but instead leaves its burial place — in its original body or

taking possession of another's corpse — and becomes a bloodsucking creature in order to continue enjoying the pleasures of the living. Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Romans, and even the Greeks — all had some version of a mythical vampire. But these Halloween monsters were greatly influenced by a particular novel.
In the English language, the word “vampire” has existed since 1734, but it wasn’t until Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula that the archetypal sophisticated vampire was established.
During the vampire panic in New England, vampires were finding a new role in European books like The Vampyre (1819), Carmilla (1871-72), and Dracula (1897), as well as in vampire-themed plays.....there was a strange resurgence in the late 1960s, when Seán Manchester, the president of the British Occult Society, said that a vampire was causing people to see strange things in London’s Highgate Cemetery."
ZMEscience/NatGeo

What does God think of "Werewolves"?

Q: What does God say about werewolves?
A: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. Genesis 1:27
Only mankind in 2 genders. NOTHING about any interchangeable creatures from human to animal and back.....In fact God gave mankind DOMINION over the animals, hence man is not part of---nor part---animal. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:28
"A werewolf is a man that has been cursed or charmed into a beast that hunts at night and craves human flesh. The word ‘werewolf’
literally translates to man-wolf (‘were’ meaning man).

Many legends claim that a man would transform into a werewolf if he was bitten or scratched by another werewolf in its animal form.
There are also tales of magic salves that could transform a person. Other sources tell of enchanted streams that gave people the ability to transform. Other transformation rituals include drinking rainwater out of the footprint of a wolf and sleeping with the light of a full moon on one’s face during a Wednesday or Friday summer night.
Many areas where Christianity was the dominant religion tell of werewolf transformations through an alliance with the Devil.
Many historians believe this was a way to explain the violent and cannibalistic impulses of predatory serial killers in the Middle Ages.
One of the easiest ways to identify a suspected werewolf was to try to injure the werewolf with a mark that would be easily identifiable. It was believed that when a werewolf was injured in animal form, the same injury would manifest itself in the being’s human form." Mythology.net