At 34 I watch the news alot and so scaring on Halloween is just really getting at me. Has anybody noticed that people are brutally murdered all the time? I wonder how Jennifer Hudson's family feels about seeing kids dressed up like murderers this Halloween? Or anybody else who has been a part of a horrific crime. This is not fun and games and I certainly don't want my kids to think it is. I heard this week, from one of my friends who is a teacher,that another teacher had decorated outside her classroom, in the hallway, by posting her school childrens' faces on tombstones marked R.I.P. And this is supposed to be funny. Are we that morbid that we can decorate in this way and think there is nothing wrong with it? Is it just me? Have I gone off the deep end? Am I being one of those christians who has become way over the top?
So I thought how did this whole thing get started? God bless the internet! I found a great article telling about the whole thing: http://www.history.com/ (the history channels website)
"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas."
It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
I will tell you that our church celebrates Reformation Day by hosting a carnival on the 31st. How is this different from a Halloween carnival you may ask? Well at our website we have a great article about it: http://www.alivinglight.org/
The article states:
"On the Eve of All Saints, Day, October 31, 1517, Augustinian Father Doctor Martin Luther, professor of Scripture at the University of Wittenberg, Germany posted an invitation to debate on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. The invitation to debate contained ninety-five points, or theses, concerning the sale of indulgences. Luther chose this date for posting his theses because the coming holiday would bring many of the community to services, ensuring that his statements would receive wide exposure.
The Reformation was the great rediscovery of the good news of salvation by grace through faith for Christ's sake.
We will be celebrating the start of the Protestant Reformation in a fun-filled carnival atmosphere for children. Your child will enjoy winning candy prizes in the various games each of which tells a story from the reformation era. They will be "Tossing Coins into the Coffer," "Throwing Relics into the River," "Nailing the 95-Theses to the Door," "Searching for the Book of the Law in the Maze," and much more. All while "Translating the Gospel" so they can go "Fishing for Men." Children will also discover the original and greatest reformer of them all, Jesus Christ, at the "I Am" stations.
Why Reformation Day?
October 31, 1517, marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Throughout the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Church had more than distorted the gospel; they had destroyed it and deceived the people. By refusing to allow the Scriptures to be translated into the common language of the people, the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed complete control over the beliefs of the masses for over 1000 years. Through his personal study of the Scriptures, Martin Luther, an Augustinian Monk, became convinced of salvation by grace alone through faith alone and began to see the heresies and manipulation of the Church. He began his public protest by nailing his 95-Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church, an act that worked to give traction to a budding movement which would ultimately change the world.
We celebrate this day, because, as Protestants, we recognize it as the beginning of the movement which resulted in the rediscovery of the true gospel (by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone), the reestablishment of the sole authority of Scripture and the reinstatement of the supremacy of the glory of God in all things. We believe that these events are so significant that Reformation Day should be celebrated by all Protestants.
The word 'halloween' literally means "All Hallows' Eve". Just as Christmas Eve is simply the night before Christmas Day, All Hollows Eve is the night before All Saints' Day. All Saints' Day was one of the Roman Catholic false teachings and manipulations. The Church played on the superstitions of the masses by teaching that on November 1st of each year, the saints were at their most powerful point and stood ready to hear the prayers of the people. This teaching drew great crowds to the churches on All Saints' Day. Much like Christmas and Easter today, even those who would normally avoid the church would make a special effort to be present on November 1st. (This is precisely why Martin Luther posted his 95-Theses on October 31st.)
Coupled with the superstition related to the power of the saints on All Saints' Day was yet another superstition. It was conversely believed that since the saints would be so powerful on November 1st, then all of the ghost, goblins and evil spirits would do all their bidding on the night of October 31st and go into hiding on All Saints' Day. So basically, what you see today occurring on the 31st is a celebration of the evil spirits which were believed to be at their most powerful point. As Protestants, we deny the theology which leads to a celebration of All Saints' Day. For, we "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:12) before God the Father through Christ the Son. Our prayers are mediated by Christ not by any other "saint". However, we do not deny the basic theology which has led some to celebrate evil. For, we believe that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against... the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, we do not wish to be associated in any way with the worldly celebrations of the enemy. We have something wholly different to celebrate on October 31st, Reformation Day! If Luther had nailed his theses to that door on some other day of the year, then we would celebrate it then, but he chose October 31st. "
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