The heart of the matter, for me, at least, isn't even whether or not Halloween is something to be "celebrated". I'm not sure that I'll let my daughter participate in anything more than a church-sponsored "Harvest Festival", simply because I loathe the very real, and very troubling emphases on death, fear, and darkness that surround the more prevalent mores of the day. That having been said, we do our faith, and our God no service when we're willing to spread falsehoods and misinformation, simply because they fit with our view of "how things really work". I'm not calling for widespread Christian acceptance, or celebration of Halloween. What I am saying, however, is that we owe it to our witness as the Body of Christ to be fair and accurate in our presentation of our (very real) concerns, and to be disciplined and wise in how we approach such matters. Continuing to hang on to the discredited claims of Warnke, et. al., simply becuase they "might" be true is indefensible.

Myth #1: "Halloween was originally a Celtic festival for the dead, celebrated on the last day of the Celtic year, Oct. 31."

This is actually a quotation from the 1996 CD version of Grolier Encyclopedia, widely viewed as one of the most scholarly of the CD encyclopedias, since it gives a signed bibliography after each entry. But when one comes to the "Halloween" article, there are no signed bibliographical entries. This should be a tip off right away that something is amiss. Such is the case with many, if not, most, mainline encyclopedias. No references are given. But this doesn't stop many Christians from repeating this argument ad infinitum.

First, we need to be clear about sources of information about the ancient Druids and the Celts of the British Isles. We don't have much. Part of the problem is that the Druids, priests and guardians of Celtic religion did not put their learning in written form. So are there any historical sources that provide information about the Druids and Celtic culture from Roman or pre-Roman times? Yes. We have accounts of them from Julius Caesar, Strabo, and Diodorus. These records are supplemented by some early Irish/Celtic Literature.

But there are two problems with the Roman sources that inject an element of doubt into them. First, Caesar and the Romans were at war with the Celts of Gaul. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Caesar would make the Celts and Druids sound worse than they really were in order to justify the war. Recall how the Romans had accused Christians of practicing cannibalism, incest, and orgies. Therefore it is difficult to distinguish between truth and Roman propaganda.

You will often read in the literature published by Christian organizations (such as the tracts and comic books from publisher Jack Chick) that, "Samhain was the Celtic God of the Dead, worshipped by the Druids with dreadful bloody sacrifices at Halloween." Chick embroiders this fantasy in a tract called "The Trick" and a full-sized comic book called, "Spellbound?"...

His writings describe evil Druids going from castle-door-to-door seeking virgin princesses to rape and sacrifice, leaving carved pumpkins illuminated by candles ("made from human fat!") for those who cooperated, and arranging demonic assassinations for those who refused to give them what they wanted. This, according to Mr. Chick, is supposed to be the "true" origin of trick or treating.

Let's look at a few historical facts...

Contrary to information published by many Christian organizations, there is no historical or archeological evidence of any Celtic deity of the dead named "Samhain." We know the names of some 350 Celtic deities and Samhain isn't found among them. The Celtic gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such. McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that "samhuinn" (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means "summer's end."

It's not just Christian organizations that perpetuate this fallacy -- even the World Book encyclopedia (1990) writes about "Samhain, the Celtic lord of death" (World Book is in discussion with scholars in order to change this in future additions.) This idea is based on a fallacy that seems to have come from Col. Charles Vallency's books in the 1770s before the reliable translations of existing Celtic literary works and before archaeological excavations. (Col. Charles Vallency also tried to prove that the Irish were descended from the inhabitants of Armenia!) Samhain is the name of the holiday. There is no evidence of any god or demon named "Samhain," "Samain," "Sam Hane," or however you want to vary the spelling.

Myth #4: The practice of "trick or treat" and costumes originated with an ancient Druid practice. [Here follow three variations that I have seen in Christian writings] (a) The Druids, in costume, went door to door asking for contributions of food for their demonic worship services. Those who didn't give them a treat, they would play a trick on by killing them (b) Spirits of the dead would go from house to house haunting the living. Those who didn't set out food for them would be harmed by them; (c) Peasants dressed in outlandish costumes went from house to house asking for contributions to buy food for the Samhain festival in the name of a Celtic deity named Muck Olla. A feast was prepared for ghosts. At the end of the feast, the costumed peasants would lead the ghosts out of the village.

...we just don't have any evidence to back up these claims. The only mention of Muck Olla, reveals him not as a Celtic deity but as a mythical figure from a much later period in Britain. All major studies show that the earliest mention we have of dressing in costumes and soliciting food comes from Christian times. Throughout the Middle Ages we know of the practice of "masked guisers" dressing in horrific masks to scare off demons. We also know of beggars and later children going from house to house asking for "soul cakes" or performing and asking for something in return. Actually, the phrase "trick or treat" is a modern one, being widespread from the late 1930s on.

The pumpkin is a New World plant that never grew in Europe until modern times, so it couldn't have been used to make jack-o-lanterns by the Druids.
There's zero evidence that the ancient Druids or their congregants ever dressed in costume or engaged in ritualized begging at harvest time. One Christian tract says:
(Trick or Treat - by Jack Chick):

"The Druids went from house to house asking for a contribution to their demonic worship celebration. If a person didn't give, their trick was to kill him. The people feared the phrase 'Trick or Treat.'"

This charge has been laid at the door step of the Celts so often that it's hard to believe there is no evidence for it, but there is absolutely none. Tad Tuleja (a folklore expert) writes:

"An exhaustive Victorian survey of Irish calendar customs mentions divination games and apple bobbing as Halloween pastimes, but says nothing about food collection or a procession of "spirits."...On the question of masked begging at the Celtic New Year, authorities on the Druids do not say a word. (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 83)."

Where did costuming at Halloween come from? There is a lot of confusion on this point. But in spite of what you may have read in an encyclopedia or seen on the History Channel, I can find absolutely NO historical evidence of costumed begging among the Druids or as part of the Samhain festival.

We do have records of costumed processions in a much later time (Christian times), but these costumed processions were NOT limited to the Halloween holiday. They appear much more frequently at Christmas. The earliest actual historic practice seems to have been poor folk in masks and costumes going from house to house. They would put on a simple play or musical performance in return for food and drink. This practice is called mumming or guising and has no discerniblele connection to the Celts.

You may be surprised to learn that your parents or grandparents know nothing about costuming on Halloween. A reader sent me this email:

"You mentioned in your article that the American custom came about in the 1930s as a reaction to vandalism. My parents were kids in New York City in those days, and I started looking for more info because of a comment my mom made on Halloween night. It seems that Halloween as we know it did not exist at the time--it was all pranks, as you mentioned (my mom mentioned taking gates off posts and moving outhouses, as you did, and my dad said that in the days of coal fuel there were big cans of ashes that the kids would tip over--a big mess).

The interesting part was that both of them said (Dad was born in 1924 and Mom in 1927) that each year as kids, they did go from door to door begging for food--but it was on Thanksgiving Day, not Halloween! My mom said that rather than 'Trick or Treat!' their line at each door was 'Anything for the poor? Anything for the poor?' They were given fruit, nuts, a cup of cider, or the occasional coin--that sort of thing."

This email is similar to conversations with my own father and mother (born 1928 and 1930 in western Pennsylvania), who told me that no one dressed in costumes or went door-to-door when they were children. There were lots of pranks on Halloween (some of which make great stories for the grandchildren), but they know nothing of dressing up. So where did costuming come from? That's a big question mark. Folklorist Tad Tuleja says that costume parties are frequently mentioned in the early decades of the 1900s (but nothing about going door-to-door in costume). The costume parties themselves seem to be an attempt to involve children in disciplined "fun" as opposed to destructive "fun."

The actual phrase "trick or treat" is not Druidic! The oldest citation in print dates only to 1939! The phrase is not recorded by the Merriam-Webster Company until 1941. And the term is actually American, not European (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 47,86-90)!

It's not only the phrase that is American, the practice is too! In America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a custom of playing pranks on Halloween. This custom appears to have come from immigrants from Ireland and Scotland which had a practice called Mischief Night. Favorite pranks included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates (Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things). The pleasant fiction was that such rambunctiousness was the work of "fairies," "elves," "witches" and "goblins" (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 87). That's the "trick" part of Halloween. Where did the "treat" part of Halloween come from? Jill Pederson Meyer writes:

"By the turn of the century, Halloween had become an ever more destructive way to 'let off steam' for crowded and poor urban dwellers. As Stuart Schneider writes in 'Halloween in America' (1995), vandalism that had been limited to tipping outhouses; removing gates, soaping windows and switching shop signs, by the 1920s had become nasty -- with real destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people. Perhaps not coincidentally, the disguised nighttime terrorism and murders by the Ku Klux Klan reached their apex during this decade. Schneider writes that neighborhood committees and local city clubs such as the Boy Scouts then mobilized to organize safe and fun alternatives to vandalism. School posters of the time call for a 'Sane Halloween.' Good children were encouraged to go door to door and receive treats from homes and shop owners, thereby keeping troublemakers away. By the 1930s, these 'beggar's nights' were enormously popular and being practiced nationwide, with the 'trick or treat' greeting widespread from the late 1930s."

The Halloween begging activity known as trick-or-treat comes from America in the 1930s, not the British Isles (see A Letter from a MacDonald). The custom was intended to control and displace disruptive pranks.

Argument #2: Christians should not celebrate Halloween because pagans and Satanists still observe it today as an un-holy day.

There are two parts to this argument. The first part is the supposition that pagans and satanists observe Halloween as a festival. We need to examine whether this rests on fact or fiction. The second part is the thought that because this is so, Christian should have nothing to do with Halloween. So we need to ask, "If pagans and satanists use a holiday for their purposes, is that sufficient grounds for Christians not to celebrate it?"

First, a question. Are there really any people around today who call themselves "pagans"? Actually, yes, though they more often call themselves Neopagans. One estimate puts their numbers in the U.S. and Canada at 250,000. And it is well documented that such people do view Halloween as an important festival in their belief system.

...Thus, it is well established by the pagans and neopagans themselves that they do celebrate Halloween in ways that Christians would find objectionable (e.g., divination, contacting the dead).

What of satanists? Quoting Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible, Mather and Nichols point out that Halloween is one of Satanism's two major holidays (George A. Mather and Larry A. Nichols, Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), p. 244) However, Satanism is often such a loose federation that it is difficult to determine exactly what they do on Halloween (other than worship Satan, of course).

Contrary to popular belief Halloween is not the most important celebration for Satanists. Most Satanists celebrate their own birthdays as their most important "unholi"-day, which is to be expected from adherents of a religion that believes that the highest form of religion is "worship of self" (The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey). Some of the stories of Satanic ritual abuse that are passed around in Christian circles may have no basis in fact (like those found in Rebecca Brown's book "He Came to Set the Captives Free"). According to Christian researchers Bob and Gretchen Passantino (What About Halloween?):

"The actual incidence level of satanic-associated crime is very low, and on Halloween consists mostly of petty vandalism and desecration of graveyards and churches; satanic graffiti; raucous rituals including drug and/or alcohol use and sexual promiscuity; and very rarely sexual violence or animal killing. The most well-known documented criminal activity associated with Halloween are the 'Devil's Night' fires that were rampant in the Detroit area. These destructive bonfires were not religiously inspired, but were a convenient excuse for out-of-control juveniles to act destructively, often in their own communities.

It is not true that satanists look for 'Christian virgins' to rape during Halloween rituals. A young Christian is much more likely to be in danger of a drunk driver, or a party that gets out of hand with drug or alcohol use than of satanic abduction. Occasional anti-social, criminally committed individuals or small groups that also practice self-styled Satanism commit crimes on Halloween, but they invariably betray a pattern of sociopathy at other times as well.

It is not true that poisoning or sabotaging of Halloween treats is a significant risk if parents take sensible precautions. Most horror stories are unsubstantiated rumors that quickly cross the country, gaining embellishments, and unnecessarily frightening parents. If parents are careful about restricting their children's treats to ones from people they know and trust, or from a formal program run by a church, community group, or merchant association, they should be fairly safe. In many communities, local hospitals and/or police stations will screen treats free of charge."

What I have tried to show is that much of the association with witchcraft and Satanic elements has actually come from Christian misinformation attempting to "demonize" this holiday. There is no evidence that the original Celtic celebration was Satanic. Much of the information on Halloween that Christians preach and write about is plainly based on shoddy research. While Christians should absolutely avoid pagan practices, Christian hype tends to make us overreact to benign folk elements of Halloween. We appear like zany buffoons to the world when there is no necessity for doing so. Furthermore, our groundless retreat from all elements of Halloween leaves a vacuum that wicked elements delight to fill.