LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Halloween: Celtic Christians
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Halloween traditions thought to be incompatible with Christianity often became linked with Christian folk beliefs about evil spirits. Although such superstitions varied a great deal from place to place, many of the supernatural beings now associated with Halloween became fixed in the popular imagination during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (14th to 17th century). The jack-o’-lantern, originally carved from a large turnip rather than a pumpkin, originated in medieval Scotland. Various methods of predicting the future, especially concerning matters of romance and marriage, were ... prominent features of Halloween throughout the British Isles.
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The story of Halloween goes back over 2000 years to the ancient Celts. Druidic priests regarded the day as the end of the year. Not only was it their day for celebrating the year's harvest, but October 31 itself was ... the day of Samhain, a festival for honoring the dead. In order to appease the wandering spirits they believed roamed at night, the Celtic priests made fires in which they burned sacrifices, made charms, and cast spells.
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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)
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In 1963, for instance, a journalist watched the Halloween festivities of a coven of witches at St. Albans. The high priestess, naked except for a string of beads and watched by the other 12 members of the coven, drew a circle on the ground with the point of her magic knife. A candle burned in each quarter of the circle, with a fifth candle on an altar in the middle. The reporter did not reveal the details of the ceremony but he did record a remark of the high priestess. "We are not anti-Christian, she said, we just have other means of spiritual satisfaction. It's hard to describe that satisfaction."
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Broedel explains that the association of fear with Halloween evolved from the legendary Celtic belief that once a year the deceased were permitted to returned to earth. He says, "The reason that Halloween is spooky is that in Celtic tradition the dead are allowed to come back to earth on New Years Day. As in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the ghosts love coming for special holidays... most Halloween traditions are Christian." Broedel explains that trick-or-treating emerged from the practice of collecting alms for the poor " in order to save your soul."
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Some Christians avoid Halloween, staying locked behind their doors with the lights turned off. Others create alternatives for believers, where little ones dress up as people from the Bible or other innocent characters. What is the right thing for you and your family?
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