Latest / Propaganda / Why Christians Are Allowed To Celebrate Halloween | Episode 57

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Why Christians Are Allowed To Celebrate Halloween | Episode 57 · Propaganda

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to Propaganda with Mick and Jacob.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the show.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are talking about Halloween.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: One of my personal favorite holidays.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's Christmas first and then it drops right down to Halloween.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think Halloween is one of the best holidays.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love it so much.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's my birthday though, too, so I think I'm kind of biased.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I grew up in a circle where Halloween was something that Christians should not celebrate.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you did celebrate, you probably weren't Christian.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so I always grew up so confused whether or not it's something that I should celebrate when I'm an adult or have my kids trick-or-treat.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And for a long time I didn't know how I felt about it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: But that's why I want to do this episode today because I want to once and for all understand how Halloween came to be its actual backstory.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really this demonic pagan holiday that Christians should not participate in?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because without fail, every year around Halloween, we hear Christians complain about the holiday and other Christians celebrating it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you shouldn't be doing this.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't be dressing up your kid in some in the in a Disney princess outfit and going trick-or-treating.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't even have a Halloween party.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you are handing out candy, well, you better be handing out tracks because that's gonna do something.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, from looking into what Halloween is and how it came to be, a lot of history is muddied, okay?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like we don't know specifics of a lot of things, and we aren't sure exactly how something might have come to be.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one group started it and then another another group came along and overtook the original group, and then they started their traditions and combined them with the old traditions of the previous group, and things get combined and muddied, and you know, it's it is really hard to say what and how something started.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like most stories in history and most traditions that have like carry it on is they change over the course of you know, like generations and cultures, so it's like it's the same thing with Halloween, right?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and that's what I found.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I found anyway.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's unfair to say that Halloween was just pagan and it's something that Christians can't even think about participating in.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I it's unp it's unfair to say.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: But going back to the first AD, and we were talking like first century guys, okay?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Historians think that it was started by the Celtics, and it came from their ancient festival called Sawin.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I hope I'm saying that right.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So Sawin for the uh Celtics, it marked the end of summer and the transition into the winter months.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty fitting for Yeah, that makes sense, you know.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it stems from our agricultural uh past where the end of the harvest was marked and the beginning of the new year was celebrated.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: So this was basically the transition period into the darker half of the year or winter.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the Celtics believed that the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest at this time.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if you had to say something to a loved one or communicate to someone dead, this was your time to do it.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Say your peace.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Some superstitious individuals would wear animal hides to hide from spirits that might want revenge from them.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: If they had wronged them in their life, they could come back from the dead and get back at them.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they would wear costumes to hide.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then during this festival, the Celtics would also set an extra seat at the table for their loved ones in case they wanted to come and feast with them.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So basically it's just one big harvest feast celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of winter.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it just so happened that at this time the dead, the dead might come back and and hang out for a little bit.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, to kind of deal with that, maybe we wear a costume, maybe, you know, we light a candle in a turnip and scare them away and welcome in the good ones.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it makes sense.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm I get where they're coming from with this.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: It had a spiritual aspect as well as an actual like physical like calendar.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is the end of the year, the end of the harvest, you know, right, beginning the next chapter, the next new new year going into the winter.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be so clear too is that they're not celebrating the dead, they're not welcoming in bad spirits, or they're not like trying to get bad spirits to come.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I always feel like Halloween had this energy that we celebrated bad things.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Celebrating Satan's birthday, or like we're trying to become a demon or something for the night.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like selling your soul.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like to me, this just has a spiritual aspect to it, and they actually they want to see loved ones that have passed away.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's across every human culture for since the beginning of time.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: We've always been so obsessed with the relationship between the living and the dead.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like that makes sense to me.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and this was based, you know, however many years ago, in just the Catholic tradition.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're just looking at one set of kind of like where they believe it came from.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then as Mick will talk about in a second, like you'll see the other influences kind of take shape and like kind of change the holiday as it as it would be.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like they weren't the only ones that did this.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is just, like you said, where they think it might have stemmed from, Halloween might have stemmed from.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But so where the trick-or-treating aspect comes into it, real quick, the Celtics would set out food outside their home to please bad spirits so they wouldn't bother the people who live there.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it really is just kind of like appeasing bad spirits or being superstitious about bad spirits and hoping that they don't, you know, do something bad to your home.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: But today's trick-or-treating actually, and I I didn't know this, it came from the Middle Ages when the poor people would gather baked goods, they called them soul cakes from the rich, and in return for these cakes, they would promise to pray for the rich people's deceased loved ones in exchange for that cake.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's kind of wholesome and pray too, not just like do a little witchcraft thing.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like an actual prayer.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: I am like, oh, I didn't so if anything, maybe trick-or-treating is not that bad.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's fine.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But sorry.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So going back to the Celtics and their little harvest festival, um, basically, this was just one big ritual with intention to protect their house from the winter about to come and the bad spirits during this time.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So really not much is known about Salwin, but that is because the church Christianized it and our information about it comes from Irish monks.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: So these rituals seem to be, like I said, stocking muscle supplies for winter, feasting, drinking, gathering, communities, fires.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, there was a certain awareness about that time of year where the veil was thin and they could, you know, be joined by spirits that wanted to also feast.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: So the Roman Empire took over the Celtic territory sometime in the first century AD.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Romans took the Celtic traditions and combined them with their own.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what I meant at the top of the episode, where history does get complicated and muddied.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Groups take over other groups and they combine traditions.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is what kind of happened.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So one of those traditions was Sawin.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: This festival, Salwin, became All Hollows Day, which means to sanctify.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So later on, the Roman Catholic Church declared November 1st to be All Saints Day in honor of Catholic saints.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: This was celebrated with people costumed as angels and their favorite saints, and they went around villages having bonfires and feasts.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that part doesn't seem demonic at all.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's actually pretty wholesome.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we can say at one point in history, the traditions of dressing, dressing up, Halloween, it was Christian, it was Christianized at some point, at least, right?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So then, okay, so they have November 1st, All Saints Day, November 2nd was declared All Souls Day.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And this was a holy day honoring the deceased, the dead.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So because November 1st was called All Hollows Day, October 31st became All Hollows Eve, shortened to Halloween.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So Christians will say that we can't celebrate Halloween because it has pagan roots.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, a lot of things do.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Christmas tree does.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like we all hear that story.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: But that was that was originated from the uh winter solstice and in Eastern Europe.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Pagan culture would take, you know, um Evergreen and decorate their homes with it to scare away evil spirits.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess the 12 days of Christmas is bad too.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I have heard about that.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I have, you know, I heard about that, but then I looked into it and I was like, geez, this is kind of like intense.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: They believe that those are like the darkest days of the year.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like But these are, you know, these are cultural, like, you know, I I don't know, like controversies or folk tales, or and I'm not saying some of it's not real or whatever, but it's like, yeah, these things happen.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like different people throughout different different you know times in the world, they thought different things.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just crazy to me that Christians, you know, in 2026, it would be like, no, like all Halloween is bad, trick-or-treating is bad, dressing up is bad.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it sounds like it has Roman Catholic roots.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so like now what?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Can we celebrate it now?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it was pagan at one point, or I I don't even like saying pagan, it was just secular, it didn't have Christianity tied into it yet, and it was just people that believed in evil spirits.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I there is a spiritual aspect of our universe too, and everyone likes to pretend that there isn't.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: There is, and I'm sure back then it might have been stronger too.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how it all works, but maybe they did see things.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe maybe demons were more active than I don't know.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the thing that people are gonna say, you know, is that oh, well, so much demonic activity and evil things happen on Halloween, and that's like okay, that's a lot of other times throughout the year too that things like that happen, you know?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And just because bad people, evil people, might be using that day for something for them, doesn't mean it has to, you know, exclude everyone else from doing anything that day as well.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like I don't think evil people can just own that day, you know what I mean?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, does that mean you can't dress up?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you can't go trick-or-treating with your kids someday?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Does that mean you can't have a Christmas tree in your home?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, because it had a pagan, you know, start to it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or do things adopt and change and kind of evolve into a new tradition or a new holiday or a new heritage, you know?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like like things do change, so well yeah, and it's not like letting your kids dress up as their favorite cartoon or movie character, you're not you're not like participating in some dark ritual that you're you don't know and and God's gonna condemn you and you're sinning and you're like, I don't know, I don't know.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Just a lot of people act like they're sacrificing their child by doing it.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just kind of ridiculous.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I've also seen a lot of discussion around fear that because Halloween and you know, Halloween adjacent things like horror movies, haunted houses are something that Christians shouldn't participate in at all.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like going to um a haunted house or listening to true crime, watching true crime.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because the Bible commands us do not fear.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And by doing these things, we are be we're fearful, we're scared.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And God is really the only thing we should fear.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know, I think they're just kind of mixing up like adrenaline in fear, like an adrenaline junkie in fear.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't think that's what the Bible means when it says do not like do not fear.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I what I would take that as when the Bible says that is to not be a fearful, anxious person who can't do anything with their life and is too paralyzed by, you know, their past or their potential future or things like that for them to do anything that would give glory to the God or glory to God.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think it's about trust and command, yeah, to be allowing God to have control in your life, trusting his plan for your life, trusting his trusting his will.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think it means, you know, don't watch a spooky movie or go to a haunted house with your friends.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that that's where that comes from.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, they take this like specific term, do not fear, and I think it does have to do with anxiety and trusting God and worrying about the future or maybe current circumstances, and they take it and they like turn turn it into this blanket term that we shouldn't watch horror movies or true crime or go to haunted houses or trick-or-treat because that could have the potential to scare you.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, do not fear it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just feels so far-fetched to me.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a little ridiculous.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, people make that point.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, well, okay, so then does that mean we don't do anything that scares us?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do we not skydive?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do we not, you know, cliff jump or swim with sharks, or I don't even like name it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, do we not do any of those things then?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because those things are scary, but I don't think it's fear.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's more of like an adrenaline, you know, daredevil.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ride the tallest roller coaster because it's so cool.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're different when from that compared to when God says do not fear.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's the same comparison, you know.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think it speaks to yeah, like you said, the anxiety and like obsessively worrying about things and future and circumstances.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you hate your job, maybe your uh loved one has a surgery and you're worried about it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like trust in God, pray about it, give your concerns to Him.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I really think that's what is meant by do not fear.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to say like one thing to kind of like kind of like wrap all that up is don't take this the wrong way, as in like there there are demonic things, there are things you shouldn't do, there are evil things you shouldn't do.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's things that you know wouldn't be glorifying to God that you could do.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not saying do those things, we're not saying those things don't exist.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of from the point where I'm like, you know, dressing up in trick-or-treating on Halloween, I don't think that's necessarily like worshiping the devil.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's a little different.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: But like there, I I do believe like we live in a spiritual world, angels and demons are among us.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible talks about that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think that's anything you can really debate.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, obviously, there's evil wicked things going on in the world, and maybe people do evil wicked things on Halloween too, sure.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I I think you gotta be careful separating the two, you know, and not living in fear.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't Halloween, don't you're gonna be a demon if you dress up and you're worshiping the devil if you hand out Kit Katz, and it's like you know, it's like maybe that's the point of do not fear, you know.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's an in-between, but like by it by all means, don't mess up, don't don't get it twist with what we're saying.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there are still evil demonic things.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just not necessarily on the team that like Halloween is a demonic ritual, so yeah.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Turn off all the lights, hide in the basement, don't participate.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like you're afraid of all the kids knocking at your door.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like you're being a little fearful there.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but no, I agree.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And like what we take in, it does affect our mental state.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are there some horror movies maybe we shouldn't watch just for that reason?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you should use your Christian liberty and your discernment.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And well, that's why we're given discernment as Christians.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: We can kind of understand, okay, maybe this wouldn't be the best mentally or for my heart.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: But genuinely, I do believe Halloween is not something that Christians have to completely avoid at all costs because if they do, then they're condemned.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a sin.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're participating in some demonic ritual, or they're celebrating the devil's birthday.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my birthday's on Halloween.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like October 31st is my birthday.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what the kids in school used to tell me?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, they were like, Oh my gosh, what'd they say?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, You're Satan's daughter, you're Satan's child.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You were born on this big thing.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you're born on Halloween.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're some demon.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: People, people are crazy, and they I don't know, it's probably not as big of a thing as it was when we were growing up, but like there's definitely still Christian circles that are pretty uh pretty strict about that stuff.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess that's more what this is directed at.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But also it's good to like know kind of the traditions of things, you know.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why, what is Halloween?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: What was it?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we celebrate it?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the point of celebrating it?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is it just candy?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is it is it demonic?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it evil?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, so I think it's good to actually talk about that stuff and kind of like figure out where it came from.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Propaganda with Mick and Jacob.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: As always, we appreciate the listen.
• 16:46
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• 16:50
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• 16:53
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• 16:56
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• 16:58
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• 16:59
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• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: It really helps get the podcast out and we appreciate it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: As always, have a great rest of your weekend.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Happy Halloween.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And remember to vote.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's November 3rd.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Get out there, vote.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's always important.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We forget, we forget about these little elections when it's not, you know, a presidential election, but those matter too.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can't even say it seriously.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Those matter too, guys.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Get out and vote.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Get out the vote.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anyway.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But have a have a good weekend.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Halloween and uh stay safe.