Too few have ever stopped to deeply consider why they believe what they do, why they follow the customs they do, or where those customs came from.
One example is the celebration of various holidays and traditions. Take Halloween, for instance. Every year on the evening of October 31, millions of Americans participate in the nation’s second-most lucrative holiday of the year. It is the occasion for parties, pranks and children requesting treats or threatening tricks. Many masquerade in grotesque costumes and eerie disguises. Why? They don’t know. They just do it because that’s what others are doing.
It is clear to see that Halloween’s symbolism is based on darkness. But how did society come up with such a bizarre holiday? A cursory check of world history reveals that ancient pagans performed mystical rites and ceremonies in honor of the dead on their “New Year’s Eve” (October 31). This celebration helped preserve the false doctrine of the “immortality of the soul”—that the dead aren’t really dead.
Years ago, Halloween was simply the evening celebration in anticipation of “All Saints’ Day”—November 1—in honor of the “lord of the dead.” This was actually in honor of the devil, not God. The Holy Bible reveals that God isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:31-32). Nevertheless, the Halloween tradition has been perpetuated to this day and further popularized through commercialization.
God and true Christianity stand for the exact opposite of death and darkness—for light and life (John 1:4-5). No matter how much of a joke we make it out to be, Halloween is simply Satan worship. It is, in real fact, connected with rank idolatry and demonism.
The overtly heathen practices of Halloween—and even the subtly pagan customs associated with certain other supposedly “religious” holidays, such as Christmas and Easter—worked themselves into professing Christianity down through the annals of history and are still being celebrated today, with most people giving no thought whatsoever to their origin and few doing anything about it once they learn of it.
There are certain celebratory days, however, that worship the great God—days He instituted within the ancient nation of Israel that are still to be kept in our modern society. Many passages in the Holy Bible show us that Jesus and the entire New Testament Church kept the same annual feast days that the God of the Old Testament commanded His chosen people Israel to keep forever (Leviticus 23:1-36).
What could be better than restoring the observance of God’s holy days? Kept according to His instructions, God’s holy days are much more meaningful and fulfilling than all of the world’s “traditional” holidays put together.
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