(avg. read time: 13–26 mins.)
The argument over whether or not Christians should participate in Halloween—not whether an individual should abstain, but whether all Christians should abstain—seems to come up every year in the U.S. I do not know much about how Halloween is celebrated or received in other cultures, but it is a major day and season in the U.S. as stores prepare for it weeks in advance, TV channels have Halloween specials several days in advance, horror movies become especially popular fare, and some people—myself included—may dedicate much planning to the costumes worn for it. Of course, due to its association with the spiritual, death, the gothic, and horror, the day and season are often associated with greater interest in activities of the occult. It is obvious to everyone involved that Christians have no good reason to participate in the latter, since these activities are done in devotion to hostile powers. But those who are opposed to Christians participating in Halloween claim that there is something wrong with the day itself and any celebration of it. Why is there such a staunch opposition to this holiday in general, rather than simply to the activity explicitly devoted to the demonic?
Essentially, the stated problem is that the day is not a Christian day and is instead a day devoted to the devil and the demonic. It is supposedly a pagan celebration that we should therefore have nothing to do with, because what does light have in common with darkness? Arguments made to this effect point to the dangers of playing around with the fire of paganism and the demonic and attempt to prove the pagan association by pointing to the Celtic celebration of Samhain (even though the name from Halloween comes from its relationship to All Saints’/Hallows’ Day and so was called All Hallows’ Eve/Even). The importance of the historical basis to this argument is particularly well illustrated by the book The Facts on Halloween by John Ankerberg, John Weldon, and Dillon Burroughs.1 When they summarize their argument against allowing children to participate in Halloween, notice how often the historical basis comes up:
It is the most sacred day of many religions that are connected with evil spirits and Satan.
It was and is believed to be the day of the year on which the devil’s help could especially be invoked for a variety of things; it remains a special day to Satanists.
Human sacrifice of children and adults has often been practiced on this day.
It has and will continue to encourage non-Christian spiritual activity on the part of both children and adults. Halloween is growing in popularity and decadence.
It is a special day to call on spirits through various spiritual practices that are often promoted as innocent fun. For example, children try out a Ouija board or participate in séances.
It is a day historically known for divination.
It helps support pagan philosophies and practices such as reincarnation, animism, shamanism, and Druidism.
It is of help to the practices and beliefs of mediums and psychic researchers by encouraging people’s interest in things such as ghosts and poltergeists.
It can unequally yoke Christians and pagans (see 2 Corinthians 6:14).
It is likely that no Halloween activity or symbol can be found that does not go back to a non-Christian religious source.
Christian participation in Halloween can in many ways be dishonoring to God.
‘Everything that does not come from faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23).2
Indeed, their whole argument is framed with such claims:
If we innocently align ourselves with something that has been and continues to be connected with spiritual evil, can we be certain we will never be affected? In merely participating in Halloween, are we ignorantly involving ourselves in practices that dishonor God and associating ourselves with all he hates? Historically, how can we ignore the facts that indicate Halloween is the very day that the dark powers have chosen for themselves as special above all others—from the ancient Druids to modern Druids, witches, and Satanists?
Unfortunately, isn’t it also true that most Christians don’t even know these facts? But if the purpose of following Christ is to glorify God, is it really possible to glorify him by imitating, however innocently, what non-Christian religions do on their special day? Should Christians set out to imitate the things that historically and today are traced to something evil or dark, including dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating, displaying decorations, and setting out displays of fruit?3
The claimed origins of the day supposedly licenses statements that essentialize what the holiday is, always has been, and presumably always will be, which in turn licenses rhetoric like this: “If the Ku Klux Klan had a special day, would Christian parents dress up their kids as klansmen and send them out at night to commemorate it, even in fun and jest? Of course not! Why? Because parents would not want their children associated with the negative acts this organization characterizes.”4
In the era of social media, this argument has also often involved meme quotes, which unfortunately includes a quote from Anton LaVey—founder of the Church of Satan—to the effect that he appreciates that Christians worship Satan one day every year on Halloween.
I say “unfortunately” because this quote is a fake and I hate that Christians who oppose participating in Halloween share it to support their agenda. And even if he did say it, why should we care what he thinks? Because he is supposed to be an expert on Satan, the father of lies? It is also a tragic irony that Christians who argue against celebrating the father of lies present a lie to uphold their opposition to demonic deceit. The sooner people stop sharing this quote, the better.
I am clearly tipping my hand here as to what I think about Halloween and whether Christians can participate in it, but I would perhaps qualify my position more than others I have read who defend participation in Halloween. But before I get to my qualification, I want to make some counterpoints to this common way of thinking and, more importantly, explore the issues of the origins of Halloween. After all, so much of the argument for what Halloween is (as if in unchangeable essence) depends on where Halloween comes from.
Counterpoints
I will address more directly the issues of Halloween’s origins below, but I would like to make three points all working from the assumption that everything we are popularly told about Halloween is true. First, even if the popular narrative were true, why should that preclude Christian celebration on October 31st? If we are citizens and ambassadors of the kingdom of God, why should we cede any day of the year? Why should we say, “Okay Satan, you can have this day. We’ll just stay home and wait for the day to pass.” Why should evil have such veto power over good? Why can Christians not claim it in the name of the King? Is it not insulting to think that once pagans have claimed something (they certainly have in the present day, whatever may be said about the distant past) that it is theirs once and for all, that God can’t touch it? Even if Halloween could be demonstrated to be a pagan holiday in origin, it is not therefore forever tainted. It is yet another day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Jesus has already won the victory over the demons and will yet consummate it. There is no need to cede any day to them. Refuse to partake of this practice or that by all means, but let us not cease to mark another day the Lord has made.
Second, holiness can never be pursued by mere avoidance or abstinence, even if they can be an expression of holiness. That which is holy is not only set apart; it is whole. In short, it is set apart because it is whole. That which is whole/holy poses a danger to that which is unholy. That is why in the old covenant and in religious contexts around the world and across history, purification has been considered necessary to approach the holy. Purification or sanctification also has its place in the new covenant, but it is reconceptualized around Jesus. When Jesus—the Holiest of Holies—came, he was not contaminated by his contact with the unholy. Instead, he gave those who were considered unclean and unholy his contagious purity, a contagion that still spreads throughout the human race to this day. Why try to quarantine it on any day of the year, as if to think staying at home and refusing anyone who comes to the door, lest one encourage participation in the festivities, somehow encourages holiness?
Third, following this same reasoning, if abstention is being done out of concern for children especially—or even children in the faith—it seems wiser to prepare them for inevitable clashes with the world and dark powers around them. While I do not advocate reckless abandon, it will never be enough to teach the strategy of avoidance. Children and children in faith should be taught biblical and traditional wisdom on how to interact with the world around them, how to be in it while not being of it, how to know and articulate truth to counter falsehood, how to conduct oneself as a sexual being to combat all manner of sexual immorality, and how to be dependent on God and not on other things for value/worth, guidance, and identity.
But now we must address the foundational point of contention. Does Halloween, whether we call it by that name or by its root of All Hallows’ Eve, have its origins as a festival in paganism?
Origins of Halloween
In this section, I first want to present some of the common claims about the pagan origins of Halloween. Invariably, it is linked to the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which took place on November 1 and was meant to mark the beginning of winter.5 A leaflet the British Pagan Federation printed back in 1993 presents what is still the popular picture of Halloween, Samhain, and the relationship between the two:
Hallowe’en developed from the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced ‘sow-in’), which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter. For the Celts, Samhain was the beginning of the year and the cycle of seasons. Samhain was a time when the Celts acknowledged the beginning and the ending of all things. As they looked to nature, they saw the falling of the leaves from the trees, the coming of winter and death. It was a time when they turned to their Gods and Goddesses seeking to understand the turning cycles of life and death. Here, on the threshold of the cold barren winter months, it was also a time of feasting and celebration as the weakest animals were culled to preserve valuable foodstuffs and provide food to last until the following spring…. For the Celts, Samhain was a time when the gates between this world and the next were open. It was a time of communion with the spirits of the dead, who, like the wild autumnal winds, were free to roam the earth. At Samhain, the Celts called upon their ancestors, who might bring warnings and guidance to help in the year to come.
Samhain was a time of change and transformation where both the past and the present met with the uncertain tides of the future yet to come. It was a time for magic and divination, when Druids and Soothsayers would forecast the events of the coming year. The high Kings of Ireland held a week long [sic.] feast for this purpose, where seers foretold the coming pattern of farming and hunting, the times of eclipses and storms, and whether neighbouring Kings were plotting warfare. For the Celts, Samhain was both an end-of-summer feast and a time of communion with the realms of the spirit.
When Christian became established in Britain, the Pagan Goddesses and Gods were said to have fallen under the rule of all the saints. All Hallows Day (November 1st), now known as ‘All Saints Day’, celebrates this take over. The old Pagan traditions, however, were not eradicated and lived on in the guise of Hallowe’en—the eve of All Hallows Day of All Saints Day. It should not be surprising that Christianity should seek to suppress the Pagan celebration of Samhain. To the new religion, the deities of the old faith seemed like evil spirits. The natural ‘uncanniness’ of Samhain was interpreted as a time of danger for the Christian soul. The spirits of the dead and the spirits of the Otherworld, which the Celts called to at this time, were confused with the evil demons of the Christian religion.6
Lisa Morton, in her popular-level work Trick or Treat claims:
The unassailable facts of Halloween are fourfold. First, it boasts both a pagan and Christian history. Second, its position in the calendar – at the end of autumn/beginning of winter – means it has always served in part as a harvest celebration. Third, it is related to other festivals of the dead around the world, and so has always had a sombre, even morbid element. Finally, however, its combination of pagan New Year celebration and joyful harvest feast have also given it a raucous side, and it has almost always been observed with parties and mischief-making.7
As indicated above, Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs agree with the foregoing claims, and they add this on other aspects of Halloween:
On this night, evil or frustrated ghosts were also believed to play tricks on humans and cause supernatural manifestations, just like poltergeists today. As part of the celebration, people dressed in grotesque masks and danced around the great bonfires, often pretending they were being pursued by evil spirits. In addition, food was put out to make the ghosts or souls of the good dead Samhain had released feel welcomed and at home. Because Samhain marked the beginning of a new year, an interest in divination (the magic art of interpreting the unknown by interpreting random patterns or symbols) and fortune-telling became an important part of this holiday.8
What all of these claims about Samhain have in common—which they also share with what you will find online—is that no primary sources are cited to substantiate them. In this same vein are claims that appear on occasion to the effect that Halloween’s association with death is sometimes linked to Samhain because, supposedly, Samhain was also the name of a Celtic/Druid god of death.9 No primary text of Irish mythology is given for this claim, and although I am not exactly well versed in this mythology, I have yet to see any indication from any text that this was so. Nor is any primary text given for describing all of these supposed aspects of celebrating Samhain that have been transposed to Halloween. We do not know much at all about celebrations of Samhain, and so the people who claim these connections are either making them up themselves or are passing on what someone else made up.
Also, attempts to link the celebration of Samhain with All Hallows’ Eve and the larger complex in order to argue that the latter borrowed from the former because of the similarities in dates run into problems on both sides. First, Samhain was not celebrated on one day. We only have confirmation that the Irish Celts celebrated Samhain on November 1, while other Celts did not link Samhain to this day.10 Hutton also notes that we who reflexively link Samhain and Halloween tend to focus on the night of what we reckon as October 31, but the tendency in Irish mythology, as we have it, also emphasizes the daytime of November 1.11
Furthermore, although Samhain was linked especially with November 1 (and part of October 31 insofar as the Celts reckoned days from sunset to sunset), it was part of a larger festival that included the three days preceding and the three days succeeding November 1.12 But contrary to what many sources today claim, there is no clear indication in our earliest sources that such festivals were particularly religious with rituals dedicated to the gods or explicit engagement in worship. Roman sources claimed that the Celts engaged in human sacrifice, and some archaeological evidence may indicate this, but not unambiguously.13 But even these sources do not mention Samhain or anything like it, nor can we take these clearly polemical descriptions of “barbarians” as straightforward reporting.14 And although it is an argument from silence, it is a strange silence that St. Patrick never mentioned human sacrifices if this were some ritual of the Druids that lasted well into the Christian era (so as to influence All Saints’ Day).
As Nicholas Rogers notes, “The notion that Samhain was a festival of the dead was first popularized by Sir James Frazer in the now classic Golden Bough (1890).”15 Specifically, it is addressed in vol. 10. More recent analyses of comparative religions (such as by Jonathan Z. Smith, Bruce Lincoln, and the contributors to A Magic Still Dwells) have regularly noted the significant deficiencies of Frazer’s work, especially in terms of his assumptions, methodology, and hypotheses to explain the various comparisons he made.16 But as is also the case with Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons that is behind the claims made about Easter—although Frazer’s work is certainly better researched—the arguments remain, even after they have been detached from the authors’ names and no sources are otherwise given, because they are continually revived by anti-Christian skeptics, anti-Catholic Christians, and the people who simply don’t know any better who produce the majority of online content designed to answer questions about this holiday and others.17
Second, on the other side of this equation, it is important to note that the history of the dating of All Saints’ Day and the complex that developed around it is rather complicated. All Saints’ Day was celebrated centuries before its commemoration on November 1, so any notion that the holiday was invented to replace the celebration of Samhain—as popular writers often falsely posit of Christmas and pagan festivals in Rome—cannot be maintained. Annual commemoration of martyrs goes back to the second century at least, with our earliest record of such being from ch. 18 of the Martyrdom of Polycarp (cf. Tertullian, Cor. 3; Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus [FC 98:83]; the Breviary of the Apostles). John Chrysostom preached several homilies in commemoration of martyrs, including one dedicated to a group (On the Holy Martyrs 1–3).18 A hymn from Ephrem the Syrian in the Carmina Nisibena is taken to signify the commemoration of “martyrs of all the earth” on May 13.19 May 13 is also the date in 609 or 610 on which Pope Boniface IV consecrated what had been the Pantheon in Rome as a church for Mary and all the martyrs, so that May 13 became the day for a commemoration in Rome of all martyrs.20
At some point, the transition was made from referring in celebrations to “all martyrs” to referring to “all saints,” as in all the saints who have died. How and when this transition happened is unclear. Sometimes claims are made that Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in the basilica of St. Peter in Rome to all the saints on November 1, 731 and that this marked All Saints’ Day on that occasion. But others claim that this dedication happened on April 12, 732. I am presently unaware of any primary sources—as none of the popular or scholarly sources I have read cite any—that support or undermine either claim or the linkage of either to All Saints’ Day. In any case, we see clearer evidence of a shift, albeit not a total one, towards celebrating All Saints’ Day on November 1 in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. The Martyrologium Poeticum from York refers to All Saints’ Day as being on November 1.21 The Martyrology of Óengus the Culdee (or Óengus of Tallaght) refers to a feast in Rome of the saints of all of Europe on April 20, and refers, in the original Irish, to Samain/Samhain on November 1, though later translations rendered this as “All Saints’ Day.” Alcuin wrote around the same time in a letter dated to 800 addressed to his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and he also stated that this day was celebrated and should continue to be celebrated on the kalends of November (November 1; Ep. 193).22 All of this happened before the decree often pointed to as what turned the day of Samhain into All Saints’ Day, and therefore turned the night of October 31 into part of All Hallows’ Eve. That decree came in 835 from Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Carolingian Empire, at the urging of Pope Gregory IV, designating November 1 as All Saints’ Day in his kingdom.23
Furthermore, any claim of such a link would need to reckon with the diversity beyond the predominant Western tradition. It is true that to this day November 1 is the day of celebrating All Saints Day among the Western Christians who still commemorate it, and thus that October 31 marks All Hallows’ Eve. However, the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and Eastern Lutherans celebrate it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The Chaldean Catholics and Syro-Malabars celebrate it on the first Friday after Easter Sunday. And the Coptic Orthodox celebrate it on September 11. This further demonstrates that the origins of All Saints Day and associated celebrations have nothing to do with Samhain. Even where the dates coincide in the West, the history is more complicated than the simplistic theory of the perseverance of paganism would have one believe. As Robert A. Davis summarizes well,
That the festival of Samhain on 1 November figured prominently in the agricultural and legal calendars of early medieval Ireland is beyond dispute, but with the exception of Druidic forgeries such as those of the notorious seventeenth century fraudster Jeffrey Keating, no pre-Christian or medieval historical source clearly associates Samhain with any of the three pillars of the pagan hypothesis: veneration of the dead, supernatural activity linked to the temporary proximity of the otherworld, or the celebration of a Celtic New Year’s Eve on the basis of a chronographic system predating the Irish adoption of the Julian calendar (Roud 2006, 322-324).24
I will not address the history of All Souls’ Day as extensively, since it is at a further remove from Halloween, being celebrated now on November 2, but it was not for hundreds of years that it became fixed to that date after it was commemorated on February 3 in 998.25 As such, the claims of its connection with Samhain and the latter’s supposed fixation on communing with the dead also come up empty. Rather, what has buttressed All Souls’ Day and the three-day complex it is part of among Roman Catholics is the belief in Purgatory.26
As will be no surprise to anyone who has read my work on this Substack, I do not think Purgatory is biblical. Even if I agreed that 2 Maccabees is part of the canon, it is eisegetical to see Purgatory in 2 Macc 12:43–45, as that text says nothing even about an intermediate stratified state of existence for the dead. The various statements of Jesus of the first being last and the last being first, as well as the parable of the vineyard workers (Matt 20:1–16) all further indicate that Purgatory is not in keeping with the biblical ethos.
Having said all of this, it is important to remember that this is a matter of debate about the Bible and Christian tradition. Purgatory was not, despite the claims of some who want to link Catholicism to paganism as often as possible, an importation of a previously formed pagan belief about the afterlife. It comes from certain texts and imagery, like Paul’s fire imagery in 1 Cor 3, and the roots of it in the tradition go back to the likes of Clement of Alexandria and Origen. But it would take a long time for such beliefs to develop into the formal doctrine of Purgatory, which was not defined until the Second Council of Lyon in 1274.27
Likewise, this connection stands behind the association of ghosts and other images of the dead with All Saints’ Day and its complex (including Halloween):
The work of Peter Maxwell-Stuart (2006) has however demonstrated that belief in ghosts, and debate over the status of spectral apparitions from beyond the grave, exercised the mind of the medieval Church at all levels of ecclesiastical pronouncement. An initial hostility to belief in ghosts, which predominated from patristic times until the Carolingian revival of the ninth and tenth centuries, yielded gradually to a more sympathetic reading of the presence of ghostly agencies in the scriptures and in the burgeoning missionary literature of saints’ lives and miracle stories. Indeed, Benedictine tradition held that Abbot Odilo’s inauguration of the Feast of All Souls in 998 originated in the tale of the suffering spirit of one of his deceased brothers at Cluny returning from the grave to petition his community for prayers for the repose of his soul. The rush of popular interest in the doctrine of purgatory undoubtedly prompted a huge proliferation in ghostly apparitions, stimulating extensive theological discussion of the topic among the doctors of the Church and exciting sometimes fevered responses from troubled secular and ecclesiastical authorities to bursts of popular enthusiasm for ghosts, hauntings and exorcisms. Jean-Claude Schmitt (1998) highlights two important and frequently neglected aspects of this shift in attitude: first, its almost complete independence from any notion of a “sacred calendar” of spectral manifestations (Christmas and Epiphany were, in fact, much more common occasions for hauntings than All Saints and All Souls, suggesting that ghosts regularly took shameless advantage of the meagre leisure time of medieval people); secondly, its frequently banal and even playful character.28
Indeed, costuming and trick-or-treating came in part from the carnivalesque treatment of these entities and things associated with them, whereas the more malevolent atmosphere sometimes associated with Halloween today comes from the receding of the link with Purgatory being replaced with more secularized ideas (as well as, sometimes, neopagan ones).29 Another contributor to the development of costuming and trick-or-treating is the masquerade that accompanied begging for “soul cakes” at this time of year, whereby those who gave to the costumed were satisfying the call for charity (which was itself frequently tied with penance and Purgatory, so that those who were charitable could reduce their time in Purgatory).30 Davis summarizes this interconnection well:
Accustomed to the sale of indulgences as the ultimate hypocrisy of the corrupt doctrine of purgatory, it is hard to appreciate the extent to which the cultural logic of a violent aristocratic society, built on shortage and scarcity, demanded an exculpatory facility for the salvation of fugitive sinners whose transgressions had frequently placed them otherwise beyond rescue (Le Goff 1986, 289-344). Charitable giving, fully synthesized with the penitential philosophy of the purgatorial season, and frequently of quite staggering dimensions, provided this recourse on a grand scale in the later Middle Ages. Central to the relationship of powerful social elites to wider society, the twin practices of ritual begging and charitable donation acted as a type of penitential obligation paralleled by the performance of petitionary prayer for the dead. At the same time, begging and almsgiving were eloquently expressive of a commitment to real social solidarity in the midst of pervasive material want and competition over scarce resources. Halloween, it is important to recall, is repeatedly acknowledged in early modern literature as a communal celebration in which the duties of the rich to the poor are conscientiously discharged within the context of a concerted collective effort to obtain release into the joys of heaven for kindred souls toiling in purgatory. Charitable giving, epitomised by the provision of alms to beggars, of course accrued additional virtue if carried out in accordance with the anonymity recommended in the Gospel.31
Similarly, Rogers notes:
In fact, it became customary in many towns and villages for the richer parishioners to offer doles to the poor during Hallowtide in return for prayers to the dead, emulating the medieval custom of the well-to-do, who left small bequests for this purpose to parishes and chantries. The spectacle of the poor receiving food for prayers at Hallowtide was well established by Shakespeare’s day. In his comedy Two Gentlemen of Verona, Speed mockingly accuses his master of “puling [whining or whimpering], like a beggar at Hallowmas.”32
The complex of All Saints’ Day (All Hallows’ Eve included) was, in fact, one of many occasions of socio-religiously encouraged charity. Rogers lists other such days in the medieval calendar as including, “Guy Fawkes Day (5 November); St. Clement’s Day (23 November); St. Catherine’s Day (25 November); St. Andrew’s Day (30 November); even St. Nicholas’s Day (6 December) and St. Thomas’s (21 December), just a few days before Christmas.”33 But while such practices may be the ultimate origins of what we see in Halloween today, it is important to note that the socio-religious structure that upheld them is no longer in place and what we see in trick-or-treating today has more recent, albeit still related, influences in what Tad Tuleja describes as, “a response to two forms of social tension: the boyish vandalism of the nineteenth century Halloween and the social turmoil of the Great Depression. To both disruptions, trick or treat provided a corrective, one that—perhaps ironically, perhaps predictably—ceremonialized rather than resolved the implicit tensions.”34
As such, it is important not to swing too far in the other direction from the notion of Halloween as an example of pagan perseverance to then claim that there is a direct line of descent from the medieval celebration to Halloween today. In fact, the various rituals and accoutrements of Halloween have clearly taken on a shape of their own in the modern world in the wake of the Reformation, secularization, and gradual disconnect of October 31—November 2 from the practice of the Church. Two points remain the case. One, Halloween is Christian, not pagan, in origin. Two, even with this origin in mind, we who must decide whether or how participate in it must reckon with what it is today. It is to the questions of discernment and participation that we turn in Part 2.
John Ankerberg, John Weldon, and Dillon Burroughs, The Facts on Halloween, 2nd ed. (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2008).
Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs, Facts, 44–45.
Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs, Facts, 34.
Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs, Facts, 40.
“The four great points of the ancient Irish year are neatly set out in the Ulster tale of the wooing of Emer by Cú Chulainn [Tochmarc Emire]. Among various tasks which she set him before he could wed her, was to go sleepless from ‘Samhain, when the summer goes to its rest, until Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring’s beginning; from Imbolc until Beltine at the summer’s beginning and from Beltine to Bron Trogain, earth’s sorrowing in autumn’.” Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (Oxford; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1991), 176.
Quoted in Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 360.
Lisa Morton, Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (London: Reaktion, 2012), 12.
Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs, Facts, 13.
E.g., Ankerberg, Weldon, and Burroughs, Facts, 11. They are also strangely insistent on this claim, as shown in the following quote: “Samhain as the specific name of the lord of death is uncertain, but it is possible that the lord of death was the chief Druid deity. We’ll follow the common practice of other authors on this issue and refer to this deity by the name Samhain.” On the one hand, they wish to say it is uncertain, but this is a strange thing to be uncertain about if this is supposed to be the chief Druid deity. Yet, despite this lack of certainty, they apparently feel secure in following the crowd, rather than being responsible with what can be rightly asserted. Even Morton’s work undermines this claim (Trick or Treat, 9–11; cf. Nicholas Rogers, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002], 19).
Hutton, Pagan Religions, 177.
Hutton, Pagan Religions, 177.
This is indicated by the opening of the twelfth-century Serglige Con Culaind (The Sick-Bed of Cú Chulainn or The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulainn).
Rogers, Halloween, 18. Our Roman sources on the Celts and Druids include Julius Caesar, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny the Elder.
Rogers, Halloween, 13–14.
Rogers, Halloween, 19.
More directly related to my specialty, see Mark S. Smith, “The Death of ‘Dying and Rising Gods’ in the Biblical World: An Update with Special Reference to Baal in the Baal Cycle,” SJOT 12 (1998): 257–313, esp. 260–69.
For more on Frazer’s influence, and for a good post on this subject in general, see Timothy O’Neill’s work at https://historyforatheists.com/2021/10/is-halloween-pagan/.
More generally, see John Chrysostom, The Cult of the Saints, ed. and trans. Wendy Mayer and Bronwen Neil (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2006).
Gustav Bickell, ed. and trans., S. Ephraemi Syri Carmina Nisibena: Additis Prolegomenis et Supplemento Lexicorum Syriacorum (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1866), 23.
The Roman Martyrology provides the date. For the event (without the date), also see The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First Ninety Roman Bishops to AD 715, trans. Raymond Davis (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1989), 62; Bede, The Reckoning of Time 66. More generally on this story and the history of the building that was the Pantheon, see https://erenow.net/ancient/the-pantheon-from-antiquity-to-the-present/8.php.
Available in Latin at: https://archive.org/details/monumentagerman04geseuoft/page/320/mode/2up.
Jean Beleth, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 7.34; Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronicon [835].
Robert A. Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames: Halloween as a Christian Festival,” in Treat or Trick? Halloween in a Globalising World, ed. Malcolm Foley and Hugh O’Donnell (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009), 29.
Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 32. Also see Rogers, Halloween, 22–23.
To what extent this is true of Roman Catholicism, I am not knowledgeable enough concerning associated traditions of All Saints’ in the other noted traditions to talk about them.
For more on the development of the doctrine, see Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 33–35.
Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 37–38.
Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 38; Rogers, Halloween, 24–25.
Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 39; Rogers, Halloween, 28–30.
Davis, “Escaping Through the Flames,” 39.
Rogers, Halloween, 24.
Rogers, Halloween, 30.
Tad Tuleja, “Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts,” in Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, ed. Jack Santino (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1994), 86 (also see 86–90 for further exposition).