Do
You Know The Story?
(Halloween Cards)
(Halloween Cards)
On the
rear side of each card, October31.info is mentioned so the card
recipient can obtain details of this "un-hallowed" night
that they are celebrating, along with a sealable bag where you can place the card along with a piece of candy (if you so desire.)
Let's give them something to think about.
Let's give them something to think about.
It
Started As An Ancient Pagan Holiday
Many ancient societies in Europe celebrated the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter as particularly spiritual times. Historically, the strongest influence on Halloween customs and traditions was Samhain, a holiday observed by the ancient Celts. Samhain began at sundown on October 31st and extended into the following day. The Celtic pagan religion, called Druidism, believed that the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on Samhain evening. They believed that this was the day in the year when the veil between the natural world and the spirit world was extremely thin; allowing spirits of the dead and departed, as well as demons and devils to move among the living.
In order to ward off these spirits, the Celts prepared offerings of food and drink, built bonfires and performed rituals at sacred sites. They would put on scary masks, costumes and paint their faces in the hopes of warding off these demons and devils. People thought that a devil would only be frightened of something that looked as hideous as it looked. They carved faces into turnips and put lights inside of them to keep demons away from them and their homes. (We used pumpkins because we had more pumpkins than turnips available in North America.) Some of these rituals often involved animal and human sacrifices thought to honor Druid gods. In the very beginning, a bonfire was actually a bone-fire (bones were mixed with the wood to burn longer).
Many ancient societies in Europe celebrated the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter as particularly spiritual times. Historically, the strongest influence on Halloween customs and traditions was Samhain, a holiday observed by the ancient Celts. Samhain began at sundown on October 31st and extended into the following day. The Celtic pagan religion, called Druidism, believed that the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on Samhain evening. They believed that this was the day in the year when the veil between the natural world and the spirit world was extremely thin; allowing spirits of the dead and departed, as well as demons and devils to move among the living.
In order to ward off these spirits, the Celts prepared offerings of food and drink, built bonfires and performed rituals at sacred sites. They would put on scary masks, costumes and paint their faces in the hopes of warding off these demons and devils. People thought that a devil would only be frightened of something that looked as hideous as it looked. They carved faces into turnips and put lights inside of them to keep demons away from them and their homes. (We used pumpkins because we had more pumpkins than turnips available in North America.) Some of these rituals often involved animal and human sacrifices thought to honor Druid gods. In the very beginning, a bonfire was actually a bone-fire (bones were mixed with the wood to burn longer).
Halloween Reaches The US
New England was initially settled by English Puritans, a strict Protestant sect that rejected Halloween as a Catholic and pagan holiday. However, soon other British colonists brought Halloween traditions to the southern colonies including Virginia and Maryland. Be the main growth of the tradition follows the Irish settlers who came to the Americas during The Great Potato Famine of 1848. Thus, the tradition spread throughout the United States by the mid-19th century.
Allowing children to participate in the celebration of Halloween may appear to be quite harmless on the surface, but the spiritual implications are far from Christian. In today's world, fortune-telling, Ouija boards, ESP, telepathy, horoscopes, voodoo, clairvoyance, yoga, hypnosis, magic, transcendental meditation, Eastern religions, reincarnation, metaphysics and many other practices are expressly forbidden in Scripture. They are related to the occult and satanic forces. Therefore believers should have nothing to do with them. (M.A. Dalton)
"However, to celebrate or not is up to each individual."
