We are not saying that Jack-o-Lanterns, wearing a costume, bobbing for apples, black cats, or bon fires in themselves are evil.
But we need to be aware of what they symbolize during Halloween.
The activities of Halloween do not have innocent origins.
Some may argue that we can take the evil activities and make them good.
In some ways, yes.
But I ask you a challenging question.
Are the Halloween activities and celebrations as innocent as they were just a few years ago? Take a look at the decorations, movies, haunted houses, pranks of today compared to when you were a kid.
The signs of violence, grotesque imagery, satanic evidence, and evil pranks are much worse in our society today.
There is a difference between Christmas (which has pagan roots and is not the date of Jesus birth) and Halloween.
Christmas has turned people to be kinder and softer during the Christmas season (even though we have a real problem with the secularization and materialism of Christmas).
The celebration of Halloween becomes more macabre each year.
Why would a Christian want their children to participate in the deeds of darkness?
We will have a nugget on alternatives to Halloween-normally called Harvest Festivals.
The Jack-o-lantern:
Hundreds of years before Christ, on Halloween night each Druid dressed in hooded robes
and has slung over his shoulder on a cord, a large,
hallowed-out turnip with an oil lamp burning inside.
Carved into the side of the hollow turnip is a face, in an attempt to ward off evil spirits.
When the Celtics immigrated to the New World they found pumpkins, much easier to hollow out and carve than turnips.
Among the English-speaking Celts the hollowed turnip or pumpkin was known as "Jock (or Jack) of the Lantern."
referring to the spirit guide (Jock or Jack) who lived in them.
Lore has it that Jack, was too bad to get into heaven but wasn't permitted into hell because of a deal he had made with the devil,
supposedly wanders the earth holding a carved turnip with a glowing coal from hell as his guide. This is "Jack's lantern."
But we need to be aware of what they symbolize during Halloween.
The activities of Halloween do not have innocent origins.
Some may argue that we can take the evil activities and make them good.
In some ways, yes.
But I ask you a challenging question.
Are the Halloween activities and celebrations as innocent as they were just a few years ago? Take a look at the decorations, movies, haunted houses, pranks of today compared to when you were a kid.
The signs of violence, grotesque imagery, satanic evidence, and evil pranks are much worse in our society today.
There is a difference between Christmas (which has pagan roots and is not the date of Jesus birth) and Halloween.
Christmas has turned people to be kinder and softer during the Christmas season (even though we have a real problem with the secularization and materialism of Christmas).
The celebration of Halloween becomes more macabre each year.
Why would a Christian want their children to participate in the deeds of darkness?
We will have a nugget on alternatives to Halloween-normally called Harvest Festivals.
The Jack-o-lantern:
Hundreds of years before Christ, on Halloween night each Druid dressed in hooded robes
and has slung over his shoulder on a cord, a large,
hallowed-out turnip with an oil lamp burning inside.
Carved into the side of the hollow turnip is a face, in an attempt to ward off evil spirits.
When the Celtics immigrated to the New World they found pumpkins, much easier to hollow out and carve than turnips.
Among the English-speaking Celts the hollowed turnip or pumpkin was known as "Jock (or Jack) of the Lantern."
referring to the spirit guide (Jock or Jack) who lived in them.
Lore has it that Jack, was too bad to get into heaven but wasn't permitted into hell because of a deal he had made with the devil,
supposedly wanders the earth holding a carved turnip with a glowing coal from hell as his guide. This is "Jack's lantern."
1 comment:
this made my tummy feel nauseous...a coal from hell to guide him...
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