Happy??? Halloween???

How can the word 'happy' be associated with Halloween? What is 'happy' about a day created to celebrate death? I never really thought about the whole Halloween thing as much as I have this year. It really bothers me that people are so quick to celebrate something that they don't truly understand.

To put it simply... Halloween is the worship of the dead.

The only death that produced any result for anyone was the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Society is very quick to ignore that death and sacrifice. My church sign desk calendar today said it very well... "Heaven is not a trick, and hell is not a treat." If people realized what Halloween is all about, they would be shocked. There are places even today, that human sacrifices are performed and prayers are offered to the devil.

For some reason, Halloween has been turned into a kid's day... or so everyone would like to think. I heard on the radio on my way to work the other day that Halloween is not for kids any more. It's adults that celebrate this day. I admit... I used to like seeing the tiny little kids dressed in their costumes. They were SO cute! Most of them are so young, they don't even know why they are going from house to house... and they're never going to eat the treats put in their baskets. This is all for the adults! Some were so tiny that they are unable to climb the front steps of the houses... do we really need to take them out?

I skimmed the surface of the meaning of Halloween the other day through the internet. In a nutshell, this is a celebration of the dead. People would go up to a mountain top to offer a sacrifice to this "god". On their way up the mountain, they would stop at each of their neighbors houses and collect food as an offering to be presented at their destination. Once the sacrifice ceremony was complete, they would make their way back down the mountain to go home. On the way back down, they would carry gourds with candles in them to light their path. Because they were afraid of the evil spirits they may meet on their journey down the mountain, they would wear a disguise so that the spirits may not recognize them and they would cut scary faces in the sides of their gourd "lanterns" to try to scare off any evil forces.

Why would anyone want to follow in this tradition? I work in an office building downtown and you wouldn't believe how many "crazy" people I met today. The trains were busier, the traffic was atrocious and everyone was generally 'weird'. I couldn't wait to get home, build a fire in my fireplace and curl up with a book.

The Bakers will probably come over later so that we can pray for the city. We will pray that the evil forces that have such a hold on our society will be destroyed. We will pray that the city is loosed and people will turn to THE GOD... not 'a' god, but THE GOD! We do not 'celebrate' His death... we celebrate that He is alive and living today and every day. We are thankful for His mercy and grace. Without Him, we can do nothing... but with Him, WE CAN DO ANYTHING!!!

Happy?? Halloween... I don't think so!