Halloween is it devilish?

Question

Ok i heard that halloween is supposedly the devil's birthday or somthing. and im pretty sure that thats not true! but i want some facts about halloween anyway.... so tell me watcha got!?

Answer 1

Well, once when I was trick or treating this Asian dude gave me a pamplet on why it is bad to trick or treat.

Its something about the devil, demons, spirits, death ext.

Answer 2

Halloween (Hallowe'en, Hallowtide, Hallowmas, Allhallow-even) is short for "All Hallows Even" which means "All Saints Eve". It is the eve before All Saints Day, a Catholic day to honor all the saints who do not already have a feast day of their own. All Saints Day was originally celebrated on May 13 when Pope Boniface IV rededicated the Pantheon in Rome to 'St. Mary and All Martyrs' in 609 A.D. It was moved to November 1 in the 8th century when Pope Gregory III dedicated St. Peter's Basilica to all the saints . In 998 A.D. All Souls Day was added as a day to pray for the souls in purgatory and attend a requiem mass.

Folk customs surrounding All Souls are the origin of the belief that the dead come back on Halloween. People would visit cemeteries, decorate relatives' graves, and leave food offerings for the dead. In some areas they would set a place at the table or arrange chairs around the fireplace for the returning souls of the dead. In Ireland people would also sometimes leave food for the fairies (divine or semi-divine beings who could be dangerous, and not the little creatures with wings that we think of today). All Saints and All Souls customs have long been celebrated in non-Celtic parts of Europe (or parts that had lost their Celtic connections long before All Saints Day was established).

Samhain had an influence on Halloween in Ireland, and in turn Scotland, and that is the version that turned into what we know as Halloween today. Samhain is mentioned in numerous medeival Irish sagas, whose written manuscripts survive from as far back as the eleventh century, as a day of great importance. It was a day of feasting, games, drinking, great battles, heroic feats and interaction between mortals and the realm of the fairies. In Ireland the customs that are associated with Halloween are the same as the ones mentioned in the sagas as being part of Samhain: divination, partying, the belief that the fairies mingle with humans on this night. Today 'Samhain' is the Irish word for the month of November. Oiche Shamnha is Irish for Halloween; it means the "eve of Saman (Samhain)". Samhain is not the name of a god, and the Celts had no Lord of Death. A lot of falsehoods about Samhain come from nineteenth century romanticism, religious attacks on Halloween, and modern neo-pagan ideas getting confused with traditional Celtic beliefs.

Although the Irish version of Halloween is the one that was eventually adopted in the United States, when it was brought over in the nineteenth century, All Saints and All Souls celebrations in the Americas can be traced back to the arrival of the Spanish and French missionaries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Native Americans adopted these traditions and combined them with their native celebrations. These feast days are still celebrated today as Mexico's Day of the Dead, the Zuni ahoppa awan tewa, the Odawa Ghost Supper, shuma sashti, and other native celebrations.

In the nineteenth century, vast numbers of Irish, and to a lesser extent Scottish, immigrants settled in the United States and brought their Halloween customs with them. Unlike the more solemn, purely Catholic observance of All Saints/All Souls Day typical in continental Europe, the Irish version was more of a fun harvest festival in nature. Victorian-era Americans quickly adopted this holiday as an excuse to throw parties, send greeting cards, and perform lighthearted divination spells to determine the identity of one's future spouse.

Halloween is now considered an American holiday. In some places it is celebrated in conjunction with the more soloemn All Saints/All Souls Day celebrations, in some places it is separate, and in others it has evolved into a completely distinct holiday, such as Mexico's Day of the Dead.

During the Protestant Reformation customs surrounding All Saints Day were dubbed "satanic" because they were Catholic or "papist". In fact Martin Luther started the Reformation on October 31, 1517. He chose All Saints Eve because a lot of people had come to town for a special church event.

The religious extremist movement of the last few decades has taken a combination of very poorly researched ideas that were popular in the late 19th century, and combined them with hysterical ideas perpetuated by leaders of the religious extremists, to come up with a history of Halloween that has absolutely no basis in fact. .

Even the pagan traditions that influenced, or combined with, All Saints and All Souls - such as Samhain in Ireland; Parentalia, Feralia and Lemuria in ancient Rome; and the Feast of the Dead among the Native Americans - were in no way satanic. They couldn't have been since satan is a figure that is unique to the Abrahamic faiths. However, Christianity has a history of dubbing anything non-Christian as "satanic".

So don't worry, Halloween is not satanic in any way. I know you sometimes see devil decorations, but this is no different than when parishoners would parade around the church on All Saints Day during the Middle Ages dressed as angels, saints, and occasionally devils. In other words, the devil decorations reflect Halloween's Christian heritage. Halloween was considered a time to protect from evil, not participate in evil.

Answer 3

Here's some sites that go over the history and origin of Halloween

http://www.history.com/minisites/hallowe...

http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/...

Answer 4

Yes, Halloween is devilish, but in a fun way. Don't take it too seriously and you'll be fine.  

Answer 5

halloween is hallows eve.

skim through this and you'll get the idea :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Answer 6

Well, who knows.....

Halloween - the evening before All Saints' Day; often devoted to pranks played by young people.

^ Thats the defention in the dictionary. It probably is because you go out in scary costumes trying to scare other people.

Answer 7

Halloween can't be the devil's birthday because the devil was never born!  He was created as an angel.

Halloween can be, among other things, a celebration of autumn, observance of the lengthening nights, a day to celebrate, study, or defy (not deify) scary or occultic things, or a day to "let loose" and be something different.

Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day.

Do with Halloween what you want.  The Bible tells us not to let anyone judge us over "a new moon, a festival, or a Sabbath".

Colossians 2:16

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

Answer 8

Halloween is short for  Hallows Evening. In puritanical America the "witches" of the day used this time to supposedly do their casting and curses. I think it had something to do with Beltain or something close. I know it was held as a time when thier powers were strongest. Anyway it was also thought that the unchecked evils (ie goblins, ghosts and such) would come out to play tricks on the "normal folk". So to fool the spirits people would dress up like them to keep the spirits from bothering them. It is not an evil holiday though some folks think otherwise. If you Google Halloween history it'll tell you all about the tration from then till present. Hope this helps.

Answer 9

I like The Simpsons version best... Once there were three witches and they terrorised a local village once a year to get food (mainly people!) until at one home they were given some candy. They much preferred this as it was tastier and so decided they would return the next year for more candy. However when they returned the children of the village had taken the holiday for themselves!

Seriously though not the Devils bday. All Hallows Eve is the day before All Saints day (well they use to be the same day but that is just too much history) and the veil between the dead and the living is at it thinest.

People didn't want the dead to destroy crops etc so would offer then sacrifices of livestock and costumes were worn to try to mimic or placate the spirits.

Answer 10

most people say that, but i dont believe it. there is only one big national holiday devoted to a person and that is christmas ( jesus), not counting president's birthdays and what not. but im not going to try and change people's opinions because i have my own too. if you think it's the devil's birthday, then that's what you think.