MOSCOW, October 31 - RIA Novosti, Milena Faustova, Marina Borisova. On the night of November 31 to 1, many people in Russia, as well as throughout the world, following the United States and Canada, are preparing to celebrate Halloween, a pagan holiday, the meaning of which few people today understand.
“This disgusting mask show is contrary to the spiritual and cultural traditions of the peoples of Russia”... “The distortion of the human face with the help of masks depicting bestial and demonic creatures cannot but leave an imprint on the emotional state of a person, cannot but affect his soul”... “Among Muslims extremely negative attitude towards this event, Halloween shows signs of outright demonism, so you will not hear about it in a positive way from any Muslim - neither in Europe, nor in America, anywhere."
With rare unanimity, religious and public figures denounce this “commercial project” and a means of “cultural colonization,” teachers and psychologists worry about the fragile children’s psyche, for which “playing with images of evil” can be dangerous, and young Orthodox activists gather “with posters and leaflets" to walk the streets and "explain to passers-by why they should not celebrate or promote Halloween."
Meanwhile, “those who like to dress up and scare others” are vying with all available means to buy fancy dress costumes, attend “fun parties,” “horror discos” and “freak balls” in nightclubs, all kinds of Halloween quests and even a “terrifying bike ride.” The people are stubbornly preparing to have fun wildly, without thinking about what they are actually celebrating.
History of Halloween: Celts or Indians?
It is believed that Halloween (All Hallows Evening - the evening before All Saints' Day, or in Old English - All hallow ees - the mass of the celebration of All Saints, which the Roman Catholic Church celebrates on November 1) originates in the culture of the Celts, who had four distinct marked the beginning of the seasons. One of them, the Samhain holiday, which was celebrated on October 31, marked the arrival of winter and had agricultural and seasonal significance.
Historians believe that we owe the perception of it as a dark and pagan holiday associated with the cult of the dead to Christian monks of the 10th - 11th centuries. They support their version by the presence of traditional Halloween attributes, for example, the so-called Jack-o'-lantern.
According to Irish legend, a cunning and stingy farmer named Jack managed to deceive the devil himself, luring him into promising not to take the farmer's soul to hell after death. And since Jack was not allowed into heaven for his sins, the devil, remembering his word, “helped” his friend - he gave him smoldering coals from the fire of hell so that Jack could light his path. To make them burn longer, he cut a lantern out of a turnip and put them in it. Since then, a lantern or Jack's lamp has been a symbol of a restless soul that wanders in the dark, illuminating its path with smoldering embers. In Western Christian teaching, the place where such souls languish is called purgatory.
In the late Celtic tradition, turnips or rutabaga were used as a “Jack-O-Lantern”. Pumpkin appeared much later: the vegetable was most likely brought to Europe by missionaries who visited North and Central America. From there, in all likelihood, some of the ritual side of modern Halloween was borrowed. After all, it was in Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, since the times of the ancient Indian tribes of the Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs that the Day or Carnival of the Dead was celebrated (and is still celebrated) at the end of October and beginning of November, and the theme of death plays a leading role there .
Long before the advent of Christianity, Indian tribes, as a gift to the goddess Mictlancihuatl - “the lady of the dead” - these days brought the skulls of their deceased ancestors, which they carefully kept in their own homes as a great family heirloom and displayed during various rituals as a symbol of death and a peculiar - of course, not Christian - resurrection.
The ancient Indians believed that the souls of those who died on the day of the Carnival of the Dead returned to the skulls that once belonged to them, and thus were temporarily reunited with the living.
The ancient Indian Day of the Dead merged with Christian ideas about All Saints' Day in the 15th century - after the discovery of America and the active Christianization of the local population. And over the centuries, it began to acquire the features of the Halloween that is known throughout the world today. These include skull-pumpkins (pumpkin in America is the cheapest and most accessible vegetable) as a kind of Celtic “Ariadne’s thread” in purgatory, and carnival costumes depicting skeletons, dead people, mummies, otherworldly monsters, witches, sorcerers, and the tradition of begging for sweets. The latter, despite the fact that it has its roots in pre-Christian pagan rituals, in the Middle Ages was closely intertwined with the customs of another Catholic celebration - the Nativity of Christ.
Despite the fact that Halloween, which began to be widely celebrated only at the end of the 19th century in America and Canada, has today gained popularity all over the world and, of course, has a spiritual (sacred) component, in religious circles it is treated with a certain caution and even hostility .
Attitudes towards Halloween in Russia
As the director of the information service of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese explained to RIA Novosti Mother of God in Moscow, priest Kirill Gorbunov, Halloween is a “folk festival of pagan origin”, which is mistakenly considered a Catholic holiday. Moreover, some Catholics do not know about its existence at all - for example, in Cameroon, Uruguay, Korea. However, at one time, since Halloween has been adjacent to two great Catholic holidays since ancient times - All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2), the Roman Catholic Church tried to “use” Halloween to strengthen the Christian faith.
“The holy fathers also said that evil does not tolerate ridicule, because the essence of the devil’s sin is pride, and it cannot stand being laughed at. Therefore, as a mockery of the forces of evil opposing God, this holiday could exist, and the church would not had nothing against him,” the Catholic priest said, adding that when the holiday turned into “a purely secular festival, in which there was too much cruelty, violence and sexual promiscuity,” the rationale for holding it disappeared.
News and a fashionable flash mob inspired the creators of a Halloween costumeHalloween is celebrated in the United States and other English-speaking countries annually on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day according to the Catholic calendar. According to popular superstitions, it is on the eve of this holiday, only once a year, that evil spirits can come to earth.“In the 18th-19th centuries, it was more of a children’s holiday, because children really love horror stories. Now this masquerade has become popular among adults, who perceive it as a day of permissiveness, and in it one can no longer see the Christian understanding of evil and the church’s attitude towards it.” , - Kirill Gorbunov is sure. However, the director of the information service of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Our Lady in Moscow considered it “excessive to declare Halloween dangerous for our society and to prohibit it.”
In Russian Orthodox Church People have been warning against celebrating Halloween for decades. And in different cities of the country, the clergy and ordinary believers have been coming up with a variety of initiatives to ban Halloween for several years now, both regionally and nationally. federal levels. Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, however, in a conversation with a RIA Novosti correspondent, expressed confidence that “simply bans will not help.”
Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov: A Word about Halloween
- Father Dmitry, please tell me how the Church feels about the Halloween holiday?
In the form that we see on the streets, in some institutions - in my opinion, this is a disgusting madness.
-What shape do you see?
People put on masks of demons, all sorts of antics, disgusting behavior - it looks more like all sorts of horror films than the holiday of All Saints. This is a completely emasculated European tradition. We have a completely different tradition in Russia. In our country, even when mummers walked around in some regions of Russia - at Christmas, they wore more cute forms, and the Church has always said that any clowning is completely unacceptable on the highly solemn and holy day when Christ came to earth.
And this cannot be called anything other than foreignness. Why then don't we glorify Indian god Ganesha? A decorated elephant would walk around, according to the fable of Ivan Andreevich Krylov - the elephant was led for show. If we took this holiday from India, he would be walking down the street... There is such a wonderful expression - how cold is it? Do we not have enough holidays or what? Why this one?
I understand the commercial rationale for this. People think that if it works in the West, they can make money on it, like on St. Valentine, let's come here too. Since Western Europeans like this madness, let Eastern Europeans swallow it too. But not everything needs to be ape.
- It’s scary that not only adults take part in this madness, but also small children.
That's it. Moreover, it was noticed that after this holiday many children fall into such mental and mental states when they need medical care. As far as I know, this was banned in Moscow by a special decree of the Ministry of Education.
- Do you think it should be banned in other regions too?
Of course, why wait for all of Great Rus'; in my opinion, this could very well be done by the Ministry of Education, or whoever is competent in this matter. But here, as always, we’ll try everything first, drink from a puddle, get treatment for dysentery, and then we’ll ban drinking from a puddle. In my opinion, this is an obvious thing. It seems that those people who were entrusted with children have completely lost common sense. Which is sad.
About the Halloween pumpkin holiday
The time has come when the society in which we live is enthusiastically preparing for the “holiday” of Halloween. However, not everyone knows what it is, what its origin and essence are, and why it contradicts the teachings of the Church.
The Halloween holiday appeared among the Celtic tribes of England, Ireland and northern France (Gaul) in the pre-Christian era. Being pagans, the Celts believed in the origin of life from death. They celebrated the beginning of a “new” year, a new life in general, in late autumn, on the night from October 31 to November 1 when the time of cold, darkness and death began. On this night they glorified the pagan god Samhain, whom they revered as the Lord of Death.
On the eve of the “New Year’s celebration,” the Druids (Celtic priests) extinguished hearths, fires, bonfires, and lamps. In the evening of the next day, they lit a huge bonfire, on which sacrifices were made to the prince of darkness and death. The Druids believed that if Samhain was satisfied with the sacrificial rewards of his faithful, he would allow the souls of the dead to visit their homes on this day. This is where the custom, rooted in the pagan world, originates of wandering around on Halloween night dressed in costumes of ghosts, witches and all sorts of other spirits, symbolizing communication with the afterlife and evil spirits.
An important part of the pagan cult is also the “fun” of Trick-or-Treat, which is a ritualized act of offering to the dark forces in the service of Samhain. It was believed that the souls of the dead, reigning in the world of darkness, cold and death, experienced insatiable hunger on the day of their visit to the world of the living. Therefore, the Kel pagans prepared treats for the spirits wandering in the darkness of the night, because they believed that if they were not appeased with offerings, then the wrath and curses of Samhain would fall on the people.
That's what true meaning this pagan holiday. It is quite obvious that Orthodox Christian It is impossible to take part in such “celebrations,” for this is a direct expression of idolatry, betrayal of our Lord God and our Holy Church. By taking part in the ritual of imitating the dead, wandering in the darkness of the night and begging or distributing treats, we show a desire to enter into communication with the dead, whose ruler is no longer Samhain, but Satan himself, the Evil One, who rebelled against the Lord God. By handing out treats, we are not just giving candy to innocent children, but we are presenting a gift in memory and honor of Samhain, and therefore Satan.
There are other Halloween customs that we should move away from. For example, all kinds of fortune-telling, prophecies, witchcraft and divination, or the custom of displaying a pumpkin with a scary face carved on it and a candle lit inside, called “Jack O" Lantern.) Pumpkins (and in ancient times other vegetables were also used) were brought "new" fire from the sacred fire, and the face on the pumpkin served as an image of the dead. Such a "sacred lamp", burning all night, is a demonic perversion of the holy lamp, lit in front of the image of the Savior and His saints. Even decorating the house with a similar pumpkin with a "cheerful" face is already participation in the pagan festival of death.
The Holy Fathers of the early Christian Church, which at that time was strictly Orthodox, tried to resist the pagan tradition of the Celts and established the Christian holiday of All Saints on the same day (in the Eastern Church, the commemoration of All Saints is celebrated on the first Sunday of Pentecost). The word Halloween comes from the holiday of All Saints - i.e. Аll Hallows "Even, which means "All Hallows' Eve", which over time was shortened to "Hallow E" En." Unfortunately, due to the ignorance or ignorance of people, the pagan festival, celebrated on the same day as the Christian holiday of All Saints (in the West), began to be mistakenly called Halloween.
Anti-Christian people responded to the efforts of the Church to overcome the pagan holiday with an even greater manifestation of jealousy that evening. Many rituals were performed in desecration and mockery of Christian worship, they dressed up as skeletons in mockery of the Church’s veneration of the relics of saints, stolen crosses and even the Holy Gifts were used for blasphemous acts. The custom of begging for alms turned into systematic persecution of Christians, who, due to their beliefs, could not take part in the holiday dedicated to the prince of darkness and death.
The commitment of Western society to the pagan holiday indicates that the attempts of the Western Church to replace the pagan celebration with Christian holiday and concepts were not successful. But why a pagan cult, clearly contradictory Orthodox faith, so firmly rooted among many Christians? The reasons for all this are rooted primarily in the spiritual apathy and lethargy of Christians, who abundantly nourish atheism, atheism and apostasy. Society, convincing us that Halloween and similar holidays, despite their obvious pagan origins and idolatrous nature, are harmless, innocent and have no of great importance, thereby undermining our spiritual foundations and contributing to the spread of lack of faith and atheism.
The “holiday” of Halloween undermines the very foundations of the Holy Church, founded on the blood of martyrs who refused to in any way honor or serve idols. The Holy Church must take a strict position of opposition to such phenomena, since Christ the Savior told us that the Lord God is our Judge in all our actions and beliefs and that our deeds can be either “FOR GOD” or “AGAINST GOD.” There is no middle "neutral" path.
Today we are witnessing the emergence of satanic cults. On the night of November 1st, satanic “services” are held; there is information about the abduction and murder of small children by Satan’s servants. Now the Satanists have already begun the ritual murder of Orthodox clergy, as has happened repeatedly in the state of California... Everywhere Satan is spreading nets in order to catch as many innocent people as possible. Newspaper stores are full of printed material about spiritualism, supernatural phenomena, seances, prophecies and all kinds of actions inspired by demons. All these works serve Satan, for they do not come from the Holy Spirit, but from the spirit of the sorrowful world of this world.
Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
Orthodox Russians about Halloween
I join the round dance, laughing, and yet I feel uneasy with them:
What if someone likes the executioner’s mask and won’t take it off?
Vl. Vysotsky
A “holiday” imported to Russia in the early 2000s from the USA is approaching - Halloween. The Americans adopted it from the ancient Celts, who, according to their pagan calendar, celebrated the beginning of the new year on November 1st. In the Celtic tradition, it was believed that on Halloween night the earth was dominated by dark forces, and in order for them not to cause harm, they must be appeased in every possible way. This is where the custom, rooted in the pagan world, of wandering around on Halloween night dressed in costumes of ghosts, witches and other evil spirits originates.
This “holiday” has recently spread in Russia, whose culture-forming religion is Orthodoxy. Alas, today's Russians, even those who call themselves believers, often have no idea what Orthodoxy knows about the world order.
In addition to the material world, which we can see, touch and study, there is a spiritual world that is not perceived by our senses. And yet, it is absolutely real. Every person can enter into personal communication with God, the Creator of the material and spiritual worlds. If, of course, he wants this, he will come to the Church of Christ and begin to participate in the Sacraments, mystically connecting a person with God. It is much easier to establish contact with the dark forces of the spiritual world. It is enough to encourage them, even as a joke. It is God who needs a person’s conscious appeal to Him; God loves us and is waiting for reciprocal love. Demons appear at the first call, because their goal is to deceive and destroy a person.
Modern people do not believe in the existence of demons (even among those who consider themselves Orthodox, about half consider them to be a fiction). This is exactly what they are trying to achieve. It is beneficial for evil spirits that people do not believe in them - in the darkness of unbelief it is easier to do their dirty deeds. And games like Halloween give free rein to the forces of the devil.
The “classic” celebration of Halloween usually takes the form of a masquerade, the heroes of which come from the world of the occult and magic. Particularly popular are the outfits of witches, magicians, sorcerers, vampires, dead people, werewolves, ghosts, mermaids, fairies, elves, ghouls, ghouls, etc. Parties are accompanied by ominous, cemetery music, howling wolves, hooting owls and other frightening sounds. Fortune telling, witchcraft, pagan rituals of making sacrifices to evil spirits, and pranks of a dubious nature are welcome. Hanging posters depicting Dracula, witches, vampires and demonic paraphernalia (aspen stake, black rosary beads, etc.) are popular. Even the cheerful custom of placing pumpkins everywhere with scary faces carved on them has an infernal meaning: the pumpkin symbolizes a severed head, a sacrifice made to the devil. It’s better to keep silent about the names of the dishes served at such sabbaths; they are, to put it mildly, unappetizing.
Halloween is especially attractive to children and teenagers. The childhood dream of getting covered in soot and scaring someone has become incredibly accessible! The child is no longer afraid of evil! Skeletons, vampires, bloody zombies no longer evoke a natural feeling of rejection. On this “comic holiday” a person is given a “rare opportunity” to feel like a demon, to act like a demon... The game of demonic worldview, like any game for a child, is associated with trying on the image of a hero. Children copy the human sacrifices of Satanists, mock human suffering and death - and this cannot pass without leaving a mark either on their mental state or on personal development.
In Orthodoxy, it is clearly realized that such actions are demonic possession - that is, the dark entities of the spiritual world - demons - invisibly participate in them. Vivid images, occult rituals, the “crowd effect,” provide a strong emotional impact on all participants. At the same time, there is a substitution and distortion of universal human ideas about good and evil, beauty and ugliness, truth and lies. In other words, there is a real demonization of consciousness, a person falls under demonic influence.
And it doesn’t matter at all whether a person consciously enters the realm of dark mysticism, or is simply having fun mindlessly. Dark, satanic meanings were initially embedded in the event outline of such games. Demons are guaranteed to show off those who try to flirt with them.
What children play today largely determines what they will do in the future. Is it not holidays like Halloween that give rise to, for example, the so-called “school shooting”? This is a special term that has appeared, which refers to the massacres of students, most often carried out by the students themselves. Teenagers shoot at people, whom no one has introduced to the basic rules of spiritual safety (how many adults know them these days?), but who have been exposed to the world of dark spirituality. So, from 2000 to 2013, such crimes were committed 125 times in the USA and Canada, 27 times in the rest of the world, and 1 time in Russia. One time so far. Do we need to “catch up with America”?
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
If anyone around you is planning to celebrate Halloween, give them this sheet to read.
If they are going to celebrate at the school where your children study, make the teachers aware that they are thereby renouncing Orthodoxy and betraying themselves into the hands of Satan. And it's not a joke. Our deeds can be either “for God” or “against God.” There is no middle, “neutral” path.
Father Pavel, very soon part of our population will flock to nightclubs and take to the streets to celebrate a “holiday” called. All Orthodox Christians already know that this is bad, so I would like to talk about something else: how to behave in a situation when some of your relatives and friends begin to go crazy?
As a parish priest, I have repeatedly heard questions from parents of children and teenagers who are somehow drawn into all this at school; sometimes even such an initiative comes from the school administration, from teachers. The celebration is especially typical for private educational institutions. And although people with completely different views on life and different faiths study in schools, this is nevertheless not taken into account at all. When I was at school, we also had masquerade balls and carnivals, and parents had to help their child make some kind of costume so that he could wear it to a New Year’s or other ball. But now special costume parties are held with masks of vampires, zombies, witches, and all kinds of evil spirits put on, and, of course, children who do not yet have spiritual experience do not really understand what is happening. Moreover, they perceive everything with confidence, since it comes from the teacher - an adult, authoritative person.
How to proceed in this case? Firstly, it seems to me that we need, first of all, to understand what is being imposed on us. Probably, many people know from various sources that it has purely pagan roots, although formally it is called the evening before All Saints' Day. In fact, this is a purely pagan holiday of sacrifice to the Celtic god of death during the Samhain holiday. People serving the prince of darkness put on masks of all kinds of monsters, depicting the dead who returned to their homes if God was satisfied. Gradually, this pagan holiday actually replaced and supplanted the memory of the Feast of All Saints, celebrated by the Western Church on this day, and there was no other connection left between them except the calendar one. So Halloween has nothing to do with Christianity and is a pagan holiday. And for every Christian, even formal participation in paganism, in pagan rituals is a betrayal of Christ.
A Christian should always feel responsible for what happens around him, and first of all, for his own actions. And as the Holy Scripture says, a person will give an answer at the Last Judgment not only for an action, but even for every idle word. Especially for an action associated with a pagan cult.
I recall the lives of martyrs for the faith, who were formally offered (this is known from the protocols) to renounce the cross. They were told: “Remain Christians, bow to Christ, pray to Him. You don’t even need to utter any renunciation, just lower the incense on the altar to Zeus or Artemis... By this you will testify to your reconciliation with paganism and your obedience to our pagan laws...” But Christians never agreed to this, they understood that even with silence God is being betrayed, and not what is direct participation in a pagan cult.
Here it’s the same thing: they are trying to drag us into an action that is completely alien to us in culture and ideology, alien both in our nationality and religion. We, Orthodox Christians, cannot participate in pagan rituals. It is known that this “holiday” came out of Irish and Celtic cults and is widespread in English-speaking countries, but why do we need it?
Why is it so popular in America? When a certain phenomenon of mass madness or demonization occurs, one should always ask the question: who benefits from this? It's very easy to find out because there are real numbers. Every year, Halloween-related shows and attractions generate revenue from $300 to $500 million, and that's just in the United States. But in other English-speaking countries this holiday is also very common. In 2006 alone, income from the sale of costumes, masks of vampires, werewolves and other evil spirits in the same United States amounted to about $5 million. It is clear that Halloween, in addition to its completely godless, occult, dark basis, also has a purely commercial component, just like . This is such a necessary marketing ploy certain group persons to sell more goods and entertainment.
I would like to emphasize once again that in any case, even formal participation in paganism has always been tantamount to betrayal of faith.
But some schools may insist on Orthodox children participating in Halloween, along with all their other classmates. What should Orthodox parents do to protect their children from this?
I think that this holiday is completely optional for everyone; it has nothing to do with the education system. Therefore, you can simply avoid participating in it under some pretext or directly explain to the teachers. In not so distant times, many courageous believers even went so far as to refuse to allow their children to become pioneers. Why? Because there it was necessary to take an oath to “live, study and fight, as the great Lenin bequeathed, as the Communist Party teaches,” to kiss the red banner, that is, to also undergo a kind of pagan initiation rites. Some accepted this and tied a pioneer tie, some - persistent people - did not. Everything depended on the degree of faith and personal courage. But now everything is much simpler: we are free in our choice. In the present evil time, when the world is deeply aggressive in spirituality and morality, our task is to constantly cultivate firmness and fortitude in our children, to show that a Christian is a person who cannot behave like everyone else, live like everyone else, even if there is no there is no condemnation for his actions. As the Monk Barsanuphius of Optina said: “Try to live as God commands, and not as everyone else lives, because the world lies in evil.” The world lies in evil - this is just about our time.
Every time has its challenges. Soviet period, for example, had some kind of morality, decency, but made his own calls - communist, atheistic, and the task of the parents was to show their children why teachers - seemingly authoritative, respected people - sometimes tell lies and do not always need to obey them. I remember when I was in school, we had an atheist corner until the end of the 1980s. For some unknown reason, it was located in the chemistry classroom; some atheistic books and brochures were collected there. Now is the time of calm, a time about which we can say in the words of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov: “It’s hard in learning - easy in battle,” a time when we must learn to confront these challenges and get used to the fact that our faith should not be hidden under any pretext that we shouldn't be ashamed of her. On the contrary, now we must educate children in the fact that it is completely natural to go, for example, to a cafe, to pray before eating; passing by the temple, cross yourself at the church. This is what I try to teach my children. If someone laughs at us for this, then it is not an inferiority complex that is being developed in us, but the ability to resist, build up armor, and train willpower. Conversely, when a person goes with the flow, he is weak. He who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big things, and he who is not faithful in small things will show weakness in another situation.
And maybe some other holiday, much worse, will be offered. We do not know what awaits us in the future, “what the coming day has in store for us,” although it is still known that world history must end with great persecution of Christians and. Maybe we won’t live to see this, maybe our children or grandchildren will live to see this. And our task is to raise soldiers of Christ, and not weak-willed wimps who will be tolerant of any infection.
How can you explain to your child that Halloween is more than just fun? And how can we instill in him the understanding that this is a tradition alien to us?
On the Internet, in other sources, there is much information about its pagan, occult roots - in our time, information is very accessible. But if we want to prohibit a child from something, of course, we must justify our prohibition. You won't get anything from a child by simply shouting or coercing him. We must talk to him as a person, as an adult - reasonably, reasonably. Therefore, it is necessary to collect more information and have a conversation with the child. I know a dad who, one might say, is a devotee of family education: he has not only his own children, but also adopted children, a very large family. So, after dinner, he regularly holds conversations in the evenings with his entire large family: about the dangers of foul language, smoking, drinking wine, etc. - and this bears fruit. Thus, he delivers such pre-emptive strikes, because he knows: the children will face this anyway. Moreover, this must be done if you already see some similar manifestations in your children. So you need to talk with children, and, of course, tell them about your holidays, about your traditions.
Now we see how one ideology, which had its own holidays, collapsed, and people needed some other pseudo-celebrations, because “the soul wants a holiday,” as he said main character film by V. Shukshin. But this character, like a modern person cut off from his spiritual roots, did not know what a real holiday was, what a genuine holiday was. And the desire for a holiday, joy, something bright, some experiences, emotions is a common human desire. And all the more this is what the child’s soul craves. Children's impressions of holidays are remembered throughout their lives. Do you remember that in I. Shmelev, in his famous books “The Summer of the Lord” and “Pilgrim”, the most joyful, memorable memories of childhood are the holidays?
We Orthodox are happy people: we have no shortage of holidays. You just need to take care of organizing the celebrations. For example, cooperate with other parents and during the holidays organize Christmas and Easter holidays for children in the parish, with a play, concert, and gift distribution. To release the birds after the service. In our church, every year the parish children always help on Holy Saturday during the blessing of Easter cakes, sing the kontakion of the holiday and walk with the priest, collecting donations - eggs and Easter cakes - into a basket. And of course, the child should feel the holiday atmosphere at home. If children are interested and happy at home with their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, they will no longer want to run away to some dubious school parties.
When a person enters adulthood, what remains mostly from childhood? Something so bright and positive. The bad is forgotten - the good remains. And God grant that our children have memories of the nightly Easter procession, of the celebration, of how they went on some trip with their parents, for example along the Golden Ring, which shrines they visited, how they bathed in the springs. This should remain in children's memory, and not terrible ugly masks and some kind of demons.
It seems to me that anyone normal person All these demons do not evoke any feelings other than disgust. Although, of course, some people have a craving for all sorts of horrors, the infernal world. And Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol very well described what this leads to in his story “Viy”: Khoma Brut showed curiosity, looked at Viy, although he had an inner voice not to look, and thereby opened the door to evil spirits, which broke through the protecting his barrier... We know what happened next. Each person, of course, has a certain craving for the unknown, but this attraction is completely unhealthy and unsafe.
What examples can you give to explain why you can’t put on the disguises of witches, vampires, ghouls and simply evil spirits?
Sometimes we are told that, of course, there are Satanists, there are occultists who absolutely really believe in all this, practice it, serve Satan and are quite consciously real admirers of evil spirits, but this is just some kind of show... They say, and in America They don’t believe in evil spirits either. But there, in my opinion, most likely they don’t think about anything at all: they just do very powerful advertising, very powerful Halloween propaganda. But they are still connected by their roots with this holiday, unlike us. In Russia, we also have preserved some rudiments of paganism: fortune telling at Christmas time, burning of Maslenitsa, dancing on Ivan Kupala - and this too must be fought.
So, someone might say that all this is frivolous, make-believe, and it makes no difference whether you wear a vampire costume or, say, a Cheburashka costume at a matinee. However, there is a big difference. Let's not forget that for a child, play and reality are always slightly intertwined. For example, getting a child addicted to computer game much easier than for an adult, who is mentally stronger, and for him, virtual gaming reality and ordinary reality always have a clear boundary. But for a child this line is very blurred, so even indirect participation in pagan rituals can seriously affect him.
I had to talk with creative people, with actors who are engaged in acting. Acting is putting on some kind of guise, a mask in order to further portray something, presenting some kind of image. And even for these people this does not pass without a trace. These people, in general, are unhappy in their own way, because, on the one hand, they are very sensitive, they are drawn to faith, it is even easier for them, perhaps, to come to faith, to God, than for people of some technical specialties, more mundane - but it is much more difficult for them to lead a spiritual life, because in order to enter into some kind of image, especially if the person is a professional actor, they require reincarnation, and not formal entry. One woman who used to be an actress told me that she has now moved away from this and taken up other activities because the necessary transformations, getting used to the character, working on the role greatly interfered with her spiritual life. Let's say, if a person plays a hero-lover, he himself sometimes needs to experience the same passionate emotions, the love that he is going to play. Some actors become simply love-addicted. It is no coincidence that for actors and actresses the creation of a full-fledged family, a relationship for life, is very, very rare, because they constantly fall in love with one, then another, then a third and can no longer live without it. It happens that they flirt: playing lovers on stage, on the same set, they often become lovers in life.
So even the nervous system of an adult, with an already established psyche, his mental and spiritual, first of all, health, is greatly influenced by acting. He already becomes a kind of bearer of the image that he embodies, especially the dark one. And many believing actors refuse when they are offered to play evil spirits; It is also very common among actors, for example, to have a prejudice towards scenes where they have to play their own death: there is an opinion that this can end badly.
I repeat: a person is responsible before God for every idle word - not only for an idle action.
Nothing passes without a trace. Any person who has watched a horror film is also impressed by what he saw for a long time; these images haunt him for a long time and appear in his dreams. That's why the effect is to tickle a person's nerves and seriously influence his mind, his subconscious.
And personal participation in paganism, the occult, even just formal, without any faith in it, cannot be in vain. People open the gates to these very entities that they portray, in which children try to play, putting on the guises of demons, vampires and other evil spirits.
Interest in the infernal, demonic theme does not pass without leaving a trace. Several horror films have been banned in China because schoolchildren began to imitate the characters' behavior. Here in Russia, a group of teenagers, having watched enough films about vampires, lured a girl into the forest, killed her and drank her blood.
So our task as parents and educators is to monitor what our children watch, who they communicate with, what games they play and what holidays they celebrate.
“Test everything, hold on to the good. Refrain from all kinds of evil.”
1 THESSALONIANS 5:21-22
Festival of Evil
Halloween is a religious day, but not a Christian one. Tom Sanguinet, former high priest of the religion of sorcerers and magicians, said: “Modern holiday, which we call Halloween, begins on the day of the full moon closest to November 1st, it is New Year witches This is the time when spirits (demons) are supposed to be at the height of their power and revisit planet Earth...Halloween is completely and utterly evil, and there is nothing and there will be nothing that can make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus.”
Day of death
Halloween has its roots firmly in paganism and witchcraft. It began as the Samhain Druid Festival. The Celts considered November 1st the day of death because in the northern hemisphere this day was the beginning of winter, the leaves fell, it began to get dark earlier, and the temperature dropped. They believed that their sun god was losing power and Samhain, the lord of death, was superior in strength to the sun god. The Druids also taught that on the eve of the holiday, October 31st, Samhain gathered the spirits of all those who had died during the past year so that they would return to their former homes to visit the living.
Sacrifices of Humans and Animals
For thousands of years during Halloween, Druid priests performed devil-worshipping ceremonies in which cats, horses, sheep, cattle, humans and other victims were gathered in one place and stuffed into witches' cages where they were burned alive. Obviously, such sacrifices of people and animals were required in order to please Samhain and so that the spirits would not harm them.
Trick or Treat
In order to obtain people and animals for these sacrifices, the Druid priests went from house to house and asked for the fattest calves, black sheep and people. Those who gave were promised prosperity, and those who refused were threatened and cursed. This is the origin of the expression “ trick or treat”.
Jack-O-Lantern ("Lighting Jack")
“Glowing Jack” originated from the custom of lighting a candle inside a pumpkin or skull, which served as a signal marking those farms and houses that supported the Druid religion and thus sought “ life” as the Halloween terror began. The World Book Encyclopedia says: “The innocent-looking illuminated face of the pumpkin, the “Glowing Jack,” is an ancient symbol of the damned soul.”
Dance of Death
As people and animals screamed in agony as they burned alive, the Druids and their followers dressed in costumes made from the skins and heads of animals. They danced, chanted monotonously and jumped over the fire in the hope of driving away evil spirits.
House of Horror
One of the popular Halloween characters, Count Dracula, was also a real person. Dracula lived from 1431 to 1476. During his 6-year reign, he killed more than 100,000 men, women and children in the most horrific ways. He came up with a plan to rid his country of worries about beggars, the disabled, the sick and the elderly by inviting them to a feast in one of his palaces. He fed and watered them well. Then he asked: “Do you want to be carefree so that you don’t lack anything in the world?” When his guests shouted: “ Yes!”, Dracula ordered the palace to be surrounded and set on fire. No one has escaped from this present “ house of horror.”
Word of God
“When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, then do not learn to do the abominations that these nations have done: there shall not be found among you one who leads his son or his daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a fortune-teller, a sorcerer, a sorcerer, a charmer, spirits, magician and questioner of the dead; For everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you; be blameless before the Lord your God; For these nations, whom you are driving out, listen to fortunetellers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you that.” (DEuteronomy 18:9-14).
They must teach My people to distinguish between the sacred and the profane and explain to them what is unclean and what is clean.” (EZEKIEL 44:23).
“My people will be destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from serving as a priest before Me; and because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.” (HOSIAH 4:6).
“Instruct a young man at the beginning of his path; he will not turn away from it when he is old.” (PROVERS 22:6)
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world from temptations, for temptations must come; but woe to the man through whom temptation comes.” (MATTHEW 18:6-7)
“Let love [be] unfeigned; turn away from evil, cleave to good;” (ROMANS 12:9).
“... let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light.” (ROMANS 13:12).
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; You cannot be participants in the Lord’s table and in the demonic table.” (1 CORINTHIANS 10:21).
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? What does light have in common with darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial? Or what is the complicity of the faithful with the infidel? What is the relationship between the temple of God and idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell in them and walk [in them]; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean; and I will receive you.” (2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-17).
“And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but also reprove.” (EPHESIANS 5:11).
“Finally, my brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any excellence or if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (PHILIPPIANS 4:8).
“The Spirit clearly says that in last times Some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars, having their conscience seared,” (1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2)
“Submit yourselves therefore to God; Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (JAMES 4:7).
“Pure and undefiled piety before God and the Father is this: to look upon the orphans and widows in their afflictions and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (JAMES 1:27).
"Beloved! do not imitate evil, but imitate good. He who does good is from God; but he who does evil has not seen God.” (3 JOHN 11)
Participation in Paganism
Instead of taking part in paganism, walking with witches and being one with Halloween, instead of our children celebrating cruelty and mindlessly having fun on the day of death, we should focus the attention of our families and the church on the celebration of Reformation Day on October 31st.
Reformation Day instead of Halloween
It was on October 31, 1517 that Dr. Martin Luther nailed 95 Abstracts on the door Schlosskirche(castle-church) in Wittenberg, Germany. His bold challenge to the unbiblical principles of the papacy of medieval Rome inspired the Protestant Reformation. All Bible-based churches should celebrate the greatest revival of faith and freedom in history. The Reformation was one of the most important turning points in world history. The energy released from the rediscovery of the Bible in accessible language led to the most remarkable spiritual Renaissance in history. The Reformation freed the Christians of Northern Europe from the destructive influence of Renaissance paganism and led to some of the greatest freedoms and scientific discoveries in history.
Every Bible-believing Christian should celebrate the day of the Reformation. No Christian should take part in the celebration of the occult Halloween.
We are in a state of worldwide spiritual war. Animal cruelty, vandalism, and even murder occur significantly more frequently during Halloween. Every year during Halloween, many thousands of animals and even people are sacrificed in satanic rituals around the world, while millions of other people, including well-intentioned Christians, take part in Halloween celebrations. Halloween is a prime time for witches and Satanists to attract people to their ranks. Many people testify to being involved in the occult during a Halloween party. Halloween is a very religious holiday, but not a Christian one.
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (ROMANS 12:21).
Choose Life
On October 31, this year, take an active stand against Halloween: organize your family and church to celebrate the day of the Reformation and take part in spiritual battle, sincere prayer; praying the Psalms, sharing the Gospel with your friends and neighbors, especially those who, perhaps unthinkingly, take part in this occult festival of fortune telling, divination, human sacrifice and cruelty to animals.
“Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can stand against the wiles of the devil, because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. For this purpose, take on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having done everything, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girded with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; and above all, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Make all prayers and supplications at all times in the Spirit, and be diligent about this with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (EPHESIANS 6:10-18).
Dr. Peter Hammond, Africa Christian Action
PO Box 23632
Claremont, 7735
Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
