Halloween is anticipated by Americans across the country by getting costumes ready, being prepared to hand out mounds of candy to fellow trick-or-treaters, and making their house as spooky as possible. But there is still one extremely cautious group about this holiday, Christians. Throughout the past couple of decades, there has been an uproar from lots Christians about how Halloween is ‘of the devil’ and that it’s a ‘satanic holiday.’ One American Televangelist Pat Robertson claimed that children who celebrated Halloween were unknowingly “worshipping Satan.” But how true are these statements?

Halloween originated almost 2,000 years ago, when the Celts celebrated the new year on November 1st. This marked the end of summer and their harvest and was the start of the Dark winter, which was associated with human death. But on October 31st, the Celts believed that the ghost of death, Samhain, blurred with the world of living. The Celts celebrated Samhain by dressing up in animal skins and throwing crops and animals into a bonfire to predict the future and to commemorate the dead. After the Celebration was over, the Celts would re-lit their fire they had extinguished earlier that day, to protect them from the dark weary winter ahead of them.

In 43 A.D., the Roman Empire conquered the Celts and combined two Roman Festivals with the traditional Celts celebration of Samhain. One of the festivals was honoring the passing of the dead while the other one was to celebrate Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruits and trees. By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into the Celtic’s land, and their beliefs and traditions started to blend in with the Celts. In 1,000 A.D., the Church made November 2nd All Souls Day, a day where they celebrated the dead.

At these celebrations, you would find a big bonfire with people dressing up as saints, angels, and devils. The All-saints day celebration was called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas, and the night before it they would call it ‘All-Hallow Eve’ which then turned to ‘Halloween.’

As you can see, Halloween is far from satanic. Just because kids dress up in a devil outfit or a witch costume doesn’t mean it’s actually of the devil. It’s just a fun night to get out, get some candy, and have fun! Back in the 9th century, they dressed up in devil costumes and had a party to celebrate the dead. I understand a lot of parents, and religious leaders are skeptical about the holiday, but for every bad, there is also good. A lot of sin and terrible things happen on the day of Halloween. If it’s a group of kids that go too far with pranks or someone actually worshipping the devil, it’s still just a holiday. Luckily, you don’t have to be part of those groups. You can still trick or treat like many people do and have fun, without exposing your kid to things you don’t want them to see or be involved with.

In conclusion, we can see that Mr. Robertson’s statement about kids unknowingly “worshipping Satan” is false and shouldn’t be considered without looking through the origins of the holiday. This isn’t going against God; this is simply having fun dressing up, and getting candy. Halloween has nothing to do with anything satanic, but more superstition and death.

(https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween for more Halloween origins)