Families across America are making choices about the celebration of Halloween. Should the house and yard be decorated with Halloween decor? Should the kids be allowed to dress up in costumes and go house to house collecting candy? Should a person take time to watch horror movies featuring witches, zombies and vampires? In the end, is this all harmless fun or is there more ‘behind the mask’?
Joining Jim for discussion on this popular holiday was Dr. David Brown. Dr. Brown is Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, has a Masters in Theology and PhD in History specializing in the history of the English Bible. In addition to his study of the English Bible he’s also president of Logos Communication Consortium which operates LogosResourcePages.org. He’s author of the book, The Dark Side of Halloween and also a research paper, Unmasking the Truth About Witches.
What do we know about the origins of Halloween? It was called the Vigil of Samhain and was celebrated by the Druids and the occult. They would go from farm to farm asking for offerings to their god(s) and if they didn’t get them, they would do harm to the farmers and animals.
Pastor Brown noted that if you look at the occult holiday list, you’ll see one of the key days which is Samhain. The Roman Catholic Church changed ‘All Hallows’ Day’ and the eve before to ‘All Hallows’ Even’ to match the pagan holiday so it was called, ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ or ‘Halloween.’
As this program moves along you’ll learn about the following terms, phrases and customs tied to Halloween:
–‘Bonfire’
–Costumes
–‘Trick or Treat’
–Jack O’ Lanterns
–Witches
–Vampires
–Haunted Houses
So if you feel Halloween is merely harmless fun, you’ll want to review this broadcast where you’ll also hear comments and questions from listeners across the nation.
