Halloween Is Not a Holiday for Children

Introduction

"Halloween is not a holiday for children." That is the title Davide Di Domenico gave to this Bible study, and someone rightly pointed out to him that it is not one for adults either. He had planned to cover the topic at the end of the month, but since the pastor was away for a few days, he moved it up.

He remembers when this holiday arrived in Italy: he was in primary school, 25 or 30 years ago. It is a recent, imported, consumerist holiday that most people celebrate without knowing its original meaning. These days he sees his friends and colleagues carving pumpkins with their children and buying candy with the Halloween logo. His question is simple: "Do you really know what you are celebrating?"

The starting point of the study is an invitation from the apostle Paul: do not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11). It is not enough to stay out of it. We also need to open the eyes of those who expose themselves without realizing it.

Message Outline

1. Do you really know what you are celebrating?

The most common answer is: "I'm not a Satanist, I do it for fun, it's a holiday like Carnival." But believers know that what happens in this world is never only what we can see.
The Bible speaks of a prince of this world, and it is not the Lord. "You only have to look at the direction this society is taking to understand that someone is pulling the strings."
Under the pressure of billions of dollars, October 31 has become the holiday of pumpkins, ghosts and skeletons. In the United States alone, the preacher cites between 11 and 13 billion dollars spent on the occasion.
It is obvious that a child who takes part in Halloween is neither a Satanist nor possessed. But the fact that a child acts without intent does not mean that what he does is good or normal. If his son came home from preschool drawing swastikas, or repeating a swear word heard in the playground, he would not accuse him, but he would tell him: "Look, behind what you are doing, there is something that is not good."
Parents pay close attention to what their children eat, what they wear, and who they spend time with. "We are very careful about what can contaminate the body, and we are much more lenient with what contaminates the soul."

2. A holiday that lowers our guard

The preacher does not say that everyone who celebrates Halloween is possessed or will end up in strange circles. He says that Halloween lowers defenses and, in the youngest, the perception of danger regarding spiritual realities.
All year long, children are shielded from war, death and violent scenes. But on Halloween, they can dress up as ghosts, as the dead, as devils: "That day, anything goes."
The holiday also opens up a fascination with the forbidden, the occult, the secret. He compares this to drugs: not everyone who starts with soft drugs ends up with hard drugs, but most of those who use hard drugs started with the soft ones.
Jesus calls us the light of the world and children of light. The contrast between darkness and light runs through the whole Word of God. "When evil wants to be celebrated, it means it is no longer hiding."
Even Italian Catholic exorcists, whom he listened to while preparing the study, warn young people against this holiday.
Last year, his 3-year-old son came home from preschool terrified: since the beginning of October, they had been talking about zombies and the dead there. When the teachers told him that "children need to learn to face their fears," he replied that it is up to the father and mother to decide if and when. After an email about the origins of the holiday, it ended with a change of school.
"The problem is not the candy. The problem is everything we stopped questioning so that we could accept it." What starts as a costume party for children sometimes becomes, among teenagers, an evening of séances or Ouija board sessions, always accompanied by the same refrain: "It's just for fun."

3. Parents are responsible for spiritual conscience

Who shapes children's spiritual conscience? Parents. "If society says the opposite, we don't care." School should teach objective things. What touches on spiritual ethics belongs to the family.
The Lord asks that his commandments be in the hearts of parents and that they impress them on their children, at home, on the road, when they lie down and when they get up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). He also says: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
"But everyone does it." The preacher answers: if everyone starts celebrating the world of darkness, he will not let his child celebrate it. People will call him a fanatic because he does not dress his child up as a devil or a skeleton. This world calls evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).
We need to pass on sound teaching and light to children, "because this world is ready to devour them."

4. The origins: Samhain and Jack's lantern

Some trace the holiday back to three centuries before Jesus Christ, among the Celtic or Gaelic peoples, especially in Ireland. It was called Samhain and marked the end of the agricultural year and the start of the dark season.
Pagan rites were practiced to invoke the spirits of the dead. The preacher points to the website of the National Museum of Ireland and to an Irish tale, "The Adventures of Nera," in which burial mounds open and creatures pass from one world to the other: that night, the realm of the dead opens and the dead walk among the living.
To keep these spirits away, people wore frightening masks. "What is behind the Halloween mask? Always the world of the occult, the summoning of spirits, the summoning of the dead."
The best-known symbol comes from there. It started as a hollowed-out turnip with a candle inside; the pumpkin came later, in America. He mentions Jack, a cunning man who supposedly tricked the devil: after his death, he can enter neither heaven nor hell, and he wanders with a flame from hell. The pumpkin placed at the door is meant to keep him from entering the house.
The name Halloween is short for the English expression for the eve of All Saints' Day. The preacher also recalls that on October 31, 1517, Luther posted his 95 theses in Wittenberg against indulgences, which he links to the cult of the dead.
Evangelicals believe that Scripture is sufficient. There is only one God and one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5), the only one who did not stay dead. And it is appointed for people to die once, and after this comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

5. What those who celebrate it say

Modern spiritualism was born in the nineteenth century: the Fox sisters said they communicated with the afterlife through knocks on the wall, Allan Kardec published "The Spirits' Book" in France in 1857, and the Ouija board was patented in the United States in 1891. It is sometimes sold in children's stores.
Samhain is still a religious festival today. Wicca, which describes itself as the religion of witches, celebrates October 31 as the witches' New Year, one of its eight sabbats, with a memorial for the dead.
Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, writes in his "Satanic Bible" that the two most important holidays, after one's own birthday, are Walpurgis Night on April 30 and Halloween on October 31. The preacher notes that a quotation often attributed to LaVey is circulating, but that he could not find confirmation of it and does not want to report what he is not sure of.
According to the preacher, for another organization, the Satanic Temple, October 31 is the occasion when the whole world welcomes darkness. Former Satanists testify that demonic rituals and invocations are carried out that night.
He cites the testimony of John Ramirez, now an evangelical preacher, who says he was married on October 31, 1987, through a demonic ritual in Santeria. He also mentions a young man who, at 18, went to a cemetery with friends on Halloween night with a Ouija board "as a joke," and who was only set free much later.
"I'm not saying that everyone who celebrates Halloween is a Satanist. But Satanists themselves tell us: for us, Halloween is important."
Jesus explains why the world is drawn to the occult: the devil was a murderer from the beginning, a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). And Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

6. What the Bible says about the occult

Pumpkins, skeletons, witches, ghosts, coffins: "What kind of holiday is this?" The Bible speaks of death with seriousness. It is the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26) and, after it, judgment is final. Turning death into a party is a sad thing.
It is not like Carnival: there is a difference between dressing up as Superman and dressing up as a zombie, between Zorro and Satan.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 forbids making your son or daughter pass through the fire, divination, magic, sorcery. Exposing your children to the esoteric is still letting them play with fire.
"Don’t turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don’t seek them out, to be defiled by them" (Leviticus 19:31). For the preacher, those who think they are speaking with the dead are in fact speaking with demons. The case of Saul bringing up Samuel is an exception from which no doctrine can be built: the woman herself is terrified by it (1 Samuel 28). And Saul died because of his unfaithfulness, notably for consulting the one who summoned the dead (1 Chronicles 10:13).
A person he knows used to see the dead, a bit like in the film "The Sixth Sense." She told him that since she had known him, she no longer saw them. He answered that they were not the dead, but demons.
"Shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?" (Isaiah 8:19). Some people, even in good faith, consult a medium after losing a father or mother. We need to be careful: it is a door that opens.
An accurate revelation does not prove that something comes from God. The slave girl in Philippi spoke the truth about Paul, but she was driven by a spirit of divination (Acts 16:16-18).
The same goes for horoscopes. He knows someone who makes a living from them by writing them with ChatGPT and passing as a spiritual guide. "People are ready to believe anything to avoid believing the truth."
Sorcery is among the works of the flesh, and those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). We cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Corinthians 10:21).

7. Expose, stay alert, remain in the light

The Bible asks us to take a stand and, above all, to know. "We live in a society where we can no longer afford ignorance."
In Ephesus, when people were converted, the books of magic were burned (Acts 19:19). Satan does not always show up with horns and a smell of sulfur. He says: "Let's have a little party, there's nothing wrong with it." But the Bible says: "Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
We wrestle against rulers, authorities and evil spirits in the heavenly places, and we need the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-12). "Even if you don't believe in them, they exist."
"We must not let trends shape our conscience." We have a responsibility in the upbringing of our children, of the Church and of those around us. Jesus told us to teach the nations (Matthew 28:19).
The apostle gives two simple things: "Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).
The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). He came to free those who, through fear of death, were held in slavery all their lives (Hebrews 2:14-15). God has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13).
"You need courage. If everyone is doing something foolish, have the courage to say: no, I won't do it."

Key Takeaways

A child who celebrates Halloween is not a Satanist, but the absence of intent does not make the holiday innocent.
Halloween lowers our guard toward spiritual realities and makes the youngest familiar with the symbols of evil.
Parents are responsible for their children's spiritual conscience, not the school or society.
The Bible forbids divination and summoning the dead. Those who think they are speaking to the dead are in fact exposing themselves to demons.
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to bring us into his kingdom of light.

Personal Application

Do you know what you are celebrating, or what you allow to be celebrated in your home, at the end of October?
Are you more attentive to what can harm your children's bodies than to what can harm their souls?
How can you talk to your children, at home and on the road, about what the Word says about darkness and light?
Are there practices in your life, even "just for fun," like the horoscope, that give a place to something other than God?
In what situation do you need courage to say no, even if everyone around you says yes?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a child who celebrates Halloween doing something wrong?

Davide Di Domenico says it clearly: a child who takes part in Halloween is neither a Satanist nor possessed, and is not trying to celebrate the occult. But the absence of intent does not make the thing good or normal. As with a swear word picked up at school, it is up to the parents to explain what lies behind it.

Where does Halloween come from?

The preacher traces it back to Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrated mainly in Ireland, which marked the end of the agricultural year. People believed that on that night the world of the dead opened and the dead walked among the living. Frightening masks were used to keep these spirits away, and Jack's lantern, at first a hollowed-out turnip, became a pumpkin in America.

What does the Bible say about spiritualism and consulting the dead?

Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Leviticus 19:31 and Isaiah 8:19 forbid divination, sorcery and summoning the dead. For Davide Di Domenico, those who think they are speaking with the dead are in fact speaking with demons. The case of Saul at the home of the woman of Endor is an exception, and Saul died because of his unfaithfulness (1 Chronicles 10:13).