“Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.”

“The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening", but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.”
“Halloween” accessed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween on October 23, 2008

From various historical sources it seems that as the church was spreading abroad across the world in many cases it borrowed or “Christianized” many pagan holidays so as to become more palatable to those the church was trying to influence. It is amazing to realize how many different holidays in America come from these backgrounds, and what is also amazing is the fact that many Christians and others do not know the backgrounds for these events. Even Christmas, celebrated by most of the religious world as the birthday of Jesus, was borrowed from the celebration of the winter solstice in many pagan cultures, and was celebrated as the beginning of longer and warmer days. The Roman Catholic church made December 25th as the birthday of Jesus, and many of the customs and religious rituals were just “brought over” and “Christianized” so that these newcomers to the church would not feel that they would have to make a break with their neighbors.

It is also amazing to think about the fact that the names of our days and months often have pagan background and significance. Monday is shortened from “Moon day;” Thursday is shortened from “Thors Day” (Thor was the Norse and Germanic god of thunder). January derives it‘s name from the god Janus (The Roman god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings); February was named after a Latin purification ritual named Februa in the old Roman Calendar. March was the first month in the Roman calendar, and was named Martius, named after the Roman god of war, Mars. On and on it goes.

This is why it is important to honestly look at these things from a Christian standpoint.

First, we need to make sure that we are following Scripture and Scripture alone when it comes to these events. Brethren, we cannot and should not encourage any form of demonic worship, or any glorification of the devil, “ghosts,” “Zombies” . . . at times like these. We must always realize that we are Christians first, and our calling is to be different from the world, not like the world. “Abstain from every appearance of evil.”

Second, we need to be careful lest we attach spiritual or religious significance to any holiday. Paul warned the Christians in Galatians 4:10 that they “observed days and months and seasons and years” – obviously, from the context, talking about Jewish festivals and days by which many of them tried to be justified by keeping them. We have no command to worship the Lord in a special way on his “birthday” - we do not even know when his birthday was (though Luke 2 seems to suggest that it was late Spring or early Summer, as the shepherds were in the field watching over their flocks by night). While we are moving away from that in our culture (again, most people are unaware of the days and months being named in honor of various gods), it is easy to get caught up in the moment when the world thinks that a certain day is the birthday of Jesus, or the day of the resurrection of Jesus. We have no such command.

Third, EVERY DAY of the Christian’s life needs to be a day of celebration of God’s glory, and a day in which we are better servants of the Lord than before. In times past at my house, I would give out tracts and Bible material to the “Trick or Treaters” coming to the door, hoping that they would take this home and mom and dad would read it. Brethren, we must avail ourselves of every opportunity and every chance to preach the gospel to others.

Think on these things!