Taking It Back: Redeeming Halloween (Pt. 1)
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Loading ...I want to set the record straight about Halloween.
We, the church, are hesitant, even loathe to use “Halloween” because of the different connotations of the word. In pop culture, immediate images of oafish psychopaths, scantly clad teens running into a bloody chainsaw, demonized little girls with stringy hair and post-pubescent voices, and ghosts from the past talking through the radio. But these ideas are deviations from the true Christian meaning of Halloween. In this three part series, I want to engage the history of this “holy-day” and then propose how we can redeem it.
First, we come to the Romans. They observed “Feralia:” a day in February to honor the dead. Sacrifices were made and prayers offered up on the behalf of the dead. The early church baptized “Feralia” to honor saints of the church, or great people of faith who had died. The date for “All Saints Day” has moved around through the ages, but presently it’s on November 1. Western Christianity, whose epicenter was Rome, had great influence throughout the known world, and naturally, so would it’s holidays.
Meanwhile, the people of Britain were called the Celts. They were people who worshiped nature and its beauty. The Celts, like the Romans and Greeks, had a pantheon of gods, partly as an attempt to explain how the world worked. The Sun God was their source of life, and the Celts adored him as such. They also worshiped Samhain, (pronounce “sow-in,” i.e. “sow” like a female pig) who was god of the dead and, of course, the winter. They believed that on October 31, Samhain would call together all of the dead, and all creatures wandered the Earth that night. The Celts called this the “Vigil of Samhain.” Additionally, October 31 meant the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.
The Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic people, built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to commemorate the festival and honor the gods. At midnight on the 31st, they stop worshiping the Sun God and started to worship Samhain, the ruler-god for the winter. This marked the start of the Celtic New Year. Celts performed ceremonies and dressing costumes like animals through the night to divine the future of the New Year.
After the Romans conquered the British Isles around the time of Christ, the two holidays of Feralia and Samhain merged together in Roman-Celtic territory. As Christianity spread throughout the Empire and up in Britain, the Church further attempted to replace the Celtic and Roman traditions with a similar, but decidedly, Christian celebration on November 1. Known in Middle English as “Alholowmesse,” All Saints Day celebrated and commemorated saints of the Church who did not have a particular day associated with them. Further, the Church often “baptized” secular or pagan holidays and incorporated those days into its liturgical calendar: Easter and Christmas are additional examples holidays with pagan roots. The day before “All Saints Day” was known as “All Hallows Eve;” hence, Halloween. Around AD 1000, the church made November 2 “All Souls’ Day,” a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.
all saints day bonfires celts dead sacrifices Evotational female pig halloween hesitant loathe oafish october 31 psychopaths romans samhain set the record straight source of life sow stringy hair they believed that true christian Western christianity Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)Shine Forth
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Nature is so beautiful. I’m sitting here looking out my window, and was once again amazed at what God made. Unfortunately there is a building sitting right in my line of view that kind of ruins the picture. The man made structure, while a nice looking building, cannot compare.
Makes me think about the parts of my life. Which are God made, and which are man made? After a quick look it is pretty clear - the things of God are glorious, beyond compare. The things of man look shabby by comparison. Even if they are great by man’s standards they pale when standing next to God’s standard. The accomplishment I have achieved on my own may look great for a bit, but oh how glorious are those things that are undeniably purely of God!!
The childhood song about not hiding your light comes to mind - each part of my life that is touched by God becomes a small bit of light. If there is not much in our lives that is of God, there is nothing to shine, nothing to make us different from those around us. But if enough parts are lit up, the whole becomes a blazing beacon that shines forth.
Let the glory of God shine through, reflect off us, and illumine the world around.
Evotational Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)The Fall of Saul
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...1 Samuel 15 tells a very poignant story.
It starts off with Saul the great King of Israel. Victorious in battle, slaughtering his enemies, he was the champion of God. The anointed. The chosen to lead God’s people.
It ends with a heart-wrenching condemnation of Saul:
v35 Samuel never went to meet with Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him. And the Lord was sorry he had ever made Saul king of Israel.
How did Saul reach this point? How could he fall so far so fast? By doing something most of us do everyday.
My wife and I have been fighting this very thing in our 3 3/4 year old son Connor. There are times we tell Connor to not to do something and he goes ahead and does it anyway. Normal kid, right? But normal for us too. When I ask Connor why he did the thing I told him not to do, his reply is almost always: “But I wanted to …”. There is a direct conflict between his will and mine. He then makes the choice to obey or not.
We make that same choice everyday, probably even every minute. Do we obey God or not? Even in the smallest things that choice is there. It boils down to this: do I value God’s commands higher than my desires? Or is what I want more important to me than what God wants?
Saul fell so fast. Don’t fall with him.
v22-23 What is more pleasing to the Lord:
your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.
Praise God!!
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Psalm 9:2
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4
I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! Deuteronomy 32:3
Praise God!! Praise Him for the blessings He has given!
Praise God!! Give him praise for the calamities He has spared you!
Praise God!! Praise him for being the unbelievably, unspeakably, inconceivably awesome God that he is!
What, you are going through tough times and don’t feel like praising?
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7
Through it all, in it all, because of it all - Give Him Praise!!!
1 peter blessings calamities christ deuteronomy Evotational faith give him praise glory and honor going through tough times greatness grief jesus philippians 4 praise god psalm 9 refined by fire rejoice in the lord sing praise unbelievably Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)He’s not done yet
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5) Loading ...In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1: 4-6
Not satisfied with where you are at? Not happy with the way things are going? Great! You are just where God wants you to be. He’s not done with you yet.
We too often look at what we are today and think that is all we can ever be. But God still has new heights he wants to take us to, with new adventures just around the next bend. Just don’t get comfortable where you are. One of the laws of physics states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, while an object in motion tends to stay in motion. In other words it is easier to start doing something if you are already moving, harder to start if you are sitting still.
So you want God to do something big in your life? Get moving!! Find something to do, some way to press in deeper. Start something new, anything from a Bible Study or time of prayer to trying to apply a new virtue to your life. Maybe you could start being more friendly to waiters and cashiers, or finding a way to help around the church with some physical labor. Whatever it is, find a way to start something new. Anything to keep from getting comfortable with where you are now, or God may not be able to move you.
bible study cashiers Evotational finding a way laws of physic philippians prayer prayers s christ jesus start something virtue waiters Filed under Evotational | Comment (0)