"Let everyone who names the Name" Paul said, avoid iniquity. Is Halloween a celebration of iniquity? Read on and judge for yourself!

Here are some quotes from what many different people have said over the years concerning the celebration of Halloween.

Someone once said, "For a Christian to celebrate Halloween would be as proper as a Holocaust survivor trying to celebrate Hitler's birthday." Yet so many believers continue to do so without considering what they are doing. Excited children masquerading as witches, ghosts, goblins, skeletons, demons, and other grotesque characters skipping through the neighborhood knocking one doors changing "trick or treat" while holding out a sack in which one is to drop a piece of candy or other goodies...the party at school, or church, or Sunday School where they bob for apples, tell fortunes, or go through "haunted houses"...decorations of jack-o-lanterns, witches on brooms and black cats with arched backs...IT'S "HALLOWEEN" - one of the strangest days of the year.

The word evokes a number of responses. Every year as October rolls around, there are those that look forward to it with excitement and those that cringe and wish it weren't there. Some argue violently against it, some yawn because they've heard it all before, may just look the other way and go ahead with it. Some view it as an abomination, while many others view it as a harmless tradition. What is Halloween, or Samhain? What does it represent? And, what should the Christian think about it, if anything?

Where did this fast growing American tradition come from? History provides the answers.

The pagans believed that on one night of the year the souls of the dead returned to their original homes. "There was a prevailing belief among all nations that at death the souls of good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise, but the souls of wicked men were left to wander in the space between the earth and moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living...but there were means by which these ghosts might be exorcised."

To exorcise these ghosts, that is, to free yourself from their supposed evil sway, you would have to set out food - give the demons a treat - and proved shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your treat, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If food and shelter were not provided, or if they were not satisfied, these spirits, it was believed, would "trick" you by casting an evil spell on you and cause havoc.