Halloween, Is it Harmless?

First a warning about decorative contact lenses, and other safety issues from the FDA:

'Lucky 13' Tips for a Safe Halloween

  http://www.everydayhealth.com/fda/lucky-13-tips-for-a-safe-halloween.aspx?xid=nl_EverydayHealthinCoordinationWithFDAFoodDrugandMedicalProductSafety_20101027
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 STAFFORD, Texas -- A Stafford dentist is making an offer to children to help them earn cash and thank men and women serving in the armed forces, KPRC Local 2 reported today. 
He knows that after the tricks and the treats, those yummy, gooey candies may do some real damage to little ones' teeth.


Lomonte said, "We always know it's busy after Halloween because everyone eats candy and pulls fillings out and all this, so we said, 'Why don't we buy back the candy from these kids?'"

So Lomonte has a proposal for kids: he'll buy back their surplus candy at $1 per pound, package it up and ship it off to service men and women fighting overseas.

Lomonte explained, "It's still going to give them a little touch of home, knowing that their kids are out trick-or-treating, and I know it would probably touch them knowing they're getting some trick-or-treat candy from someone."  More at: http://www.click2houston.com/news/21272355/detail.html  

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Hi Y'all.  I do not believe in Halloween, and I think this article explains pretty well the reasons why:

"Is Halloween simply good, clean fun, or is it something else entirely? You need to know!

Every year at Halloween, well-meaning parents dress their children in grotesque and ghoulish costumes. Is Halloween really harmless? Who and what's behind this bizarre holiday?

It all looks like so much fun and seems so harmless: jack-o'-lanterns, grotesque grinning masks, long black witch attire with pointed black hats, costumes painted like skeletons, outfits that represent demons and goblins, and children going door to door, soliciting treats from compliant neighbors.

But when Halloween comes around, do you find yourself yearning for the hours to pass until the whole trick-or-treat farce is over? If you don't, you should!

Halloween's not-so-fun side

Since when is it acceptable for little children to threaten to commit vandalism?
What happens if the homeowner doesn't come to the door or doesn't have the treats the kids might expect? Is it permissible for children to then soap his windows, toilet paper his trees, chalk mark his sidewalk or turn over plants as they leave? When is it okay for children to commit vandalism while on another person's property?

Some history of Halloween:
On this holiday "huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits . . . The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature" (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, Micropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 862, "Halloween").

It was, bluntly put, a day devoted to appeasing demonic spirits and the dark side of the spirit world—something no Christian should have any part in (Ephesians 5:11).

So how did this dark celebration continue into modern times? Sadly, Halloween came down to us from the Roman Catholic Church, which assigned a day of each year to each of their saints. When it reached the point that they had more than 365, they then combined them together on Nov. 1 and called it "All Saints Day" or "All Hallows Day"—the night before being "All Hallows Eve" or "Hallow Even" (holy evening), contracted to the name Hallowe'en or Halloween.

Why did they choose this particular day? Again The Encyclopedia of Religion explains: "Samhain remained a popular festival among the Celtic people throughout the christianization of Great Britain .
The British church attempted to divert this interest in pagan customs by adding a Christian celebration to the calendar on the same date as Samhain. The Christian festival, the Feast of All Saints, commemorates the known and unknown saints of the Christian religion just as Samhain had acknowledged and paid tribute to the Celtic deities" (p. 177).

Thus a pagan celebration was relabeled as Christian.

The Bible versus Halloween

You cannot find any support for Halloween in your Bible, because God is adamantly opposed to it and the pagan, occult practices it revels in. He warns His people to have nothing to do with these (Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:10-12). They blind us from the truth of God.

God does not take Halloween lightly. As He says, "Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2, King James Version). And, "Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise'" (Deuteronomy 12:30). "
More at: http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn78/halloween.htm
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Please have a safe Halloween Day.