Why I don't celebrate Halloween...

October 29, 2015 Why I don’t celebrate Halloween.

As fall is finally here, many things come to mind for the season. The beauty of the falling colorful leaves, changing colors, pumpkins, warm fires, and nice smells. For a lot of people Halloween comes to mind. For my family and me Halloween will pass by in a couple of days and we will have nothing to do with it. People always ask me, “Why don’t you celebrate Halloween?” You also may be thinking, “what’s the  problem with a little candy and dressing up in costumes?” So many people think this is a harmless holiday on October 31st and some people think, “Oh, I’m not doing anything bad. I’m just dressing up and getting free candy.”

 

My parents decided to stop celebrating Halloween years before I was born. They didn’t want their children participating in a dark Holiday practically celebrating the devil and death. Everywhere you walk at this time of year there are caskets in people’s front yards, large spiders, witches, Frankenstein, mummies etc. My parents started a tradition with my older siblings before I was born and we continue to do it every year. Our family picks out our own candy, spends a night in a hotel, we usually go swimming, play games, and watch a movie. We try to keep our minds focused on Yeshua (Jesus) and happiness instead of dark, death, and the devil. We look forward to our fall family get away.

 

I have been reading on this topic of not celebrating Halloween and I have found a TON of things that I have never known before. The information that I am about to share is from several sources. Thank you to these wise women who are wiling to speak candidly, by going against the culture…even among Christians. One writer is a stay-at-home mom, Christian blogger and from her blog, ‘Raisingsoldiers4christ.com. She writes in her blog, ‘Why we don’t participate in Halloween’ “Why is it ok one day a year to dip into the dark side? To scare small children? To be in or place a casket in your yard? If these behaviors can’t be done every other day of the year why this one day? I am sure that most people who send their children out Trick or Treating, are not trying to get in touch with their dark side. However, one cannot escape the fact of what Halloween is, it’s roots, and what it stands for. The Bible tells us to stay away from all forms of darkness. It tells us to think on what is good and pure and lovely. We can’t be on both sides of the fence. Halloween does not match up to Philippians 4:8 or 1 Thessalonians 5:22.”

 

Albert Mohler, an American theologican wrote an article last year that really sums up many thoughts that people may have on this subject “ While affirming that make-believe and imagination are part and parcel of God’s gift of imagination. Christians should still be very concerned about the focus of that imagination and creativity… Christian parents should make careful decisions based on biblically informed Christian conscience. Some Halloween practices are clearly out of bounds, others may be strategically transformed, but this takes hard work and may meet with mixed success. The coming of Halloween is a good time for Christians to remember that evil spirits are real and that the devil will size every opportunity to trumpet his own celebrity. Martin Luther commented: “ The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to tests of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.” Lets put the dark side on the defensive.”

 

My dad shared with me the other day when I brought this topic up with him that he heard something recently, “ We’re always telling our children not to except candy from strangers and not to walk up to people they don’t know and yet on October 31st we tell our children to go up to complete strangers and except candy from them. What is wrong with this picture?”

 

My other resource is from heartofwisdom.com from Robin Sampson. “God and His Word  are referred to as light. Halloween is in darkness and mischief, and false parading about under disguise, often evil and scary costumes. Halloween is not just a time for cornstalks, pumpkins, apples and cute and not-so-cute costumes. There is much, much more. Our God is a jealous God demanding exclusive devotion (Exodus 20:5.) Do you think He cares if you encourage your children to partake in a holiday that honors Satan, the god of this world?

 

Halloween’s History: Halloween’s roots come from the ancient Colts, a tribe living about 2,000 years ago in the areas that are now Ireland, Great Britain, and northern France. Halloween was their main holiday a festival that honored the end of the harvest. The celebration marked the season of cold, decay, and darkness. The custom of wearing costume and masks, was an attempt to copy the spirits or placate them.

 

Yearbook of English Festival by Dorothy Gladys Spicer says:

“ All Halloween, with its tradition of witches, ghosts, hobgoblins and spirits, its games and incantation, still is a gay time for pranks and parties in many North country homes. Fun-loving Americans have borrowed from their British ancestors many Halloween games such as apple-bobbing, nut roasting and tossing of apple parings. Transplanted to the New World soil, the old practices have become revitalized, and currently are observed with more enthusiasm than in the country of their birth…

 

Halloween in the United States: Because of Christianity among so many of the Puritan settlers, Halloween celebrations were not celebrated until the 1800’s when several immigrants from Ireland and Scotland introduced their Halloween customs. They brought various beliefs about ghosts and witches with them. Other groups added their own cultural influences to Halloween customs. German immigrants brought a vivid witchcraft lore, and Haitian and African peoples brought their native voodoo beliefs about black cats, fire, and witchcraft. All Saints Day, a day the seventh century church set aside for remembering early Christians who died for their beliefs, was first celebrated in the month of May. By the year 900 the date was combined with the pagan rituals to be celebrated November 1. Another name for All Saints Day was All Hallows. October 31 was known as All Hallows Eve which was shortened to Halloween. The church made a grave mistake trying to combine pagan worship with Christianity. This is not scriptural! Because of that unwise decision, Halloween remains a holiday in America today. Scriptures warn us that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the third and fourth generations. This pagan belief, even celebrated by Christian churches, celebrates the union of gods and a goddess in the universe that supposedly control the seasons, bring fertility to crops and animals, and bestow magical powers on their followers.

 

What does the Bible say about celebrating Halloween: Although the Bible doesn’t specifically mention Halloween by name, it makes it very clear that the origins and practices of Halloween (adapting pagan customs or borrowing the ways of those who worship a false god and using them to worship the true God) are detestable to God. Deuteronomy 12:29-32. The Bible clearly teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Ephesians 5:1 tells us to be imitators of God. Our Lord Jesus would not go to a party to honor the feast of the Samhain. Moses did not come down from Mount Sinai and combine the Israelites Passover holiday with the idol worship that was going on. Allowing children to dress as witches and sorcerers or hanging evil decorations in our windows is imitating that which is evil.

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people. Therefore Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

The verse says, “come out from among them, says the Lord.” Does that mean come out from among them–but don’t deprive your children from all that fun and candy — celebrate the same pagan ritual in your church building? The Bible is very clear about Christians being involved in such celebrations.

Halloween is more than childish fun. Witches have eight special holidays during the year. Halloween is their day above all days. Witchcraft is not child’s play. It is an abomination to the Lord. Johanna Michaleson, former occultist and author of The Beautiful Side of Evil said, “For a true Christian to participate in the ancient trappings of Halloween is as incongruous as for a committed Satanist coming from blood sacrifices on Christmas Eve to set up a nativity scene in his living room singing Silent Night, Holy Night with sincere devotion to baby Jesus!” One thing Halloween should not be for the Christian is a time of fear. It should be a time to rejoice in the fact that The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8). This is a time of spiritual warfare. October 31 should be spent in prayer for the community and children; a time of worship by singing praise to the Lord. This can be a good time to teach our children to sacrifice by not sharing in the rituals because you love the Lord. Whatever your family decides to do on this day, ask yourself, “Does it glorify the Lord?”

…they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Leviticus 17:7.

I know this is a lot of information about this ungodly holiday on October 31st, but I hope that it will open your eyes and give you a new perspective on the subject. My biggest concern is that Christians have accepted this holiday without questioning it, and asking whether they should take part, even with less scary activities.  Thank you for stopping by and reading my thoughts and many other people thoughts on this. Feel free to comment down below on what you think about Halloween. I hope you have a blessed day.

With Love, 

Kaila  

Pictures from Septemnber 10th!

 Nick and Smeta, the couple that we met from England.

 The underground train that we took everyday.

 All of the refuges figuring out where there next stop would be.

 An English sign next to an Arabic sign in the train station

 One of the families waiting for food and where to go.

 Mrs. Porer getting interviewed by one of the many news reporters.

 The little sweet Muslim girl that I played with and became friends with.

 I thought this moment was so sweet. One of the police men that put his hat on this little Muslim boy.

 Emma #1 playing with a little girl.

 A sweet little Muslim boy who made a play dough snowman. He was VERY eager to show me. If only he knew what snow really was like. :)

 After the refuges we wanted to relax so we went to this beautiful park. There were many lovely flowers, this was an area of some of the flowers.

 One of the other beautiful flower in the garden.

 A view from a bridge that we were up on.

 A pretty pond with little ducks.

 Statue of Strauss.

 Rebekah and my hotel room.

 (Left to right) Sariah, Abby, and Kira singing to raise money for the refuges.

The really funny guy singing songs for the children at the train station.

September 10th Serving the Refuges

Vienna - September 10th we had breakfast and headed down for devotionals and practice in the lounge. There was this couple from London, England. They had the cutest little English accent. Their names were Nick and Smita. Mrs. Porter had met them at breakfast yesterday and told them that we were singing on the streets. They had looked for us on the 9th and didn't find us because we had some expected plans that we did, therefore we didn't sing on the streets. We felt so bad that they looked for us and we weren't singing, so we gave them a private concert in the lounge. I introduced myself and we started talking. Apparently they know some people that may be related to me. That was so cool!

Today we had plans to go and tour around but Mrs. Porter felt lead to go to the train station where the refuges were. Our tour guide on Tuesday had lied in to Mrs. Porter's face several times that the refugees had all fled and that there was no more in Vienna. Mrs. Porter felt lead afterwards to search up if this was true, and obviously it wasn't true.

When we first walked into the train station I was overwhelmed by how many people were there. There was maybe 1,000 to 2,000 refuges packed in there. They had English, Arabic, and German signs all over the walls. It was kind of cool to see three different languages in one place. I have never seen that many police officers in one place at once in my life; it was crazy. But it was good to know that there was officers around for just in case moments.

There was a lady sitting in a corner. We went over to try to talk to her. She had four children (from 9ys down to age 2.) We got out of her broken English that she and her children had fled Saudi  Arabia. She and her children had crossed many rivers, mountains etc. All of her children were all sick now and she looked so tired, yet she was so strong. So many people in there were so strong and brave.

We sang for the refugees in the train station for over two hours without any breaks! Our voices were all so sore but we kept going to be a light to these sad darkened souls and bring just a bit of joy. When we were singing, all of us started tearing up and crying (especially Abby, Kira, and I.) Seeing that many people walking past us with huge packs on their backs knowing that these people had to leave their families, friends, homes, and everything that they knew of. When we were singing people were stopping to watch us and take videos or pictures. So many people came in to take selfies with us; it was really funny. So many people in this smokey train station were touched. You could see it on their faces and I really felt Adonai's presence in there. Some were crying their hearts out and some were smiling. It was very touching.

During a break that we had after two hours of singing, there was a Muslim man from Iraq that came up to Mrs. Porter. (He was one of the men crying and then smiling while we were singing.) He had told Mrs. Porter that he had seen his wife and two children explode and die in a car bomb near their home. He told Mrs. Porter that 14 years ago he had a dream. In his dream a man dressed in white came up to him and touched his head. The man in white said, "Come and follow Me." The Muslim man (being a Muslim) didn't know who this man in white was. All of these years he has always wondered who this man was in the dream. Two nights before hearing us sing-the night of September 8th- he had the dream again. The Man in white came and touched his head again saying, "Come and follow Me." He told Mrs. Porter that when he heard us singing "Amazing Grace", "Hold on to the Rock", and "The Lord Bless You" and  he saw us smiling with such love he instantly was touched and knew who this Man in white was. It was Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah touching this Muslim man. He told Mrs. Porter that he wanted to follow this Man in white. Mrs. Porter gave her contact info so that she can give him advice or prayer. This was the most amazing story that I have ever heard of in my life! To think that we were told that there was no refuges Vienna, and yet there we were leading at least on Muslim to Christ! We couldn't of done it without God's leading, His strength  and His love. ( In a future blog, I will share a second part to this story that occurred after I returned home. It might bring shivers like it did to me)

Words can't even describe how it was to be there serving the refugees. Earlier when we were singing and crying a sweet man came up and handed us each a tissue. Here we were trying to serve these refugees and in return they were serving us. We thought we were in Vienna for the International Music Festival but God indeed had other plans for our trip! We are humbled and grateful to have our voices used for Him!

There were three Christian men from Iraq who were on their way to Germany. They stood behind us while we sang. There was a man who came up and started mocking us so the men behind us came and took the mocking man away. It was nice to know that we had some guys watching out for us. They were like our angels of protection. 

After singing for such a long time, we went to the second level of the train station, where most of the shops were and people walking back and forth to work or catch their train.) We sang an hour with only a five minute break and while we were singing we were raising funds for the refuges. We raised over $800! It was so amazing to be able to share Yeshua's light to this dark world and share His love, joy  and His word through songs. After singing for quite awhile and having lunch; there was a man that came up to us telling us that we should go back upstairs to the first level and sing to the children in the children's area. I love children so much. I was so excited to go up and see them. When you arrive to the children area there were blankets all laid out on the ground so that the children aren't playing on the dirty floor. There was volunteers collecting food, treats, stuffed animals, clothing, shoes, and blankets. While the parents were relaxing, picking things up for their children, or finding out where their next stop was, the children had a safe place to play and put all of their worries or nervousness aside.

We sang a couple of songs for them and then we were able to play with them. Emma, Mrs. Ellison, and I were the only ones that played with the children. I didn't know which child to go to so I prayed that Father would show me which child to go to and He did. He led me to this little Arabic girl who looked like maybe she was six. Because she only spoke Arabic and I spoke only English we had to point, give high fives, show thumbs up, clap, nod, or just smile to each other. This was one moment in my life that I wish I spoke Arabic to be able to connect with this little precious daughter of the one true King, our Heavenly Father. I wish I was able to get her name, but at least we got a cute picture with each other. We colored with each other and just had a great time together. She melted my heart with her loving kindness towards me. When she was leaving she leaned over and gave me a kiss on my cheek. I wanted to cry because of how sweet she was. I now call her my "little buddy" because of how well we connected. When she left, I started blowing bubbles for the other children. Sharing joy and in a troubling and uncertain time for these little ones, helped me to experience how Yeshua (Jesus) looked at the children brought to him. I was so blessed to be able to minister "to the least of these".

While we were at the children's area there was a guy who was making up songs while a girl played the guitar. He was so funny! He had all of these different voices and he sang about our choir, Colorado, and he sang about juggling while Kale juggled for the children. He told us afterwards that he had performed once with the music group "Pentatonix", he was on "Britain's Got Talent", and he won an award in Las Vegas. He was so gifted!

There was a guy there that put the children's area together so that the children could have a safe place to play at. He had brought blankets and laid them out. Children started coming, people started donating, and volunteers started coming to help. If you wanted to play with the children on the blankets then you had to take off your shoes. When we were preparing to leave both Emma's couldn't find their shoes. We found out that the people accidently donated their shoes. We prayed that day that the Lord would use their shoes for a good cause. When we started leaving there was a police officer that came up to a little boy on a rocking horse. The officer put his police officer hat on the little boy, it was so cute!

We headed back to the hotel and some people stayed to get rest but Kale, Emma #1 and #2, Sariah, Kira, Abby, Rebekah, Mrs. Ellison, Mrs. Nelson, and I all went to this huge park. We spent two hours there strolling through the park relaxing and taking pictures. It was nice to relax after a full empowering day with the refugees. I was able to reflect back on my day, which was nice. We visited a beautiful pond with darling little mallard ducks. We then went over to this area where there were beautiful purple and yellow flowers. Near the flower patch there was the Johann Strauss statue. After seeing this beautiful large park we headed back to the hotel for a yummy chicken American food that the hotel staff specifically cooked for the Americans. What a contrast. We could stand safely in this beautiful park; and only blocks away were thousands of people wondering what life would hold for them next.

This whole day was filled with following God's leading for us. I couldn't help but think, "Man plans his steps, but the Lord directs his paths." Serving at a train station was not on our busy itinerary. I was so amazed by how many people we met, apparently touched, and the  amazing stories that we heard.  I was SO thankful for the opportunity to go and serve the refugee people that have left everything and just provide love towards them. I wanted them all to know that their Heavenly Father loves and takes care of them. He has a plan and a purpose for us all, even these people that have seen people explode and had to leave their homes. Please pray for the refugees that are fleeing everything that they know. Pray that they may come to know Yeshua. In addition, to planting seeds of faith, I trust that we gave the refugees a positive picture of Americans and how we're not the horrible people that many in their countries paint us to be.

Thank you for sticking through this long blog today. I hope you will come back for more. It means a lot to have wonderful loving friends.
Blessings to you all,
Kaila

    

PIctures from Septemebr 9th

 

 

 This was the couple from Turkey talking with Mrs. Porter.

 Worship in the morning

 Our music festival poster in the lounge of our hotel. You can see our choir at the bottom.

 The front of the House of Music

 Austrian flags

 Some of the conductors from the Austrian Orchestra

 (Right to left) Me, Kira, and Jackson. The week that we were over there in Vienna I told Kale and Jackson that if they needed anything or if someone was teasing them to come to me. I told them that they were my "little brothers" for the week and they told me I was their big sister for the week. It was so fun!

 The four Russian pocket violins

 Mrs. Porter posing

 This was really interesting in the museum. You would start at the top and make your way down. You could hear how Beethoven could hear until his deafness.

 This is how tiny the guitars were back then! Ha ha!

Some of us girls in the Mozart room!

 Some of the girls at the Gilato shop.

They had these supper funny key chains and signs everywhere in Vienna. It cracked me up! It says, "No kangaroos in Austria." LOL! ;)

Vienna missions trip. September 9th 4th day!

September 9th in Vienna
Our team had breakfast, and then headed down to the lounge to meet with everyone for worship and devotionals. There was a lady and man that had come into the lounge. They saw Sariah's violin and they wanted her play. Instead, we decided to sing Amazing Grace for them because our sextet was there early. They told us that they were from Turkey. The lady was a famous artist and her husband was an author. They were really friendly, I enjoyed singing for them.

When they left, we sang worship songs. We just praised the Lord; we weren't trying to perform at all. It was wonderful. We read in the Bible, had our devotional, prayed, and left for the day.

We went to Vienna as "musicianaries". However, side benefits were being able to fill our time there with educational sites to round out our cultural studies experience. We walked awhile until we arrived to Haus Der Musik (House of Music.) We found out that the conductor from the famous and well known Austrian orchestra lived in that building before he died. They decided to make it into a musem because they respected the Austrian orchestra.

We all had a great time in the musem! They had one room to represent a famous composer. The composers that we came to in order were Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. Before we left each room we each had to learn three facts about the composers that we never knew before. In one room we saw these cute little "pocket violins." They would sow the violin's onto their coat tail so that they could play a tune if they were teaching a dance class etc. The pocket violins that we saw were each from Germany from 1720-1750. The rooms were so much fun! There were games, things you could listen to, diagrams, letters, and really interesting facts of that composer.

After two hours in there, we headed to a Christian International school . Our choir first performed for about 20 high schoolers; then for the kindergartners, and finally the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. The high schoolers really got into our songs, it was so funny! After we had performed we had learned that not everyone attending the school was a Christian. We were even spearding God's love and news in this Christian school. The high school choir and our choir joined in their choir room to do warm ups, get to know each other, and we learned a fun African song with them. That was so much fun and a great cross cultural experience for us all!

We had a tasty fun lunch and headed back up stairs to perform for the 4th, 5th, and middle schoolers. After we sang for them, our choir had the chance to play theater games with the middle schoolers. I had a blast with that! We played an improv game and one of the times Kira, Emma #1, Kale, and I got the chance to act a scene out together. Their theater teacher told us afterwards that we were hilarious. I had a wonderful time at the Christian International school. I felt comfortable and more like myself being in a believing environment.

After performing in the school, we all had a ton of energy! It was really funny how we all had a bunch of energy and yet we still went to go get Gilato ice-cream. ;) I had a cookies n' cream type ice-cream, but it was green! Ha ha! Come back for more soon! Though we had an extensive itinerary plan, God had such a different day planned for us. Hint: Refugees!
With Love,
Kaila

Why I haven't blogged for a week and a half...

Why I haven't blogged for a week and a half is because my family and I celebrate the Feasts from the Bible. We don't celebrate Christmas, Easter, Halloween or any other holidays that have pagan roots. Instead,d we celebrate the Spring Feasts of Passover (Pesach), First Fruits (Ha Bikkurim), Counting the Omer (Sefiras HaOmer), and Feast of Weeks (Shavuot). In the fall, we celebrate Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). We also celebrate Hanukkah in the winter and Purim, in the spring. This past week we were celebrating the wonderful feast of Sukkot!

I had a fall break this past week to celebrate Sukkot and it was an amazing week! Celebrating the feasts is so meaningful and so much fun because 1. we have tons of fun parties fellowshipping with other like minded believers and 2. it is so cool to know that you are celebrating the same things that the Israelites, Jesus and his disciples observed based off of Leviticus.

Our family built a beautiful Sukkah for the first time this year and our community this year did something different. We all went around to each others to celebrate sukkot!. We ate under the sukkahs, camped, had fires, participated in Hebraic dancing, ate at a Jewish restaurant in the area, and  roasted kosher marshmallows under the stairs. At one location we even sang songs about Jesus (Yeshua's) birth under the sukkah, since scholars believe he was born during the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. ()

I have been so busy this week with activities and celebrations I haven't had enough time to blog. I am very sorry that I left for a week but I am glad to be back and blog again. Happy Sukkot! Or as we say it, Chag Sameach!!! (Happy Festival!)