This is the 3rd and final part of my Halloween post. Let's continue our talk regarding Halloween symbols and traditions, going on no. 4....
4. Halloween costumes and masks, attending costume parties and parades
I have already discussed about this during my first blog post. Wearing Halloween costumes is one of the most significant practice or tradition and probably the highlight of Halloween.
Halloween costumes - ( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) are costumes worn on or around Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. The Halloween costume has a fairly short history. Wearing costumes has long been associated with other holidays around the time of Halloween, even Christmas. Among the earliest references to wearing costumes at Halloween is in 1895, where "guisers" are recorded in Scotland, but there is almost no mention of a costume in England, Ireland, or the United States until 1900. Early costumes emphasized the pagan and Gothic nature of the holiday, but by the 1930s costumes based on characters in mass media such as film, literature, and radio were popular. Halloween was originally promoted as a children's holiday, and as a means of reining in the licentious and destructive behaviour of teenagers. Early Halloween costumes were aimed at children in particular, but after the mid-20th century, as Halloween increasingly came to be celebrated by adults, the Halloween costume was worn by adults as much as children.
So Halloween costumes are costumes worn on or around Halloween. The costume is commonly a scary character or a popular character.
From the description, we could read that early costumes emphasized the pagan andGothic nature of the holiday, we could clearly see that these costumes really emphasizes the pagan and Gothic nature of the holiday. Let us remember that wearing Halloween costumes are of Celtic origin and is one of their pagan tradition. Let us also remember that the word pagan means person with primitive religious beliefs (from Webster's New Student Dictionary).
When we talk of pagan people, we talk of people who has primitive beliefs, meaning, these people has "undeveloped" or "wrong" belief. These people worship other gods or things instead of the REAL GOD, in this case, let's recall that the Celtics worshiped Samhain, the lord of death, and they believe that Samhain sends out evil spirits throughout the world during Halloween. Because of this, the Celtics knew they need to do something so that these evil spirits won't attack them or disturb them, so it this "something" they need to do turned out to be wearing scary costumes and placing jack o' lanterns outside their houses to ward off these evil spirits. Yes! The early costumes that were mentioned in the description are scary costumes used to ward off spirits.
This belief proves to be very primitive indeed! It's silly to think that evil spirits will go away if a person wears a scary costume, imagine, will you stay away or get scared when you see a mascot? babies might get scared but adults, as well as little children won't! Instead, we would even get get close to them! children will even hug them and we will even take pictures with the mascot. Which means, when an evil spirit sees someone who is in a scary costume, the evil spirit won't go away and instead, the more it will go and enter the person and do harm. We're inviting these spirits with these scary costumes!
As we could read from the Bible (in Matthew 12:22-28), Jesus was casting out demons and evil spirits, the Pharisees accused Jesus that He was casting out spirits by the power of Beelzebub, prince of demons! Here's what Jesus said (Matt. 12:25-27)
"25 But Jesus knew their thoughts and said Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself and will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand? 27 and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they should be your judges, 28 But If I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." -NKJV
Jesus himself have said that Satan cannot cast out himself or of a evil spirit from him because if he does, he will be against himself and his kingdom will not stand. Jesus also said that if he casts out demons by Beelzebub, how do their sons or the Pharisees' followers cast out demons? He said that if he cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon us. Meaning, no one can cast out demons or drive them away using the power of the devil, but by the power of God alone.
Why do these people deal with these things into their efforts? The Lord has said in Zechariah 4:6 ".....Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." God has said that that it is not by our own might or our own power but by His spirit. Without God's spirit, we can do nothing with these evil spirits, through the name of Jesus we can cast out evil spirits and demons.
History of Halloween costumes
Although Halloween is often claimed to be a cultural descendant of the Celtic festival of Samhain, such claims are generally not considered either historically accurate or scholarly. In particular, the custom of dressing up in costumes and going "guising" or trick-or-treating at Halloween developed from Christian customs created in Western Europe around the 15th century. Guising at Halloween in Scotland is recorded in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.
Although Early Christians in Western Europe tried to change the original Celtic festival of Samhain into a day before All Saint's (All Hallows) day and All Soul's day (it was called All Hallow's eve before it became Halloween), but because of their belief that souls gain vengeance during All Hallow's day, they too developed wearing costumes and masks because of the fear of souls, it all ended up from where it was! and now, wearing costumes became credited as a Christian custom.
See what happens if Christians (and even non-Christians) don't read and obey God's word!? See what happens if we don't trust God especially when it comes to dealing with spirits!? People become blinded about the truth and they all sorts of odd stuff and deal things on their own instead of asking God to help us deal with these things. Because these people don't know the truth behind souls and spirits they developed wearing costumes to drive away or avoid souls and spirits but still, they lived in fear and trembling, that's because it's not the right way to deal with it, it's not what God wants us to do. If only these people know the truth in God's word, they won't be so frightened, remember that God wants us to have peace and not fear in our lives.
Now, looking back to God's word the Bible, God never mentioned anything about wearing costumes to drive away spirits. As I have said already, we have the power over these spirits, God gave us the power to rebuke these spirits in the name of Jesus. There is no sense of doing such things because God already gave us power to overcome and conquer these spirits. Now regarding souls, none is written about souls gaining vengeance, it's mainly a false belief. God has said that Vengeance belongs to him (Deuteronomy 32:35), so how could it belong to souls? God can't send souls back to earth to gain vengeance, there's nothing written that souls can come back and strike back at their enemies and attack humans, but this is written:
"27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgement,"
-Hebrews 9:27 NKJV
So it is already written that man is appointed to die once, and after that, judgement. I won't be talking about various religious beliefs but this is what's written in the Bible. Man will die, souls will be judged and therefore, can't go back to earth to do anything else. It's a verse that we can hold on to so we won't be threatened by beliefs about souls. Souls will got heir final destination and they won't be able to go back to earth and do harm.
The holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day were often celebrated with costume parades, wild parties, and licentiousness of all sorts.In the 18th century in the United Kingdom, Halloween was celebrated in rural areas by farmers as a fertility rite, while in cities it had a Carnival-like atmosphere. But as Halloween was transported to the United States by waves of European immigrants, the licentious and rowdy elements of Halloween were domesticated to conform with the emerging Victorian era morality. Halloween was made into a private rather than public holiday, celebrations involving liquor and sensuality de-emphasized, and only children were expected to celebrate the festival.
So let's look back at Halloween, All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day, various celebrations and beliefs were added to these holidays, these holidays were celebrated with costume parades, wild parties and licentiousness of all sorts, so the season of remembering our departed loved ones became a season of COSTUMES, "WILD" PARTIES AND LICENTIOUSNESS!!! The holidays were celebrated with LESS SOLEMNITY and EMPHASIZED FUN AND MERRYMAKING. Now let's concentrate on wild parties and licentiousness of all sorts, parties were celebrated during this season and it's not just parties, it's "WILD" parties. Plus, there is added LICENTIOUSNESS OF ALL SORTS! When we say licentiousness (of all sorts), means, various things that were not allowed to be done before, they are allowed to be done or "licensed". as mentioned above, celebrations involved liquor and sensuality, so we already have an idea what these so called "wild" parties have and these things doesn't please God. These things that are being celebrated are all SIN before God.
Although these things were "de-emphasized", we can't deny that because these things were "emphasized" during the Halloween season, we could still see that some these practices remained today: costumes parties and parades everywhere. Although parties today don't involve various licentiousness of all sorts, ask yourself this, Is it right to party and celebrate in a season where people must be solemn and remember their departed loved ones? Is it right have all the fun and be merry before we go to various cemeteries and visit our dead? Think about it carefully.
Halloween costumes are often designed to imitate supernatural and scary beings. Costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils, or in more recent years such science fiction-inspired characters as aliens and superheroes. There are also costumes of pop culture figures like presidents, athletes, celebrities, or film and television characters. Another popular trend is for women (and in some cases, men) to use Halloween as an excuse to wear sexy or revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise. Young girls also often dress as entirely non-scary characters at Halloween, including princesses, fairies, angels, farm animals and flowers.
Now, back to Halloween costumes, as we have said they are used as a form of "disguise" (that's why it's also called "guising") to ward off spirits or to be not recognized by a soul, early costumes emphasized the "Pagan" and "Gothic" nature of the holiday so early costumes, and even more of costumes today are basically "scary". Early costumes might be as a form of disguise and might have been not so scary, but costumes today have become more and more scarier, with the intent of not warding off spirits but scaring people. This is really getting crazier! people who are formerly so afraid of these spirits and evil elements now wants to scare others by being the spirits and evil elements themselves, this is really getting worse!
I really can't really understand why people enjoy wearing these scary costumes and even take delight in scaring people, I know that we all laugh when see someone get so surprised and we laugh at his/her reaction but scaring people by disguising as an ugly or evil creature, it's no fun anymore! Doesn't it sound so sadistic, having fun in such things? It's definitely not that the right kind of fun. Another thing that I can't understand is why some people and some parents like to see babies and little children in scary costumes an would still call them as "cute". Can you imagine that? you call a person in a scary costume as cute? Can you tell a devil that he is so cute? of course not! Anything scary or evil can never be cute, Scary is not the new cute and scary can never be cute, you can't brand something scary as something cute, they're two different words with opposite meanings and therefore, can't come in together.
Becoming popular today are wearing costumes that are not scary but based on famous pop culture characters. I think that might be good as long as there are no intents of scaring people, the character is not associated with any evil element and is not matched with Halloween elements (like jack o' lanterns) and not involved in trick-or-treating, this plainly cosplay or costume-play. But another thing is becoming popular today, men and women using Halloween as an excuse to wear costumes that are too sexy or skin-revealing. This is definitely inappropriate and the same with scary Halloween costumes, it doesn't glorify God!
Various beliefs and practices are being practiced in Halloween especially when it comes to wearing costumes. People don't really mind wearing costumes, go trick-or-treating, scare people and go to parties and parades and brag about how scary their costume is. It's not really pleasing to see people parading scary costumes (it looks more of a parade of evil creatures themselves!).These things doesn't glorify God and we must put an end to all these things.
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