FS-111 - The Truth About Halloween

Halloween is one of the most misunderstood holidays on the calendar — claimed by some as purely pagan and by others as a harmless secular custom, with both sides often working from incomplete history. This course traces Halloween’s actual origins in full: the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, and the entirely separate, genuinely Christian origin of All Saints’ Day, first established on May 13, 609 to honor martyrs — centuries before it was moved to November 1 by Pope Gregory III for reasons that had nothing to do with the pagan fall festivals many assume it was designed to displace. The course follows how the three-day observance of Allhallowtide (All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day) developed over the centuries, absorbing both genuine Catholic doctrinal error (like prayers for souls in purgatory) and folk customs from Samhain and other sources, including souling, guising, jack-o’-lanterns, and trick-or-treating. It surveys how these traditions crossed the Atlantic with Irish and Scottish immigrants and became the modern American holiday. The course then lays out, fairly and in detail, the strongest Christian arguments both against and for observing Halloween, before offering a balanced, Biblical resolution grounded in Romans 14 — one that neither condemns believers who abstain nor gives license to adopt genuinely occultic practices under the banner of “harmless fun.”