The ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain, from which All Hallows Eve derives, marked a kind of New Year's holiday. It was considered special because the Celts believed the boundary between this world and the spirit world relaxed, allowing spirits to cross more easily. Superstitious people, terrified by this idea, left out food and treats to mollify the spirits and avoid curses. Samhain was also seen as occurring in no-time, neither in the old year nor the new, where normal laws, order, and customs were suspended for three days of merriment. During this period, people did as they pleased, embracing chaos through revelry, feasting, drinking, taking dares, disguising themselves, and pretending to be something they were not. Our modern Halloween, a tame descendant of this Celtic celebration, continues to grow in popularity as a time when laws, customs, and order briefly cease, allowing participants to indulge in whatever they desire and escape their mundane lives.

Each year, as the last day of October nears, members of God's church devise plans to avoid Halloween, driven by a resigned dread of the holiday season that now extends from mid-October to early January. Halloween, once a brief interlude, has grown too significant for children, partygoers, and retailers to ignore, with 65-70% of adults participating, often in costumes, and 80% of households distributing treats to numerous trick-or-treaters. Retail sales for Halloween rank second only to Christmas, with Americans spending over $3 billion on items and activities, averaging $81 per household on candy and decorations. As a party day, it stands third behind Christmas and Super Bowl Sunday, becoming a favorite among adults who shed inhibitions behind masks and costumes. Halloween, derived primarily from the Celtic festival of Samhain in English-speaking countries, was a New Year's celebration and harvest festival combined, held over three days around November 1. The Celts believed this transition period allowed the boundary between physical and spiritual worlds to weaken, permitting spirits to cross over, which led to practices of appeasing these spirits with food and treats to prevent tricks or curses. This time was considered a period of chaos, with societal norms suspended, laws unenforced, and people adopting disguises and reveling in abandon. Later, Roman Catholicism moved All Saints' Day to November 1 to align with Samhain, allowing pagan customs to persist under a new name, All Hallows' Eve, which evolved into Halloween. Today, Halloween retains its pre-Christian Celtic elements, focusing on the spirit world with figures like fairies, witches, and demons, while activities like trick-or-treating mimic extortion by spirits, alongside divination, séances, and hooliganism peaking on October 31. God warns against being ensnared by such heathen practices, describing them as abominations and idolatrous false worship that honor spirit beings other than Him. These customs, appealing to human nature, act as lures into hidden traps, and God advises vigilance against their dangers, emphasizing that He never instructed celebration of this day or honoring the spirits of the dead.

A growing emphasis on Halloween has shifted the holiday landscape, with decorations and related items appearing earlier each season. Companies like Hallmark have expanded their offerings to include Halloween décor and cards, flooding stores with themed gifts and products. This holiday, now widely celebrated, traces its origins to the Celtic festival of Samhain, a New Year's and harvest celebration held over three days around November 1. The Celts believed this transition period allowed the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds to weaken, permitting spirits to cross over more easily. To appease these spirits, they offered food and treats to prevent tricks or curses on their homes and villages. This time was also considered "no time," outside the old and new years, leading to a suspension of normal laws and order, resulting in chaos, revelry, and behaviors such as disguises and pranks. When Roman Catholicism encountered these traditions, it initially had All Saints' Day on May 13. However, to accommodate the newly converted pagans who clung to Samhain's more engaging customs, Pope Gregory IV in 835 moved All Saints' Day to November 1 to align with Samhain. This allowed pagans to retain their old practices under a veneer of honoring Christian saints, renaming the eve of the celebration as All Hallowed Eve, or Halloween. Over centuries, Halloween has evolved, shedding any Christian elements and reverting to its pre-Christian Celtic roots, characterized by recognition of the spirit world through imagery of fairies, witches, goblins, and other entities. Modern practices include trick-or-treating, which resembles extortion, divination, seances, hooliganism, vandalism, and excessive drinking, echoing the chaos of the original Celtic feast.