WHY THE STRANGE CUSTOMS OF HALLOWEEN? - Gerhard O Marx - October 1976

Gerhard O Marx

Where did Halloween come from? Should it be observed? Few realize just how enlightened, twentieth-century man came to observe such a superstitious custom. Halloween is the strangest holiday of the entire year. On the eve of November 1 children dress as goblins or witches and knock on doors, yelling "trick or treat." Some soap windows of schools and stores, while others actually tear down mailboxes, steal objects left unguarded in a person's yard, and give the police a great many headaches with their juvenile vandalism. To perpetuate this spirit of Halloween with its frolicking fun, stores are filled with black and orange masks, pumpkins, and other gaudy decorations that attract the eye. Even some older people enjoy Halloween's decorations, games, and frivolity. In this "enlightened" age, with ignorance and superstition supposedly banished, nations are still celebrating the old holiday, with its goblins, the fear of black cats, and children masked as demons and witches. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library