Halloween has no such warmth or spirituality for a Jew. Quitethe contrary, it can actually take away spirituality and holiness
from a Jew. Part of this is because it is forbidden for us to
adopt non-Jewish holidays. But that’s not the only reason.
Halloween has many elements in it that are simply wrong and
contrary to Jewish values.
Before I discuss those, however, let me first suggest an
alternative.
Purim is a holiday with a lot more fun in it than Halloween.
Not only that, but on Purim we wear disguises and give gifts
of food to friends and gifts of money and/or food to poor
people.
In keeping Purim, you would be teaching your children a
number of important lessons, such as the greater goodness
of giving rather than demanding, and also the main lesson of
Purim, which is that G-d helps people «anonymously,» that is,
while G-d remains behind the scenes.
On Halloween people take — in fact demand — sweets from
strangers. This alone is certainly not a good thing to be
teaching children, not to mention that Judaism forbids such a
practice. It is also considered terrible behavior.
Besides, there are also the pagan and christian concepts
involved in Halloween.
Halloween is said to have originated as a Druids’ holiday at
the harvest season. They would light large bonfires to ward
away evil spirits.
The Celts believed that Halloween was a good day to
examine the future by means of magical practices. Magical
practices are forbidden by the Torah whether or not they
work. (Magic tricks done by sleight of hand are permitted,
unless used to dupe or manipulate someone.)
So Halloween was a pagan holiday celebrated in Great
Britain quite a long time ago, probably a thousand years
before christianity existed.
When the Romans conquered Britain, they added some
things to Halloween. Since it was also a harvest festival, they
added the worship of Pomona, the «goddess of fruits andtrees.» Idolatry, as you know, is one of the three worst sins.
According to Wikipedia (admittedly often an unreliable
source):
Halloween or Hallowe’en (… a contraction of «All Hallows’
Evening»), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is a yearly
celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31,
the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. It
initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical
year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints
(hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.
According to many scholars, All Hallows’ Eve is a
Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest
festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic
Samhain. Other academics maintain that it originated
independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.
According to the Catholic Online Encyclopedia, the day
following Halloween is known as All Saints’ Day, followed by
All Souls’ Day, and those are indeed Christian holidays.
So, as you see, there is nothing about Halloween that has
anything to do with any Jewish sentiments. Just about every
aspect of it is forbidden by Jewish Law!
Again, consider keeping Purim instead. Jews have no need to
celebrate Gentile holidays. Ours have so much more
meaning and joy to us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There has been a rather amusing response to the above
article. One or two white supremacist websites have
expressed outrage that we recommend Purim over
Halloween. A holiday that, they say, supposedly “celebrates
the murder of seventy-five thousand Gentiles” is a horrible
holiday to keep.
To this I offer the following points:
Purim does not celebrate the deaths, but the victory. (Though
we do celebrate the eleven chief architects of the plot against
us — Haman and his ten sons.)What do we (that is, Americans) celebrate on Independence
Day? The death of 24,000 British and 7,554 German
soldiers? Or our victory, and our subsequent freedom from
British rule? White supremecists are especially insistent
about celebrating war holidays. They would be greatly
offended at any American who did not celebrate Memorial
Day and Veteran’s Day, honoring the soliders, those dead
and those alive, who served this country and gave their
utmost. And they grow enraged when people point out that
the enemy countries of each war also had massive
casualties.
Everyone celebrate their victories, Jews included. America
celebrates with parades and fireworks, Jews celebrate with
charity and gifts and merriment and feasts.
And remember, Purim celebrates a war that, like many wars
America and other nations have fought, was entirely self-
defense. Everyone has a right to defend themselves, except
apparently, minorities that white supremacists hate.
As I explain in my it was entirely a war of self-defense. The
war took place only because there were people — maybe not
all the people, but many thousands — who wanted to
exterminate the Jews. The Jews were at first forbidden to
defend themselves, and then by a miraculous turnover of
events, were given permission to defend themselves. We
were not wiped out, and that is what we celebrate — that
Hashem saved us from extermination.
Jews do not celebrate the death of Gentiles, but rather our
own salvation and the death of our would-be
murderers. Every decent person celebrated the death of
Hitler. (Mind you, white supremecists think Hitler was a good
person. (In fact, many of them believe that Hitler never
targeted the Jews, and that it’s a shame he didn’t finish the
job.)
But the amusing part is yet to come:
Who did the Jews kill in the Purim event? The Bible says that
the empire of Ahasueraus, where these events took place,
encompassed “from India to Ethiopia” (Esther 1:1). Whitesupremacists hate a lot of people, but chief among them are
(Jews, of course, and) African and Asian people. If the
supremacists could, they would massacre all of them (and
us)! So these White Supremacists are complaining that the
Jews they hate, killed other people they hate! And we are
supposed to take them seriously? Racism of any kind, you
see, isn’t and has never been rational.
So I reiterate: if you are Jewish, Purim is a better Holiday to
celebrate than Halloween