Halloween—Just Another “Day Of The Dead”
Bodie Hodge,
M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical
Authority Ministries, October 30-31, 2025 (Donate)
With Halloween
upon us again, we are reminded that death is inevitable. Too bad Adam didn’t
have the power to snap his fingers and undo what he and Eve did in the Garden
of Eden when they sinned.
With massive
consequences, it was too late; they defied God’s command not to eat from a
particular tree and their high treason against the Lord came with a punishment—death.
Sounds extreme, doesn’t it?
It shouldn’t
we say similar things today. For instance, we tell our kids things like:
· “Don’t walk out in front of semitruck on a busy highway, or you’ll die.”
· “Don’t kiss that black mamba snake, or you’ll die”
· “Don’t drink sulfuric acid, or you’ll die”
· “Don’t eat a bunch of baneberries, or you’ll die”
Did you
realize with this last one, we are literally telling our kids not to eat from a
fruit or they will die! The bigger fact is that we are living in a sin-cursed
and broken world that extends back to Adam’s day. As a result, death reigns.
What Is
The Solution To Death?
From the first
sin in the Garden of Eden, God sacrificed animals to cover that sin
(Genesis 3). The punishment for sin is death (Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12), so
the solution had to involve death. In Genesis 3:21, God made coats or tunics of
skins for Adam and his wife.
This death of animals was only a temporary covering. We see this process required repeating—Abel offer fat portions (death of an animal) as an acceptable sacrifice.
Noah offered sacrifices after the Flood and so on throughout the Old Testament (yearly, per Hebrews 10:1).Animals though, are not infinite in their power and not eternal in their nature. Thus, they could only offer a temporary stay on the punishment man deserves (Hebrews 10:4).
Death still came for Adam and Eve and everyone else other right up to our current day (with the exceptions of Enoch and Elijah; but conversely, others died twice like Lazarus!).
God, being
infinite in power and everlasting in His nature, must punish sin, being
that He is a God of perfect justice and will impose the sentence in accordance
with breaking His law. For one sin, we deserve a death with the eternal and
infinite wrath of God bearing down on us forever.
We could never
take that punishment. But God, in His infinite wisdom and all-knowing nature
had already known the way of escape. The only one in a position to take that
immense punishment from God is God Himself.
The second
person of the one triune God took on flesh and became a man. Christ fulfilled the
Old Testament law perfectly and then was sacrificed as the spotless lamb of God
in our place (1 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:26)!
When Jesus
Christ died on that Cross and was resurrected, He took the full brunt of that punishment
on Himself (Isaiah 53) and had the power to walk out of that grave showing He
has the power over life and death. When anyone believe in Jesus Christ and His
death, burial and resurrection, then they will be saved.
Christ took that
punishment and then He transfers or “imputes” His righteousness to believers
(Romans 4:24). Thus we, as Christians, are seen as spotless as Christ on judgment
day before God. This is what makes salvation possible—the blood of Christ—and no
one else. This is how Christians
have eternal life with God forever enjoying His infinite and eternal
blessings (John 3:14-18).
It is a free
gift of God by His grace and mercy—because He loved us enough and therefore did
the work to make eternal life possible (Romans 5:15, Romans 6:23 Ephesians 2:8).
Only He could (Acts 4:12).
Sacrifice
Was Corrupted As They Left Babel
Sadly, sacrifice
and death became corrupted. When man began to defy God again—after the Flood
this time—God confused their language at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
Families
left and began travelling the world and finding places to live and thrive. As
they lived in their new environments, the yearly sacrifice they took with them
began to be corrupted—false gods, ancestor worship, faulty understandings of sacrifice,
and so on.
Most cultures
had their sacrifices and reminders of death in the Fall or later Summer. Interestingly,
according to famed chronologists Archbishop James Ussher, whose dates appeared
in Bible translations for years had both the creation and the fall (10 days
later) in Autumn. [1]
These yearly
festivals, worldwide were about sin, sacrifice, death, ancestors, and souls. In
a generic sense, they are known as the Days of the Dead. Some of them around
the world became known by other names, traditions, and varied times. Here is a listing
of some of them:
Global and Historical “Days of the
Dead” Festivals
|
Festival |
Region / Culture |
Timing |
Notes |
|
Samhain |
Ancient Celts (Ireland, Scotland) |
Oct 31–Nov 1 |
Marks end of harvest; belief that spirits could cross into
the living world; basis of modern Halloween. |
|
All Hallows’ Eve / All Saints’ Day / All Souls’ Day |
Syncretized with Western Christendom |
Oct 31–Nov 2 |
Christian re-casting of earlier pagan practices;
remembrance of saints and departed souls. |
|
Feralia |
Ancient Rome |
Late Feb |
Day for honoring deceased ancestors; part of Parentalia
festival. |
|
Lemuria |
Ancient Rome |
May 9, 11, 13 |
Private family rites to appease restless spirits
(lemures). |
|
Dziady (‘Forefathers’ Eve’) |
Poland / Belarus / Lithuania |
Autumn (varied) |
Slavic commemoration of ancestors; food offerings at
graves; later merged with All Saints. |
|
Commemoration of the Dead |
Netherlands |
4 May |
National remembrance for war dead and others, retaining
older memorial tones. |
|
Día de los Muertos |
Mexico |
Nov 1–2 |
Merges Aztec Miccailhuitontli with Catholic feasts; joyful
remembrance with altars, food, marigolds. |
|
Miccailhuitontli / Miccaihuitl |
Aztec (pre-Columbian) |
Aug – Nov (varied) |
Dedicated to Mictecacihuatl (‘Lady of the Dead’); feast
for deceased children and adults. |
|
Giant Kite Festival (Barriletes Gigantes) |
Guatemala |
Nov 1 |
Kites believed to connect living with the dead; visual
communication with ancestors. |
|
Todos los Santos |
Central & South America |
Nov 1 |
Local Catholic-indigenous blend, involving grave visits
and food for spirits. |
|
Festival of the Dead |
Haiti |
Nov 2 |
Combines Catholic observances with Vodou traditions (e.g.,
spirits Gede). |
|
Yekuana Death Feast |
Venezuela (indigenous) |
Variable |
Feast and dancing to honor deceased relatives, ensuring
peaceful afterlife. |
|
Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Jie) |
China |
7th lunar month (Jul–Aug) |
Hungry Ghosts released to roam; offerings and lanterns for
safe passage. |
|
Qingming Festival |
China |
April 4–6 |
‘Tomb-Sweeping Day’; cleaning graves, offering food to
ancestors. |
|
Obon |
Japan |
Mid-Aug (varied) |
Belief that ancestral spirits return; lanterns, dances
(Bon Odori). |
|
Chuseok |
Korea |
Sept (full moon) |
Harvest thanksgiving and ancestral memorial rites
(charye). |
|
Pchum Ben |
Cambodia |
Sept–Oct |
Buddhist festival feeding spirits of ancestors for 15
days. |
|
Vu Lan |
Vietnam |
7th lunar month |
Similar to Ghost Festival; honors wandering souls and
filial piety. |
|
Pitru Paksha |
India (Hindu) |
Sept (lunar) |
Offerings (shraddha) to forefathers for salvation and
blessings. |
|
Mahalaya Amavasya |
India (Hindu) |
Sept – Oct |
Opening of Pitru Paksha; prayers for ancestors. |
|
Gai Jatra (‘Festival of Cows’) |
Nepal |
Aug–Sept |
Parades honoring the dead; cows guide souls to the
afterlife. |
|
Wag Festival |
Ghana (Ga) |
Aug |
Communal remembrance of ancestors and harvest; includes
drumming, food. |
|
Ouidah Voodoo Festival |
Benin |
Jan 10 |
Syncretic ancestral-spirit celebration rooted in West
African Vodun. |
|
Mim Kût |
Mizo people (India/Myanmar) |
Aug–Sept |
Thanksgiving and remembrance of deceased relatives. |
|
Feast of the Dead |
Huron (Wyandot) |
Every 10–12 years |
Reburial and communal honoring of the deceased; detailed
by early missionaries. |
|
Feast of the Valley |
Ancient Egypt |
Lunar spring |
Pilgrimages to tombs and offerings to the dead. |
|
Farvardigan (Frawardigan) |
Ancient Persia (Zoroastrian) |
10 days before Nowruz |
Spirits of the dead revisit the living; prayers and
offerings. |
Day of
Atonement—the Old Testament Day of the Dead
Even the Israelites
had a festival similar to these. It too was in Autumn! But it was different.
Theirs was selected by God and they were given instruction by God how it should
be celebrated when they came out of Egypt.
It was accompanied
by the proper sacrifices that God ordained. God also revealed to them how the soul
should mourn and be afflicted. Consider what Leviticus says in the Old
Testament:
“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be
the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict
your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. “And you shall do
no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make
atonement for you before the LORD your God. “For any person who is not
afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.
“And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy
from among his people. (Leviticus 2:27-30, NKJV)
The Day Of
Atonement Fulfilled—The New Testament Day Of Life
The Day of
Atonement was a type and shadow of something greater. It pointed forward to the
ultimate and final sacrifice in Jesus Christ.
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and
not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which
they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. (Hebrews
10:1, NKJV)
These yearly
sacrifices weren’t good enough but Christ’s sacrifice was. He made atonement
permanent. So, a yearly sacrifice was no longer necessary. Instead of a day
of sacrifice and death, it is now a continuous celebration of life—eternal life.
When it
comes to Halloween or other Days of the Dead, we need to remember that
sacrifice is no longer necessary because the ultimate sacrificial lamb, Jesus
Christ, settled the eternal and infinite debt we owed to God for our sin.
Halloween
and other Days of the Dead are a corruption of sacrifice and a
misapplied understanding death (and how final it is in Hell for all eternity).
They need to get back to the roots and foundational meaning of sacrifice and
its solution, so that they can better understand the seriousness
of sin, its punishment, and how to be rescued
from death.
Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law,
has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an
apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as
a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers
News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical
Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal website and it was
organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken on multiple
continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and universities. He
is married with four children.
[1]
James Ussher, The Annals of the World, Translated by Larry and Marion Pierce, Master
Books, Green Forest, AR, 2003, Entry for 4004 BC.
