Halloween. November Eve. The darkest night of the year, filled with mystery and enchantment, the windy whispering of ghosts, the cackling of witches and the inviting, childhood smell of burning pumpkinflesh. Often termed a "holiday," it is more accurately thought of as a holy night, which marks the turning of the year in old Celtic customs, and the promise of new beginnings.

As far back as I can remember, Halloween has always been my very favorite time of the year. To be true, I always enjoyed getting presents at Christmastime, seeing the fireworks on the Fourth of July and flirting with girls on Valentine's Day. But neither of these festivals ever left an impression quite so deep as the one marked upon my psyche by the Eve of All Hallows. For me, it is soothing when the summer dies, the days grow short and the shadows grow long. It is comforting when the night falls ever earlier each passing day, and when the leaves of the trees turn red and gold and fall off -- only to be carried away by icy cold winds that bear the scents of darkness and decay. It pleases my spirit most when I see all the beautiful orange pumpkins that are hoisted from the ground and carved into grinning, crescent skulls that glow in the dark. I even feel a shiver of anticipation race up my spine when I see all the cheap costumes, plastic skeletons, and witches' hats hanging from their shelves in grocery stores, and when the television listings are suddenly filled with every cinematic horror imaginable.

Halloween, although descended from various cultural backgrounds, is primarily of Celtic origin. In ancient times, among the peoples of pagan Britain, it was known as the festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word which is pronounced "SOW-inn" and which means "the End of Summer"). Samhain, curiously enough, was sort of like a combination of our modern New Year's Eve and Thanksgiving for its pre-Christian practitioners. It marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, as well as the end of summer and the first day of winter. The various Celtic tribes would come together at this time and they would herd their cattle and sheep down from the summertime pastures, to be kept in stables during the darkness of winter. All the crops would be harvested, for it was believed that the ambivalent and mischevious faery folk would soon blast the countryside and every growing plant with their icy breath, thus bringing the earth into hibernation until such time as the Sun God would be rejuvenated at Beltaine. For it was at this time of year that the Sun God would grow cold, stern and faraway from his people, and although his light would shine upon the earth, it would not bless the earth with its life-giving heat.

The Celts would light great bonfires throughout the countryside, dress in animal skins and make merry on this dark night. There would be feasts and games aplenty, and some of the livestock and crops would be ritually sacrificed to the gods, as a way of giving thanks for the Celts' prosperity. Indeed it was thought that the gods were closest to the earth at this time. The Druids would hold fire rituals in which they would celebrate the lifting of the veil between the real and the unreal, by which the dead and the yet-to-be-born might look into our world and visit upon their living mortal kin. Spells and costumes would be employed in order to avert and frighten off the unfriendlier spirits that would roam the countryside on this night. And the Celtic youth would often take to practicing divinatory magic, most often to find out who their future wives and husbands might be.

The idea that Samhain was a festival honoring a Celtic God of the Dead who was also named Samhain has been propagated by many conservative Christian writers who are critical of Halloween and its pagan roots. This myth among conservative Christians goes back to a man named Colonel Charles Vallency, who wrote a six-volume set of books in 1770 which attempted to prove (for some strange purpose) that the Irish people once came from Armenia. In actuality, there is no evidence that any such god was recognized among the ancient Celts. The closest thing to a supernatural being that was specifically associated with the festival of Samhain was not a god, but a wicked faery known as the Samhanach. Not much is known about this obscure figure in Celtic folklore, but it is known that it had a taste for abducting small children (most likely for the purposes of eating them), that it could perhaps be appeased by the giving of offerings (perhaps an ancient origin of our modern day custom of "trick-or-treat", which first appeared in print in 1939), and that it only came out on November Eve. But evidently this entity was never actually worshiped as a god, much less a god of the dead.

One of the defining characteristics of Celtic spirituality was the belief that the soul resides within the human head. It is known that the Celts would often behead their enemies in times of war, and the heads would be kept on poles or upon altars. It was believed that when you brought home the head of an enemy in war, you maintained power over that enemy's soul, and you could even get it to give you advice concerning political, agricultural or community-related concerns. Skulls were sometimes placed around tribal fires in order to keep the nastier spirits away. It is quite possible that this ancient custom became reflected in the later Irish custom of scooping out turnips with skull-like faces carved into them, in which candles (the flame of which represents the soul) would be placed. When the Irish would begin to migrate over to North America, they would continue this custom by using pumpkins instead of turnips.

When the Catholic church began to spread its influence through Britain and Ireland, it met with quite a bit of resistance concerning the Samhain festivities. At first, the Catholics attempted to subjugate the celebration of Samhain entirely by denouncing it as a Satanic festival. But even once they had converted to Catholicism, the British and the Irish refused to stop celebrating this night. So in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III (731 - 741) ended up adopting the festival into the church's calendar as the Eve of All Hallows, during which the souls of dead saints would be commemorated (the word "hallow" was a medieval synonym for "saint"). The church also began to teach that the purpose of lighting bonfires on this night was not to honor the old gods, but rather to frighten away the Devil and His Demons (as if Satan could really be frightened by something as harmless to Him as fire). But despite the new teachings and the new proposed purpose for November Eve, the common people continued to honor the spirits of their dead loved ones, and so it became necessary for the church to ordain the day of November the second as All Souls' Day. The term "All Hallows' Eve," which was sometimes written as "All Hallows' Even," would later be shorted to Hallowe'en, and then again to our modern day Halloween. This holiday is still recognized by the modern day Catholic church, for all its attempts to subvert its original pagan associations.

Interestingly enough, Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church on October 31st, 1517. The religious reformation that he sparked would eventually do away with the celebration of Halloween for many Protestant Europeans, but nevertheless they would continue to celebrate the event of this October 31st as Reformation Day. The English would continue a secular version of the festival in the form of Guy Fawkes Day. This celebration marks the anniversary of a plot by English Roman Catholics to blow up Parliament, King James I and his heir on November 5, 1605. It was apparently believed by the conspirators that in the wake of the chaos that they hoped would ensue, the English Catholics could then take over the government. Unfortunately for them, their plot did not work, for one of their number, a man named Guy Fawkes, was arrested and he revealed the names of his fellow plotters under torture. When what would later become known as the "Gunpowder Plot" was foiled, Parliament established November 5 as Guy Fawkes Day, a day of public thanksgiving. Bonfires, pranks, and dressing in costumes became trademark ingredients of the Guy Fawkes Day festivities. It is interesting to see that even Protestants would find ways to continue the celebration of Samhain, albeit in a secular and anti-Catholic manner. Guy Fawkes Day would even be celebrated here in North America by the English colonists, well until the American Revolution.

Immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and England would bring various Halloween customs to the U.S. throughout the following centuries, but it was not until the nineteenth century that Halloween became a popular phenomenon. This was due to the mass immigration from Ireland after 1840 due to famines. Various traditions became popular in Irish locales, such as the "Muck Olla" masquerade. "Muck Olla" was a supernatural boar in Celtic legends who was commemorated by a group of Irishmen who claimed to be his "followers." Led by a man named Lair Bhain ("White Mare"), who wore a horse's head, these "followers" would go from door to door in their neighborhoods and request food, drink or money in return for promises of prosperity during the following year. It was also during this time that it became popular to substitute pumpkins for turnips in the carving of Jack-O'Lanterns.

The term "Jack-O'Lantern" itself first appeared in print in the year 1750, in connection to an Irish folk tale about a man named Jack who had made a deal with the Devil. Jack supposedly tricked Satan and bargained with Him for the promise of never being dragged to Hell; but when the time came for Jack to die, he was refused entrance to heaven for making the deal. And when he tried to enter Hell (apparently thinking it was the next best thing, in terms of where one should spend their eternity), he was rejected by Lucifer, who said, "Sorry, but you made me promise not to let you in." Jack was then forced to roam the earth for the rest of eternity, but the Old Goat took pity on him and gave him a burning coal with which Jack could light his way. Jack kept the coal inside of a turnip (or, in later versions, a pumpkin) and this is the origin of the term "Jack-O'Lantern."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Halloween began to develop somewhat of a reputation as a night of rough mischief among the lower classes. Poor city dwellers would use the night as a means of venting their frustrations through various acts of vandalism, which at one time were limited to tipping over outhouses and soaping windows. But by the 1920's the malevolence of these acts of vandalism had escalated, to the point of severe property damage, fires, and cruelty to both animals and people.

The danger of Halloween riots reached its apex on October 30, 1938, when Orson Welles and his "Mercury Theater of the Air" broadcasted a radio drama adaptated from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Similar to Wells' book, which was written as a fictional character's eyewitness account of a Martian invasion of earth, Welles wrote and performed his play so that it would sound like a news broadcast reporting real events (in order to heighten the dramatic effect). The play essentially was a series of 1930's dance songs, interrupted a number of times by fake news bulletins reporting the landing of an invasion force from Mars that apparently had no less than the ultimate destruction of the United States in mind. Although Welles made sure to include disclaimers at both the beginning and the end of the program, explaining that the program was intended as a bit of theatre, a great many listeners tuned in during the course of the broadcast itself. After listening to the frightened-sounding "news reporters" and a number of menacing sound effects, large numbers of people packed the roads, hid in cellars, loaded guns, and even wrapped their heads in wet towels as protection from the Martians' "black smoke" (a kind of poison gas). Some people even went so far as to commit suicide, figuring that the end of the world was literally at hand, and that they would rather die by their own hands than be horribly butchered by extra-terrestrial invaders.

After this, the United States got sucked into World War II, and this changed a great many things about American culture. After having split the atom and unlocked a whole new arsenal of weaponry never before imagined, the U.S. emerged from the war as one of the two dominant world superpowers. Americans were no longer typically frightened by such gothic horrors as vampires and werewolves; science had become a new religion unto itself. So during the late 1940's and the 1950's, the violent side of Halloween seemed to simmer down considerably, and it became regarded more as an innocent children's holiday. Halloween festivities became mostly limited to school and family activities, and trick-or-treating became a nationwide custom.

However, the 1960's would bring a new paranoia among American parents, and this was the fear of deranged adults who specifically sought to harm innocent trick-or-treaters. Urban myths began to circulate about razor blades hidden in apples and candy coated in rat poison. In the early 1970's, this fear would become combined with the beliefs of conservative fundamentalist Christians that Satanic cults roamed the country and plotted to kidnap and sacrifice children on Halloween night. In the wake of this, community safety standards were further stressed concerning the practice of trick-or-treat. In some areas, it was required that the children trick-or-treat during the daylight hours, before it got dark. In other areas, trick-or-treating became banned entirely.

It was during this time that fundamentalist Christian concerns about the Satanic implications of Halloween became popularly publicized and even believed in some communities, as demonstrated through the publications of such books as Mike Warnke's The Satan Seller. Even today it is still propagated by such people as the evangelical comic artist Jack Chick that Satanists like to hand out candy that has been poisoned or somehow made dangerous to children. It is also commonly believed among such people that Halloween, being the "high holy day" of Satanists, is the one night of the year that the most animals and human children are horribly butchered as "offerings" to Satan. Fundies will say that Satanic power is glorified through the masquerading as evil creatures or the decoration of homes, schools, businesses and churches with occult symbols (e.g., skeletons, ghosts, Jack-O'Lanterns, etc.). It is claimed that "Those who oppose Christ are known to organize on Halloween to observe satanic rituals, to cast spells, to oppose churches and families, to perform sacrilegious acts, and to even offer blood sacrifices to Satan." These anti-Satanic beliefs were further perpetuated during the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's, during which a number of hypnotized mental patients claimed to have been "ritually abused" as children by Satanists, and their respective psychiatrists actually believed them (apparently throwing out all their training in skepticism in favor of monetary advancement through sensationalism).

One particularly distressing example of this mentality is what happened in the town of Jamestown, New York in the year 1987. People in the town began to believe that a number of teenagers who had held a Halloween party in an abandoned warehouse were actually involved in a secretive Satanic cult, and that they had been sacrificing animals at the party. The religious community, outraged, began flooding the local newspaper with letters explaining their concern about the growth of "Satanic activity" in the area. The humane society began receiving phone call after phone call, each informing them of various dogs and cats that had supposedly been ritually slaughtered. People actually began to walk the streets of the town at night, ready to beat up any "Satanists" that were supposedly running around after sundown. The kids who had been at the Halloween party also received various threatening phone calls. After an extensive investigation, it was found that there was absolutely no Satanic cult running around in Jamestown, and that there indeed had never been. The teenagers in the abandoned warehouse were no more than kids with strange clothes and haircuts, and no evidence of any animal mutilation was ever found.

But despite the foolishness of fundamentalist Christian propaganda against Halloween, the holiday is still a highly popular event on many people's calendars. It has become a mostly secular holiday for the majority of people, to which there is not much more than dressing in costumes, eating candy and watching scary movies. Horror movies have indeed become an extremely important Halloween franchise, most especially since the release of John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978.

Written and directed by Carpenter, Halloween is perhaps the single most viewed film during the Halloween season, as well as the single most successful independent film ever made. The story plays on various "urban myths" about escaped mental patients and evil adults seeking to harm children on Halloween. It concerns a seemingly catatonic mental patient who was institutionalized for having silently murdered his older sister on the Halloween night of 1963. Fifteen years later (on Halloween Eve of 1978), the mental patient suddenly becomes violent and breaks out of prison, only to return to his hometown with the intention of continually re-committing his past crime. As he is pursued by an obsessed psychiatrist (played by the highly esteemed Shakespearean actor Donald Pleasence), the masked madman silently stalks three babysitters and the children they are watching on Halloween night. After a spine-tingling climax, it is discovered that the killer happens to be something other than human.

The film shocked and scared audiences out of their wits, to the point where it warranted a large number of sequels and (inferior) imitations. The best of its sequels, contrary to popular opinion, is the highly demonized Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which has a completely different theme from the 1978 original. Released in 1982, this story plays upon the fear of witchcraft as a sinister influence on Halloween festivities, in the form of a modern day warlock who plots for the wholesale extermination of every child in America with murderous Halloween masks. Although belittled by most fans of the Halloween series for the absence of any connection to the original film's characters or plot, Halloween III is perhaps the most innovative and inventive of the sequels, due to the fact that it is the only one that does not imitate the original. It will definitely be sure to go down in history as the first film ever to feature a correct pronunciation of the Celtic word "Samhain." For any of my readers who enjoy to watch a good scary movie or two on Halloween night, I would strongly recommend Halloween and Halloween III: Season of the Witch, if nothing else.

And now that I have finally explained some of the history behind Halloween (and made a couple of viewing recommendations to boot), I shall explain the particular significance of Halloween to Satanism. Contrary to the claims of fundamentalist Christians, Halloween is typically not regarded as the "high holy day" by Satanists. Rather, Satanists traditionally consider the birthday of the individual Satanist to be the most important holiday. This was established by Anton LaVey, who wrote in his Satanic Bible that "Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one." Therefore, according to the standards of LaVey, the birthday of the individual is the most important holiday because it is the day that the individual -- who is regarded as their own godhead -- was brought into this world.

However, being a Devil Worshiper instead of a LaVeyan Satanist, I am not so inclined to view my own date of birth as being of religious importance. Granted, I look forward to my birthday as much as anyone else looks forward to theirs, but to me, Halloween is the most important Satanic festival. Obviously I do not agree with fundamentalist Christians that animal or human sacrifice are necessary (or even desirable) aspects of Satanic practice. But I do happen to agree that when people dress in costumes, go trick-or-treating, and decorate their homes with various Halloween symbols (which I also consider to be "occult"), they are indeed glorifying the Prince of Darkness and His ways, however unknowingly. I share the ancient Celtic belief that, as Samhain, Halloween represents a "gateway" between the carnal world and the spirit world, through which the spirits of the dead and the yet-to-be-born are temporarily free to pass and visit upon the living. Also, although I am prone to using the same calendar as do most other Westerners, I do happen to view the night of October 31st as being a sort of "New Year's Eve." This is because I literally spend three-hundred and sixty-four days of the year waiting eagerly for Halloween, and as soon as it is over, the cycle of anticipation begins afresh.

However, I have a more mystical reason for viewing it this way, as well. To me, it is no accident that midnight, the darkest hour of the night (also called "the Witching Hour"), is considered to be the beginning of a new day. Likewise, Halloween, the "darkest" night of the year (in the sense of being the most supernatural and occult-oriented night of the year -- even from a secular standpoint), is the beginning of a new year. It represents the victory of darkness over light. It is the night when the Devil roams the earth and possesses people to make merry and give in to their darker, "unrestrained" selves, most often by wearing these darker selves on the outside as costumes. Halloween is the one night of the year when grown adults are allowed to act like children, and we are allowed to temporarily do away with everyday reality and be whatever we truly want to be, in the deepest, darkest heart of our imaginations. Halloween is literally the Season of the Witch, a time for myth and magic, for ghost stories and the occult. It is the night when the creatures of the wild make ready to hibernate for winter, and to sleep and live in dreams until the call of spring wakens them to life and lust. Halloween, to me, is the Devil's Night, pure and simple.

For any theistic Satanists who are wondering what special things they can do to celebrate Halloween as a Satanic holiday, click here to read some suggestions.

And with that, I hope that all of the people who read this article -- whether they are Satanist or another religion -- have a safe and happy Halloween. Hail Satan!