The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

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Starting point is 00:02:17 keeping your body, mind and spirit healthy as well. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the channel here and sign up for my weekly newsletter where you get the latest and greatest information on how to use food is medicine, lifestyle medicine, and so much more. You'll find that in the show notes, a link to signing up for that newsletter, which is free right now. Okay. So here's the reality. And I want to dive into the background about Halloween and talk about how we can make this holiday holy and how we can use it for the good of our family and for our kids. Now, Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or All-Hollows Day, where people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and evil spirits. And by the 8th century, Pope Gregory III established what he decided to do something to sort of combat this holiday that was more pagan, this Samhine or All-Hollos Day, and turn it into All Saints Day.

Starting point is 00:03:22 And on November 1st, making Halloween the eve of a holy day meant to honor saints and martyrs. And so again, I went from this Celtic festival to a pope wanting to Christianize a holiday. And that was back in the 8th century. Now, one question people often ask or people might think is, does Halloween have satanic roots? the reality is no, Halloween has just evolved. But is it involved to something better or something worse? And so I want to answer that question. You know, over time, many Christians have debated the spiritual risks of Halloween,

Starting point is 00:04:02 pointing to the holidays association with death, spirits, and more recently, occult practices. And some claim modern Halloween has linked to satanic rituals or opens the door to demonic realm, while others believe it's just cultural fun. And so I'll be answering, giving you my thoughts on this today and how to make it holy and healthy when it comes to Halloween. And so the reality is, you know, Halloween itself, I wouldn't say that it has satanic roots. It really was a holiday that was revolved around this Celtic festival of keeping evil spirits away and ghosts. And then again, the Pope back in the 8th century, decided to take it and use this holiday. a lot of people were celebrating and he wanted to honor saints and martyrs. But you see how it's

Starting point is 00:04:52 sort of warped over time. I will tell you that Chelsea and I, we live in Brentwood, Tennessee, just south of Nashville right now. And when we, like right now, our neighbors are all putting up Halloween stuff. And I will tell you, they're going at this. Like it's the, you know, I can't believe the amount they're spending. We're talking about, I bet 25% of the homes in the neighborhood we're in have these major, major Halloween decor. I'm talking about, like, one house next to us has skeletons that are like 20 feet tall, two of them in the yard. And it's something that for them, it's a big celebration.

Starting point is 00:05:33 And listen, I do want to say, too, I have some good memories of Halloween, of going and trick-or-treating, you know, getting candy with my friends in my neighborhood. I remember going with my cousins one time and us dressing up and, you know, as little kids. having some fun around it. But I do think today, and I think all of you would agree with me, that it's much darker today, I feel like, than it maybe was in the past. And it's definitely more celebrated in certain instances. And it said, over time, again, it's really changed. I think we're looking at the 21st century here, how we practice Halloween and how it's celebrated. And by the way, the Bible warns us in Ephesians 511, it says, and have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of

Starting point is 00:06:17 darkness, but rather expose them. And so what I would say when it comes to Halloween is, what is your motive? What is the spirit behind it? And be careful what you're opening the door to. You know, I think about a very similar thing with, and I hear this a lot with people with yoga. Now, and I want to share my beliefs around this. I think it's a similar, it could be seen as a similar thing. Yoga, I think, can have some really great health benefits. And I don't just think that I know that. And when you look at the medical literature, doing yoga for mobility, for stress relief, basically doing poses that support lengthening muscles and working on balance and proporeception and mobility of the body has anti-aging benefits, stress relieving benefits. There are multiple

Starting point is 00:07:07 medical studies that show that. However, some of the roots around yoga, now listen, I do want to mention that even before there was yoga, people did certain types of movements, which were good for their health. Now, at one point in time, someone decided to take some of those movements and use them to maybe worship parts of nature. Okay, this is more ancient practices in India. And this stems from a lot of ancient Eastern practices. and I think at that point it was worshipping things of nature. And of course, that's not something that I hold to. I hold the worshiping God, the one true God and Jesus.

Starting point is 00:07:50 But I do think for some people, they believe that yoga is evil. So we shouldn't do any yoga because at certain points in time, it was done in celebrating and worshiping the sun god Ra and other things. And I think that, again, the movements in and of themselves are not evil. I think that stretching and working on proporeceptive balance and those things, I think those are all beneficial. And so I know actually a lot of Christians who have taken yoga or are yoga instructors. And by the way, there are going to be plenty of people.

Starting point is 00:08:23 I'm interested to see the comments on social and YouTube about this. But there are definitely a lot of Christians who believe that yoga should not be done at all. and I would say is that is it possible to use something that was meant for evil to use it for good? And I would also say if you're feeling convicted that you shouldn't do yoga, you shouldn't do it. If God is leading you towards not doing it, you shouldn't do it. But for some people, as the Pope did, back in the 8th century, there was a pagan festival where maybe there were some things that, I don't think it was necessarily even. I just think it was a pagan festival that he said, hey, let's, let's bring in and celebrate people that have literally died for their faith. Let's celebrate saints that, you know, went out and gave

Starting point is 00:09:15 their life and helped relieve people of poverty and were Christ-like in their nature. Let's go and celebrate, let's celebrate that. And so I think the very same thing can be done with yoga. God created movement. God wants us to support longevity and reduce stress. And some of these movements that maybe one point in time had motives that were not pure and honorary God, those same movements today could be done where somebody is worshipping God with their movement and what they're doing. And so, and again, I know there's going to be people disagreeing on this as it relates to yoga and Halloween. I think you can move into Halloween with that mindset, though. This is my point is you can either, and I think it's fine to say, you know what, we're not going to celebrate Halloween at all. We feel like at this point in time

Starting point is 00:10:00 it's become dark, it's become demonic in certain ways. It might open up our kids to something. I think that if that's your belief and you feel that way, I think keeping yourself and your kids and family out of celebrating Halloween altogether, I think that's noteworthy. But I also think parents who want to expose their children to what goes on in the world and teach them how to be light in the dark, that's also noteworthy. Okay. And as going back to this, again, Halloween or All Hallows Eve or All Saints Day, this was reserved, again, right around Halloween. It was historically a day of prayer for protection against dark spirits and creating a spiritual barrier against evil. And what if you take your kids and your family and you show your kids rather than basically putting them in a bubble saying, hey, listen, here's the history around this. It was used to, uh, uh, uh,

Starting point is 00:10:58 honor these saints is what this person went and turned it into. And hey, we can take dart situations and turn them into light. We can take, God can use all things for good for those who love him and for those who are called according to his purposes. Right. And so if we can use this in a way to open the eyes of our kids to the spiritual world, what's going on and not tell them there's nothing spiritual and you need to stay, you know, oblivious to what's going on in the world. Again, and I'm not saying one is right or the other. I think there's points in time where we need to protect our kids and not exposed them to the things. And there are other times we want to be intentional and teach them how to be a light in the world. And there's something powerful about understanding that the

Starting point is 00:11:37 spiritual realm is real. And there's a reason why cultures felt the need to create boundaries between light and darkness. And again, I think as the Pope in the 8th century, had the wisdom to say, listen, there is, people are going to celebrate things. But if you're celebrating them, let's bring Christ into these things. Let's bring saints into these things. and celebrate those people who are people that we should model with our own lives. Hey everyone, Dr. Josh Axe here. If you're looking to elevate your health,

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Starting point is 00:13:23 How much do you want to open the door to these things in your kids' lives? And also, if you do open the door, how can you use it for good? Because I think the thing you want to be really conscious of is basically throwing your kids into something like Halloween celebrating it yourself and not explaining to your kids that it's dark and we're meant to be light. And so the thing I think that is the most harmful to a child is, think about this, if you start, if you're putting out skeletons in your driveway and tombstones and ghosts and dark spirits and all these things, and then you're having a party essentially, kids are getting. kids you know that they're associating with even subconsciously darkness and evil spirits with something that's good and fun and so if you're a parent you never sit down and tell your child listen this day used to be to honor saints and people that gave their life to christ you see how culture today takes even things that are good that god is blessed and turns it into something dark We see this constantly or, you know, within society, right? I mean, I think about Christmas rather than it being about St. Nicholas, which

Starting point is 00:14:36 talk about if you go back and read about St. Nicholas, he was an amazing saint. He brought gifts to kids in poverty at orphanages. I mean, he was an amazing man, yet we've turned it into he's a overweight guy who eats a lot of cookies and milk. And it's all about commercialization. And everybody, you know, spending thousands and thousands of, an excuse to spend thousands of dollars on materialistic things. It's about materialism. So it's like we've taken this thing of this saint, Saint Nick, and Christ, in Christmas, these two people.

Starting point is 00:15:14 And we've turned it into commercialization. You know, I mean, we've taken, you know, listen, I could say a lot of different things. But we do that. I mean, Easter has become more about finding Easter eggs than the crucifixion. I think about even the sign of, you know, the rainbow and some of the things of that, you know, that have happened with that. I mean, there are all kinds of things that pointed primarily to God that now society has warped and changed and turned it into something else.

Starting point is 00:15:43 And so I think this is something powerful to be able to point out to our kids and saying, listen, oftentimes society does that and we're here to redeem it. Here's how now we take something evil and we start making it into something good. And I think that is something that is so powerful as parents as you can do is show kids. Okay, other people turn it from dark light to dark. We're going to turn it from dark back into light. That is something we are called to do as Christians. And so how do we do that?

Starting point is 00:16:16 Okay. Well, I think that there's a few things. Again, if we're talking about Christmas, it's, you know, reading the Nativity story. and talking about Jesus and making him the reason for the season. Again, it's great to find Easter eggs for kids, but then having them and talking to them about Jesus, going to church, and talking to them about the crucifixion. So looking at those things and teaching those principles,

Starting point is 00:16:40 and I think a very similar thing with Halloween, telling them, hey, this used to be All Saints Day. It was used to celebrate. Here are some of the people that were celebrated during that time, oftentimes during All Saints Days. hey, let's read up on some of our favorite saints of history, like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Mother of Teresa of Calcutta. I mean, there are so many amazing people that gave their life in modeling Christ.

Starting point is 00:17:05 And so being able to redeem that. And I'll tell you, I had these friends back in graduate school who they actually would, and this was a graduate school, and they actually dressed up on the day so people would ask them questions as saints. It was pretty funny and pretty interesting. But listen, there's all different kinds of things that people can do in order to turn things that are dark back into light and be creative with it. But I do think, you know, listen, it's fun to have your kids go out and get and dress up.

Starting point is 00:17:40 Like that's the fun part to me. Like I love seeing our daughter. She, now it's not even Halloween, but my daughter likes to dress up as all kinds of things. Disney princesses for one. Sky from Paul Patrol. And so we love, I mean, how fun is it to see your kids dressing up, you know? And so, and so that's fun, right? And so I think for our, like for kids, again, just being able to explain to them,

Starting point is 00:18:08 hey, these are dark things. We want to stay away from these things. Here's why. Here's some good things that we want to celebrate instead. And, hey, if you have a bag of candy, now let's exchange that. for something that's going to be good for you and good for your body and talking to your kids about that. I do want to mention here, too, how we see this in culture and how culture has influenced and open the door for more darkness. I even think about people like really popular

Starting point is 00:18:32 musicians like Katie Perry and Taylor Swift, you know, these singers have incorporated darker and more occult-like imagery in their music videos and performances. You know, they're tapping into something more spiritual, but also more dark and evil and potentially harmful. And we live in a culture that's constantly flirting with dark themes. As I mentioned, if you would go back and you would have watched TV back 30 years ago. And I was talking to my dad about this this week. And we were talking about some of our favorite TV shows. And we loved TGIF growing up. Thank God it's Friday. And then they moved the G out. And I forget what they changed it to because they had to remove God from everything, but it was called, literally, it was called Thank God, it's Friday. And we would have the show

Starting point is 00:19:20 with Steve Urquil. Family Matters and, you know, Full House and whatever, step by step and all these funny TV shows. And now it's like probably, you know, shows called, I literally think there's shows called like Lucifer and Black Box. Who knows what other type of shows are out there. But they are so much darker. Guys, that's a spirit of evil. When you, when I think about my favorite movies, I mean, Lord of the Rings is absolutely one of my favorite movies of all time. It's probably, my favorite movie of all time. And I think about what makes that movie great. It's so redemptive. It's so encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting and sacrificial what Frodo is doing. And it's, it's pointing to all of these amazing people that are embodying some sort of spiritual or Christ-like

Starting point is 00:20:07 attribute. Gandalf is embodying the Holy Spirit. Erigorn is being Christ the king. you know, Frodo is the sacrificial lamb. Samwise Gamgee is the servant of all. And so we see these things in this amazing movie that are so redemptive. And we don't see that as much today. It's much more dark. And sometimes there is no redemption at the end. And part of it is the writers, they don't understand those storylines.

Starting point is 00:20:37 They never were taught those as a kid. They never had their parents sit down and say, you know what? This Halloween thing, we're celebrating the darkness. we're not actually celebrating that. Either we're not celebrating at all, or we can participate if we use it for good. And if we're doing it as being a light to other people and if we know what we're, knowing we're walking into darkness and we stay light. So their parents didn't teach them that, and that's the problem.

Starting point is 00:21:01 That's really at the core of the problem. There's a couple quotes I love, and I think that this is really helpful for you to understand that you become like the things you praise and admire. William Blake said this, you become what you behold. What you sit there and behold and look at, where you spend a lot of time doing, that's what you become. You become what you behold. So if you are spending time reading your Bible and sitting there and meditating and looking at how glorious and amazing God is, I mean, think about the Psalms. That's essentially what David was doing.

Starting point is 00:21:37 When you read the Psalms, David is sitting there, like William Blake says, you become what you behold. David is beholding God. He's looking at God with awe and wonder and amazement and reverence. And so he literally becomes more like God because of that because of what he's beholding. But if you are sitting there as part of Halloween and you're beholding the evilness and the spirits and in celebrating darkness in that way, you will become that. Marcus Aurelius said the soul becomes dyed or stained with the color of its thought. So the soul becomes stained with the color of its thoughts. Are you staining yourself and your soul by what you're beholding and celebrating and focusing on or watching or listening to? I can tell you, music impacts me that way.

Starting point is 00:22:23 If I'm listening to praise and worship music or even classical music, something that has just this beauty to it, I become a better person. If I'm listening to music like I did when I was my freshman in college and listening to some of the rap music I was listening to back then where they're talking about guns. and sex and everything else, that made me a worse person when I was listening to that. And so, no, everything you expose yourself to, especially if you're going in with the wrong mindset about it and a lack of awareness, that's going to do you harm. And part of this message is about awareness, becoming more aware of the spiritual things going on in the world today. Now, most people go through the world spiritually, just absolutely oblivious, unaware of what's

Starting point is 00:23:08 going on versus when I'm going through the world today, what I try and do more than ever is I try and practice the presence of being aware that God is present with me. Evil forces are present all around me. And I'm going into the world also looking at like when I'm, when I'm meeting somebody, I think to myself, is this a divine connection that God is sending me this person? Or I'm aware with, and when I've bad energy of somebody, somebody is, I can tell they are a manipulator, or they're trying to take advantage of me or just basically say things that are flattering for the sake of using me as a tool, I try and become very, very aware of that and ask God to guide me through that. And I look for, you know, when I was down with my spinal infection, and many of you know this,

Starting point is 00:23:52 I was down for, it didn't walk for a year. This was just a year or a half ago. One of the things, I saw a rainbow out of my window, this little crack, I had this little window in my room three times. And it was all at times when I felt the most despair in my life, the most hopeful. And when I think about that, I could have looked at that rainbow and thought, oh, it's a rainbow. But when I look at that rainbow, I thought, that's a promise of God that he's going to heal me. And so you can look at where everything is a miracle or nothing's a miracle or everything is supernatural or nothing is supernatural. And so I think also you becoming that way and helping your kids becoming aware of the spiritual

Starting point is 00:24:34 world around them in influences of good and evil, it's such a powerful thing. And so I would say use Halloween for your good and use it to help teach your kids truth about spiritual health and physical health, which we'll get to in a moment. You know, in a world filled with both light and darkness, we get to choose where to stand and what to fill ourselves up with. Philippians 4-8 says this, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. And the opposite is true.

Starting point is 00:25:14 Whatever is evil, don't meditate upon those things. Okay, spend more time meditating on Christ than on Satan, of course. So here are some practical ways to choose the light. If you're feeling convicted or conflicted about Halloween, a great way to navigate this is by asking yourself this, can I use this forget, or if I can't, God, do you want me to just stay away from celebrating this and birth my family all together or taking part in it?

Starting point is 00:25:46 Okay. And by the way, I want to, I want to say to anyone right now who's judging anyone else, because I've seen it work on both sides, where somebody, I know that there are Christians who are judging people, even Christians, who are taking part in it at all. Okay.

Starting point is 00:26:04 And then there are, and they're judging those people thinking that's wrong. And then I know that there are pride Christians on the other end thinking, well, those people are stuck up in judgey, right? And judging those people that aren't partaking or are those parents are, you know, over, are over protecting their kids and they're going to end up being, you know, weird later on. Okay. I've seen that that happens on both sides a lot. What I would say is, is that just don't judge. I would say that understand that, you know what, I think that I could point out to plenty references in the Bible where God told people to, or the apostles and others told people to

Starting point is 00:26:41 separate yourselves completely, do not take part in it. And I think there are other times when God, and I'm thinking Paul specifically when he says, listen, live in the world, but don't be of the world, right? So like, you're being in those situations, but be light in those situations. It pack people for good in those situations. So I think that there's a lot. lot of potential on both sides for, but I would say just be led by the Holy Spirit, be led by God in what you're going to do and make sure you have the right heart in the matter and that you really protect and teach your kids around Halloween. So, and then I would say, you know, also during that time, encourage family activities, promote Godly living, connection, gratitude,

Starting point is 00:27:20 you know, during all holiday seasons and also be very aware about the traditions that you implement into your family. As I mentioned, it's not just Halloween. it's Thanksgiving, it's Christmas, it's Easter, taking these traditions and putting Christ, putting God into those traditions. I mean, this is something when you look at the Jewish festivals. You know, they're all about God. The Jewish festival, they're all about God. And so you want to make sure that if you're a Jew, if you're a Christian, especially,

Starting point is 00:27:51 that you are making, you know, God the reason, Jesus, the reason for the season during those traditions. and also be aware that we don't just fill ourselves with food and calories. We fill ourselves with dark and light with the TV you watch, the music you listen to, the podcasts on a regular basis, are the things you're watching and listening to bringing you closer to God or bringing you further away. Okay, so I spent a lot of time talking about the spiritual roots in connection of Halloween, okay, and some things to be wary of now. I want to talk about some physical health aspects here. And I think some of these statistics are going to absolutely blow your mind. According to Donna Arnette, she's the head of the digital.

Starting point is 00:28:29 Department of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. She says the average Halloween candy hall contains between 3,500 and 7,000 calories. And it's believed that on Halloween night alone during about a two-hour period, most kids consume about 2,300 calories of sugar. By the way, again, this is just one night. This isn't counting all the calories, you know, the next day and the next day. But 2300,000. 300 calories from sugar on the night of Halloween alone, which is the equivalent of eating three cups of sugar or 150 sugar cubes or 220 packs of sugar. Can you imagine sitting your kid down and trying to get them to just sit there and eat

Starting point is 00:29:19 by the spoonful three cups of sugar? I mean, but that's how much sugar kids are consuming during Halloween. And excess sugar can cause spikes in blood sugar. It weakens and drops the immune system. It can lead to long-term health issues like childhood diabetes, obesity, and ADHD. And so we know that sugar is probably the single most destructive thing that our kids are exposed to on a regular basis. So I would say you want to go into Halloween with a plan if you're going to take part in allowing your kids to go trick-or-trick. What you want to do is offer healthier alternatives like dark chocolate and treats made with

Starting point is 00:30:04 natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, monk fruit. You can also focus on other non-candy treats like toy stickers or even money. You know, I remember that my parents when I got, when I became an older as a trick-or-treater, I think probably the last time I went was probably in junior high. But I remember going out and I think my parents said, hey, we are going to give you some money. And I know some parents who, and my relatives of mine, and they're very, very health conscious. And what they do is they either give their kids a combination of sometimes they give them some money. They give them some dark chocolate.

Starting point is 00:30:41 They have them exchange their trick-or-treat candy, which is all processed foods. And by the way, sugar is only part of the problem. We're talking about food dyes. We're talking about glyphosate. I mean, so many chemicals, seed oils that are in these candies that are, so disruptive to kids' health. And so they will trade them a combination of toys and stickers and, you know, other alternatives for that bag of candy. Now, if you don't want to do that and you want to allow your kids to eat the candy they're going to have, then here's another thing I would

Starting point is 00:31:15 recommend. Have your kids eat a certain amount of protein, so meat probably, vegetables, and drink a amount of water before they have their candy and limit them to one to three pieces at a time, it would be another alternative. And so I'm trying to give you options here. Everything from don't take part in Halloween at all. Take part in Halloween, but only do it in a way that's uplifting where you're teaching your kids or if they're actually going out and trigger treating, then again, exchanging their candy for things that could actually be healthy and or limiting their exposure or their consumption

Starting point is 00:31:52 of candy by eating a lot of good stuff first, so their stomach's full enough where they can't necessarily eat too much. So in conclusion, here's a piece of advice. Again, know that your kids are going to learn from something. It could be social media. It could be from the other kids at school, or it could be from you. Make sure that you use everything in life as a teachable moment, both the good and the bad, both the light and the dark. And so if you're going to take part in Halloween, dressing your kids up, taking part in that fun part of it, make sure you're teaching your kids about light and dark. Make sure you're teaching your kids about sugar and the damaging side effects.

Starting point is 00:32:38 Like our daughter, what we tell her, well, what she decided for herself kind of view. We told her, we've told her for years that, hey, you can't have too much sugar because it will upset your stomach. So if we give her a little piece of our coconut milk ice cream or a piece of dark chocolate, she always wants more. Right. Kids always want a second piece and a third piece. But we told her, no, Arwen, that's going to upset your stomach. And one time she had a little too much. We had a lot of her have a little too much. And so she said, oh, my stomach hurts.

Starting point is 00:33:13 So we said, well, you got sugar. And so somehow it turned into, now we call it sugar bugs. Okay, anytime she's sick, anytime she doesn't feel well. She's like, I've got the sugar bugs. And so we've correlated with her eating too much sugar makes you sick, which, by the way, statistically and medically is very true. It's probably the number one thing that makes kids sick today is overconsumption of sugar. And so we have this thing now where it's sugar bugs.

Starting point is 00:33:36 Like she doesn't want to eat too much because she knows, hey, she can have a piece or two, but she can't have too much because she could get sugar bugs. And her stomach could not feel well. She could get a colder flu, more likely. But we are using these things as teachable moments. You know, here's the reality. At the end of the day, Halloween is just one day on the calendar. But the reality is this the choices we make about what we let into our lives has a lasting impact.

Starting point is 00:34:03 You know, fill your life with what is good, noble, and pure as much as possible. And choose to embrace light every day, not just on Halloween. But so much of this goes down to your heart and your mindset going into this, using teachable moments, teaching your kids discipline around limiting certain things or avoiding them or swaps, right? Hey, you can still have chocolate. You just can't have the process, you know, chocolate. You can have the dark chocolate, right? Teaching them how to do that in their lives will help serve them for years to come.

Starting point is 00:34:36 And as we move into the fall season, let's challenge ourselves to intentionally fill ourselves with light through our actions, what we consume and how we live. we have the power to say no to darkness and yes to goodness. Thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Jack's show. We're each and every week we dive deep into how to be healthy, not just physically, but also spiritually and mentally. And this show is meant to help you take your health and your life to the next level. Make sure to subscribe, like, and share, and I'll see you on the next episode.

The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

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