October 31 - Halloween - is a day of ghosts, witches, goblins and grotesque creatures, it is a day of orange and black, of candles and jack o lanterns.
Costume parties and strange customs occupy the minds of Western civilisation, and all of this seems to be intensifying every year.
Children wearing every kind of costume imaginable and some unimaginable, have been going from door to door for years on Halloween saying "trick or treat" and collecting bags full of treats.
In recent years, many people have been decorating their yard as cemeteries and making their houses look spooky.
Businesses, nightclubs, bars and charity organisations hold Halloween parties with attractive prizes for best costumes and set up haunted houses as fundraising projects.
Halloween - where did it all come from and what does it all mean?
Most people would say it is harmless fun.
Some would venture to say "if there is any witchcraft in it, it is white witchcraft."
Pastor David J Meyer of Truth Tabernacle in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, says this evil holiday has no part in the life of a Christian.
Pastor Meyer is also the editor and publisher of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, which began publication in 1981 and currently has over 10,000 readers.
In Tract 10 from Last Trumpet Ministries online publications, titled "Halloween and the forces of darkness" Pastor Meyer says:
"We live in a time when witchcraft is being revived. Movies are filled with witchcraft and numerous television programs such as Charmed are teaching witchcraft to millions. Halloween is no joke and is not harmless fun," he warns.
Born in Clintonville, Wisconsin, Meyer was raised into a family where superstition and occultism were everywhere.
His paternal grandmother and great grandmother were both practising witches in the old Wiccan tradition.
When Meyer was 13-years old, he began his involvement with astrology, numerology and palm reading. This continued until age 19 and he became well-known in northern Wisconsin as a psychic astrologer. At age 19 a friend coaxed him to attend a small church where miracles and healing were said to happen.
Being drawn first of all by curiosity, Meyer attended a Sunday evening service where the Holy Spirit began to work conviction in his heart. At the end of the service he went up to the front and fell to his knees and repented before the Lord. The following week he was baptized in the name of the Lord. One week later, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit.
He describes being born again as "an experience reminiscent of Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road."
As a former occultist, astrologer and witch, well acquinted with occult legends and symbology, and saved by the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, Meyer now specialises in deliverance ministry and exposes the dangers of the occult and secret societies.
He says to truly answer both of the questions of where Halloween came from and what it means, one must clearly go back to the origin of it all.
Halloween has its origin in the British Isles some 1300 years ago.
In those days, there were many men and women who practised a so-called "nature religion" known as Wicca. (The word wicca means wise ones. The word witch is derived from Wicca). The witches worked their spells and magic as individuals or sometimes in groups of 13 known as Covens.
The Wiccans were worshippers of the "Earth Mother" - the sun, the moon and stars," he explains.
Pastor Meyer says that although witches do not believe in Satan, it is Satan who gives them the experiences they have and deceives them into thinking it is the forces of nature they are tapping into.
According to his past experiences, the wiccans or witches meet every Friday night at a gathering called an "esbat".
They draw a magic circle with a six-pointed star in it called a "hexagram".
The coven of 13 stand "sky clad" or naked in the hexagram and work spells by chanting and doing rituals such as "drawing down the moon".
Pastor Meyer says the full moon is sacred to witches especially if it is on a Friday. "It is considered to be even greater if the Friday is the 13th day of the month," he says.
Eight times each year, the witches celebrated a "sabat" - Imbolc on February 2, the spring equinox on March 22, Beltaine on May 1, the summer soltice on June 22, Lugnahsaid July 31, the fall equinox on September 22, Samhain on October 31 and the winter soltice on December 22, also known as Yule.
Halloween is the most important day of the eight sabats and is known to the witches by the Scotch-Gaelic word "Samhain" pronounced "Sow-een".
It is believed that on that night, the barrier between this world and the next, known as the astral plane, becomes very thin.
The witches believe that this allows spirits of departed ones to travel freely back and forth between the earth and the spirit realm.
Explains Pastor Meyer: "On that night for many centuries, witches would work their magic and then have wild parties all through the darkness of that night. They would play games such as bobbing for apples, because witches regard the apples as sacred, and they would also tell stories from their personal diaries of spells known as their "book of shadows". These ghost stories would start when the hosting high priest or priestess would say: "A witches tale and a cup of ale for the host of our guests unseen."
Pastor Meyer also reveals that in those early days in England, there was another kind of witchcraft known as Druidism.
The Druids were called "men of the oaks" and were a strange clan of men who dressed in white robes. The Druids worshipped Cernnunos, "the horned hunter of the night".
He says Halloween was sacred to the Druids because their son - god receded to the underworld on October 31, which is why darkness increased and light decreased 'according to their reckoning.'
"As darkness set in on October 31, the clan of Druids would put on their white robes and hoods. They would carry sickles and Celtic crosses as they began a torchlight procession. At the beginning of the procession, a male slave was killed and dragged by a rope fastened to his left ankle. The Druids would walk until they came to a village where they shouted the equivalent of "trick or treat".
The treat was a slave girl or any female to be given to the Druids. If the people refused to give a girl as a "treat", blood was taken from the dead slave and used to draw a hexagram or six-pointed star on the door or wall of the village. Spirits of the "horned hunter of the night" were invoked by the Druids to kill someone in that house or village by fear that night.
"If the house or village gave a girl as a 'treat', the Druids put a pumpkin with a face carved in it, in front of the door or gate of that place. Inside the pumpkin was a candle made of human tallow to keep evil spirits away.
"Thus the Jack-O-Lantern was and is a sign that you have cooperated with Satan," Pastor Meyer explains.
He said the treats or female victims were taken to Stonehenge where they were raped and killed and then sacrificed on the sacred bonfire until only glowing embers were left.
Pastor Meyer said the "bonfire" is the origin of the modern day bonfire.
"As a matter of luck for winter survival, all villagers were expected to use the glowing embers of the bonfire to light their hearths," he explains.
Pastor Meyer said it is clear that Halloween is not harmless.
"Satan has people in our modern era mimicking the witches and Druids of old. All this is cursed of God. May God help you as you read this tract to avoid Halloween and warn others that it is strictly the invention of Satan and can never be anything but evil of the first magnitude!" the former astrologer and occultist warns.
