As Protestant Christians, we no longer celebrate All Hallow’s Eve (10/31), an ancient holy day established in 834 by Pope Gregory III to commemorate Christian saints and martyrs. While seemingly a noble thing to remember martyred brethren, we find no such practice in the NT church, but a command to remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. One only need to observe the world’s candied celebration of death to see just how soul-numbing a bad religious holiday can get. Who fears God or death on Halloween?

Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees’ tradition of corban, which encouraged parental financial support of Jerusalem’s coffers, to the dishonor of father and mother. Our Lord also faulted their washing (lit.,baptism) of pots and cups, done for ceremonial reasons. To this day, Roman Catholics doggedly hold to traditions explicitly condemned in Scripture, such as forbidding to marry, and command-ing to abstain from meats. Sadly, Protestant churches are not exempt from bad traditions either. Some Baptists judge the depth of the baptismal fount to be more important than the depth of the convert’s testimony. Other congregations continue unnecessary or useless ministries and programs “because we’ve always done it this way.” In a most bizarre case, a woman annually memorialized her unbelieving father’s death-month by replacing the pulpit display Bible with a pretty silk floral arrangement – and this, over the words “This Do In Remembrance Of Me”. What is the congregation to think?