The American holiday calendar is surprisingly rich with Catholic traditions—St. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, All Hallows Eve, Christmas, and Easter. All of them, however, have taken on a life of their own, shaped by American consumerism, and often bear little resemblance to their Catholic origins.
Halloween, in particular, has drawn elements from the celebration of All Souls Day and various pagan traditions, especially the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the beginning of winter and the new year. More than pagan roots, however, the modern turn to horror and the occult requires a response from Catholics, both banishing when necessary and baptizing where possible.
You cannot hide from Halloween. Gigantic skeletons, dead bodies hanging from trees, and disturbing billboards advertising an experience straight out of hell. For years, many people have argued that we shouldn’t overreact—trick or treating is fun, and it’s good to focus on death and evil in lighthearted ways. That may sound all fine and good, but that kind of experience hasn’t existed for decades. It’s becoming ever more evident that the holiday has become a cover for evil to come out of the shadows. If the Celts thought evil spirits ran wild on this night, they are doing so again.
Exorcists have warned Catholics against being drawn into the darker side of Halloween. Father Francesco Bamonte, president of the International Association of Exorcists (AIE), which released a book, The Dark Charm of Halloween, explained to Catholic News Agency:
The consumerist reinterpretation of the Celtic festival in the United States emptied it of its content of faith and allowed it to once again ‘become rooted in magic, horror and death, unlike Christianity,’ in addition to being ‘closely linked today to dark realities such as witchcraft and satanism.’ The exorcist also highlighted that it marks, for satanists, the beginning of the Satanic Year, which makes it more dangerous. Although most of those who celebrate it ‘have no intention of celebrating witchcraft and the devil,’ they put themselves ‘in communion with this maleficent spiritual current’ and become ‘more vulnerable to the ordinary and extraordinary actions’ of the devil.
Even though Catholics have dressed like the devil for religious pageants and processions, this was done to show his subjection to Christ and the saints. Turning to evil in ways that normalize or valorize it opens a way to demonic influence.
Witchcraft is on the rise in the United States, for instance, and Halloween has done much to make it seem mainstream and ordinary. Dressing up like Batman and ballerinas may be cute, but why should innocent children go to houses that showcase serial killers? Nothing good comes of this.
Catholics redeem time and space, and the resurgence of evil this time of year should serve as a rallying cry. We can recover elements of our own tradition and also make use of some contemporary practices to support them. Some aspects of Halloween can be linked to the celebration of the eve of All Souls Day, transferred from the following night. At dark, bells would be rung, lights lit in the windows to represent the holy souls, and food, especially a soul cake, left out in their honor. This cake would then be offered to the poor who came door to door for alms (souling).
Dressing up has some basis in the tradition as well, with religious pageants performed by dressing up as the saints on major feasts such as All Saints. It’s also common for Catholics to use signs and symbols to remember death, like the skull, as a memento mori.
This gives us enough to work with to baptize rather than completely banish Halloween, reclaiming the day and sanctifying it through the saints and souls. Let’s banish Satan and his minions, including all their empty work, turning this secular holiday back into a holy day. We’ve come a long way as parishes and schools have been offering families opportunities to celebrate All Saints Day on either October 31 or November 1.
In conclusion, it’s good to celebrate All Hallows Eve. Let’s not let such a culturally important day pass without bringing the faith to bear upon it. There are good, neutral, and bad ways to celebrate.
It’s good to tie the eve back to the feast, neutral to trick or treat in safe spaces with costumes derived from pop culture, and bad to expose kids to things that should be avoided. We need to banish and avoid absolutely anything related to the occult, horror, and demonic themes. Rather, let’s draw out the practices that point to the holy souls. Ghosts are real—the souls of the departed—and not a laughing matter or something macabre. We’re too disconnected from death and our departed loved ones.
Halloween’s focus on death can be turned to fill a much-needed hole in the Christian life today.
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“At dark, bells would be rung, lights lit in the windows to represent the holy souls, and food, especially a soul cake, left out in their honor. This cake would then be offered to the poor who came door to door for alms (souling).”
What a wonderful idea Dr Staudt to reclaim the lost feast day. The bishops throughout occident could be inspired by this to issue an advisory message and encouragement including these ideas alongside some prayers? Hope they are reading!
Make Halloween a Holy Day of Obligation. The secular atheists will immediately stop promoting it since they’ll have nothing to do with anything holy, religious or Catholic. Notice what the secular atheists did to desacralize Sunday. I remember the days of my youth when nary a store was open, traffic stood still and Sundays belonged distinctively to church and family. What we need to do is re-sacralize the culture. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OUR BISHOPS SAY A WORD ABOUT THE THIRD COMMANDMENT: REMEMBER TO KEEP HOLY THE LORD’S DAY!
Yes, I agree. Sunday should be a day of rest- not a day of selling, shopping, & hauling kids to sports.
We have Mennonite friends & if you drive through their communities they’ll have little signs by their farms & stands saying “No Sunday Sales.” And you see the same thing in the local newspaper ads, too.
Chick Fil A’s about the only business locally that pays much attention to the Sabbath.
There used to be blue sky? Laws where you didn’t cut hair on Sundays and such.
Back in the day it was against the law to hunt on Sunday. To give the wild critters a rest also. I still follow that rule for fishing too.
Agreed with Jared Staudt’s take and recommendations. Then there’s reality. Noticeable is an increased manifestation of the dark side. Most of the front lawn exhibits are death related, magic and witchery.
As if we should exult in death and evil. Have fun with it. And who in their right mind would send their kids out at night without an adult escort? Although there are likely places and instances where Halloween is safe and fun for kids. Nevertheless if they were my children they would have an escort.
Staudt details all the positive things to do to make the occasion amenable. He mentions parishes as a mean of ‘baptizing’ Halloween, parishes the logical arena for reshaping the celebration from an invitation to evil to an introduction to spiritual playfulness.
I like what they do in Mexico this time of year-construct altars with flowers, candles, & photos of deceased loved ones. Families also meet in cemeteries to pray for the dead & clean & decorate their graves. They bring special foods & play music. Some graves have very elaborate shrines built over them like little chapels.
Day of the Dead traditions are seeping into American Halloween, which I think is nice. Materials are now available at craft stores. Although I’m not Hispanic, I often bake a skull-shaped Bread of the Dead loaf and mold sugar skulls to give away. It’s a pity that the otherwise excellent Pixar animated movie stripped out the most essential element of the festival–immortality of the soul! The dead wink out of existence when no one living is left to remember them.
Does your church have candles for the past year’s deceased?
We had an opportunity in the past to put photos of deceased family members in church during the month of November but I don’t know if that will be the case again this year.
I think candles would be a nice idea, too.
I don’t disagree with your recommendations, but the whole idea that Halloween has become somehow an excuse for witchcraft and Satanism — especially more so than anything else these days — is simply not in my (relatively long) lived experience.
The kids still dress up as superheroes and “scary” masks, carry pumpkin buckets for candy, and walk around with their parents or in groups of tweens and teens. Parties for adults are like every other adult party: someone drinks too much; someone else wears something outrageous or tasteless; most people sit around or dance or talk and have fun. Horror movies of varying quality and offense appear on TV or in the theaters. It is what it was.
I’m not going to deny that some people have gotten carried away, but as far back as the 1960s you’d have young adults gathering in the woods in bathrobes with candles and ouija boards, drinking and making out and pretending to be “communing with Satan”. And yeah, those things are dangerous and stupid, but are they really on the rise? Do we need more exorcisms because of Halloween, or is it that Halloween observances are getting a little worse because society in general needs more exorcisms all year round?
Halloween isn’t the problem. We can sacralize it again, and I’m all on board with that, but the American cultural tradition of it is still pretty benign, all said and done. Acting like it’s some kind of unique threat is giving Satan more power over it than those kids in the woods.
Every year, Halloween becomes more of a major holiday. Increasingly, people are devoting their front yards to scenes of death and the occult. I often wonder where on earth they store all the props during the rest of the year. Over-sized skeletons and flying witches with broomsticks and cauldrons, elaborate cemetery scenes with multiple tombstones and black iron gates, giant spiders and spider webs – everything reminiscent of death, darkness, and decay. It’s a celebration of all things demonic that equally makes light of it, making it seem like light matter. Every year, it’s a little worse than the year before.
Parallel to this, each year the Christmas decorations become fewer. My wife and I can now find entire streets during December that lack even a single Christmas light. This would have been impossible when we were kids. As for front lawn crèches – keep looking. And Easter/Resurrection decorations are almost completely absent.
Such dismal darkness registers the steady abandonment of the Christian faith and the increase of both unbelief and pagan superstition. But we must hold strong and honor Our Lord on our property and let the devil know he and his associations are not welcome.
One October, I removed the contents of a pumpkin, carved a cross on its front, and placed a flickering battery-operated candle inside. It looked impressive and sent a pious message. Consider doing the same.
A few thoughts – Halloween decorations are getting out of hand.
The Sabbath isn’t just for Mennonites. (See Charlie Kirk).
My church is having an All Saints Day party for the kids.
Have resolved to visit the folks’ gravesite on All Souls Day.
The Sabbath isn’t just for Mennonites but it does seem to be more observed by Protestants these days. When you visit Mexico everything’s wide open on Sundays. I think that’s mostly the case in other countries with an historic Catholic culture.
Catholics get some things right, others less so.
The idea of a cross carved in a pumpkin is great! It’s hard to know where to draw the line, but some people take it far too far. This year I saw a huge classic (red) devil in a front yard where traffic could not fail to see it. I wonder how many were appalled by it? Perhaps all in fun? But what’s fun about Satan? Shouldn’t “Get thee hence!” be the watchword? Or is that overreacting to “just fun.”
Surely it isn’t positive for adults and for children, the thing of nightmares. The bottom line is that if one were to ask the man on the street in this country whether he believed in the devil, the statistics tell us that only a few do; only some of us ignorant/backward etc.types. Those who scorn such naivete include Catholics. The evil one must smirk in glee when at that. Could we just let the kids enjoy Hallowe’en WITHOUT inviting him? Or is it too late?
My son complained to Costco last year that their animated, battery controlled life size Halloween characters were terrifying to his 2 year old & causing nightmares.
I saw some really disturbing stuff like that in home Depot & a skeletonized version of the boy in Deliverance playing a banjo on the back of a local pick up truck. That was the most most distressing one for me because I have a son who plays the banjo. It really creeped me out. I never liked the movie, either. It always seemed like taking a cheap shot at country people.
I think Halloween will continue to grow in importance as the official high feast day of neo-paganism and the occult. Perhaps we can’t stop the downward plunge of our culture, but we can witness to something infinitely higher and perhaps attract others to it. Pardon my use of the excessively over-used word, but even Halloween can be an occasion for evangelization. Regardless, we must be witnesses of the Gospel, period. We must strive to overcome evil with good. So, let the faithful carve crosses into their pumpkins, illuminate them, and let their light so shine as to give glory to their heavenly Father.