In our society there are some very mixed feelings about Halloween. Some, self-claimed “Christian” denominations, hold that Halloween is evil and should absolutely not be celebrated. Others take it too far, as expected with almost every Catholic holiday that has been secularized, and have brought evil and occult practices into it, staining the holiday’s reputation.
Contrary to the way it is celebrated in the secular world, Halloween has extremely Catholic origins that should absolutely be noted.
All Saint’s Day is a major solemnity in the Catholic Church, an old one at that. Originally, the feast was set as the first Sunday after Pentecost in the fourth century, which meant the feast would have originally been in the month of May. However, the feast was not an authorized solemnity until 835 under Pope Gregory IV.
A common practice in olden times was to have a large celebration the night before a major solemnity. Take Ash Wednesday, for example; Catholics often throw parties and host gatherings the night before and have food, drink, dancing, and even sometimes costumes. Another occasion where celebrations before a major feast is Christmas; we have Christmas Eve. Families get together and have food and enjoy themselves the night before the feast.
All Saint’s Day, being a major feast in the Catholic Church, held the same tradition of having large celebrations and even processions the night before. Considering the feast was known as “All Hallows’ Day,” the night before became known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” later on being shortened to just “Halloween.”
Costumes actually stem from the same general idea. Given that the feast was about the Saints and martyrs, it was customary to have statues a part of processions the night before. However, not everyone owned a statue of a Saint. And so people would dress up as Saints in these processions, remembering their examples and asking for their intercession.
As time goes on, the secular world has done its work and now we have Rapunzel and Batman taking evening strolls every Halloween.
It is interesting how Catholic these customs used to be, and now they are so ingrained in Western world culture that their value is forgotten and often perverted to mean something worldly and pagan. The concepts of death and purgatory are bone-chilling, to say the least; the afterlife is so unknown to us.
However, there is truly nothing evil about the origins or traditions of Halloween. The world may try to pervert it all they want; they do it with Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and many more. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s take our holidays back and stop letting society taint them!
Dunleavy, Korynne “Is Halloween a Catholic Holiday?” Catholicism Coffee, 31 October 2021, accessed 18 October 2024, https://catholicismcoffee.org/is-halloween-a-catholic-holiday-catholicism-coffee-3695097a0617