Reader Question: Is Halloween Anti-Christian?
I grew up celebrating Halloween, and my kids love it, too. But our Catholic homeschooling group is discouraging members from celebrating it and having an All Saints' Day party instead (though they're holding it on Halloween!). Other Christian groups in the area are having Fall Festivals or Harvest Moon Festivals. Should we attend one of these instead, or can we still celebrate Halloween and be good Christians?
More and more Christians are asking the same question, as an increasing number of churches and Christian youth groups offer alternatives to Halloween. (One that the reader did not mention is a "Reformation Day Party," celebrated by some Protestants.)
The decision to attend such events is, of course, entirely up to the parents, but the broader question needs to be addressed: Is Halloween anti-Christian? The quick answer is no. The long answer (which I discuss in "Should Catholics Celebrate Halloween?") is that, despite the claims of many non-Christians and an increasing number of Christians that Halloween is a "pagan holiday," it really has no pagan origins.
Halloween is the vigil or eve of All Saints' Day, a Christian feast to honor all the saints who have passed from this life and are in Heaven. The feast and thus the vigil were instituted in the early eighth century, and it would be over a thousand years later before anyone tried to claim some connection between Halloween and the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain.
It is true that, like most great Christian feasts, non-Christian elements have entered into popular celebrations. (The Christmas tree, for example, was adopted from German pagan customs.) But the Christian Celts (the group most responsible for the modern traditions of Halloween, including jack o'lanterns, trick-or-treating, and costumes) could incorporate these elements without fear precisely because they (the Celts) were Christian--and had been for four centuries before Halloween was first celebrated!
There's no reason for Catholics not to celebrate Halloween if they wish. We should, of course, keep in mind that it is the vigil of the great feast of All Saints--a Holy Day of Obligation--and conclude our celebration of Halloween with Mass on All Saints' Day.
For more information on the history and Christian origins of Halloween, check out "Should Catholics Celebrate Halloween?"
If you have a question that you would like to have featured in our Friday "Reader Questions" series, send me an e-mail at catholicism.guide@about.com. Be sure to put "QUESTION" in the subject line, and please note whether you'd like me to address it privately or on the Catholicism blog.
In younger days, I remember having fun being whomever I wanted on Halloween, basking in a personal fantasy. I remember putting together costumes as a sailor, an angel, a farmer… it was a chance to scavenge for clothing and be creative. Halloween lately is about mass-produced costumes, not so creative anymore, but over time showing more and more fascination with death and the macabre. Yes, there were always ghouls, but now there are more. Even little children want to be something gruesome or ugly. I understand many parents’ concern.
I disagree with you. Halloween is not a Christian holiday it is satan’s day. I researched it many years ago and as a result stopped letting my girls trick or treat. I do not tell anyone not to celebrate it but as for me and my house WE SERVE THE LORD. Marlene
I do not believe for a second that Christians, Catholics or anyone should consider celebrating Halloween. Why celebrate a day that human sacrifices were made to evil spirits?
Yes we are supposed to be a light for the world to see, that does not mean compromising our beliefs to do so.
I don’t think that whether your costume is of a princess or pirate that it makes any difference. Celebrating a day of evil spirits and Satan is not a good idea!
Worship our father in heaven!
Marlene and Amber, have you read the article (Should Catholics Celebrate Halloween?) I linked to? In it, I explain the history of Halloween, its origins as the vigil of All Saints Day, and the attacks on it that were made, not by the Church, but by those who attacked the Church.
Halloween is not Satan’s day, nor was it a day on which human sacrifices were made. It was the day on which Christians prepared for one of the greatest feasts of the liturgical year. The peasant customs that became trick or treating, etc., were attached to it centuries after Halloween was first celebrated as a Christian holiday.
Halloween is pagan ritual celebration to occult forces which existed in the pre-christian times. It has nothing to do with Christianity. If people know that’s its just for fun then its fine.
But, schucks, how we blindly follow whatever culture has handed down to us.
We are to only honor one day and that is the holy day of the week. No other day is to be held in attendance or reverence unless it is to gather to worship His name. That is the truth.