Are You Celebrating Halloween Like a Pagan?

Are You Celebrating Halloween Like a Pagan?

Here are 6 Ways You Can Celebrate it Like a Catholic.

Each year Americans are estimated to spend between $9 and 10 billion dollars on Halloween candy and costumes. Some call it the second most anticipated “holiday” of the year in America. Though it doesn’t exactly compete with Christmas in retail sales, it curiously competes in many other ways.

The Spirit of Halloween vs. the Spirit of Christmas

The contrast between the two holidays is so stark that we can affirm that the spirit of Halloween has become the antithesis of the spirit of Christmas.

In Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ while in Halloween death is celebrated through its displays of skeletons, corpses, and tombstones.

In Christmas, we think of angels, kings, shepherds and drummer boys.

In Halloween, people think of ghouls, devils, zombies, witches, and even the “living dead” clawing their way out of tombs.

In Christmas, the hearth is filled with innocent carols and heart-warming stories of conversion and generosity.

In Halloween, there are amusement parks with creepy music and heart-rending screams.

Everything we associate with Christmas portrays goodness, generosity, cheer and merriness.

On the contrary, Halloween portrays the ugly, evil, the occult and even the Satanic.

Curiously both events target children as the main participants in the festivities.

Is Halloween Pagan or Christian?

Some say Halloween is a pagan celebration. The Celtic Druids did have a feast on November 1 marking the end of the summer period, called the Samhain (pronounced sow-in) when spirits were expected to be highly active and therefore spells and incantation were needed.

The pagans of the time would use masks or dress in a way that would ward off spirits.

However, the Church later instituted a feast to honour all saints, recognized and unrecognized. According to Merriam-Webster, the original name for All Saints Day, now a holy day of obligation celebrated on November 1, was All Hallows Even (evening). This was abbreviated to All Hallows Eve, later to Hallow e’en, to today’s form of Halloween.

This feast was never was a pagan festival but a Catholic one.  It was established by Boniface IV in 615 and was transferred from May 13 to November 1 by Gregory III in 844.

Despite its Christian roots, it doesn’t stop the modern day “pagans” from celebrating like Druids.

Celebrating Halloween Like A Pagan?

The signs of that someone is celebrating Halloween like a pagan are very simple to spot:

1. there is the way families decorates their homes. The trend has always been the scarier, the better but now the macabre is dominating with front yards full of spider webs, zombies, witches and monsters. Some have even placed tombstones with the dead crawling out of the ground. Some go as far as to use candy bowls in the shape of the devil with a sign encouraging children to take a treat.
2. a sign of pagan celebration is when children are encouraged to dress up as characters who look ugly, evil, sinful or harmful. They often represent murderers, occultists or even the devil himself. Children, in their innocence, normally have a natural aversion for such dark portrayals.
3. the choice of entertainment is a sign of pagan celebration. Television networks promote horror shows over Halloween. Many focus on creatures that terrorize a community. Some delve deeply into the occult and macabre. The fifth top grossing film this year, for example, is It, a movie about an evil clown who abducts and eats children.

The Danger of Celebrating Halloween as a Pagan

In October of 2014, the International Association of Exorcists met in Rome, gathering together 300 exorcists from around the world. Speaker Fr Aldo Buonauioto talked about the danger of letting children be exposed to this type of behaviour during Halloween.

He warned that “there is nothing innocent or fun about it – it is the antechamber to something much more dangerous.” It is “like an initiation into the Occult”, he said. “For the sects, it is the best time of year to recruit new members. From here, the door to the devil can be opened. For this reason, it’s necessary for us to speak out and not play down the danger.”

“There are always more evil rituals, animal sacrifices, desecrations of cemeteries and thefts of sacred bones around the 31^st October,” he concluded.

Today Halloween is celebrated more as a pagan festivity than a Catholic one. However, it can still have a Catholic meaning that can be celebrated. It remains the vigil of the feast to celebrate all saints. It can also be extended to November 2, All Souls Day, in which the Church prays for deceased members, especially those still in purgatory.

Can there be a Return to Catholic Halloween?

If culture can be restored, one way to begin is with Halloween.

Here are six ways to celebrate the Halloween periods like a Catholic:

1. go to Mass. It is on the eve of a holy day of obligation and Mass can prepare us to celebrate the feasts that follow as originally intended. Remember Halloween was originally a cycle of holy days that went from the eve of All Saints Day to All Souls Day.
2. pray to all the saints and martyrs. Saints and martyrs are the natural role models of the Church. Our struggle to attain the salvation of our souls is helped by admiring the saints who came before us. Imitating a great athlete from the past is an excellent way to become an athlete. To obtain holiness, we need to imitate the blessed that came before us.
3. encourage devotion to patron saints in children. The act of admiring saints has to be restored and become part of our culture. It needs to start with children since they have a natural inclination to admire people that surround them. It is especially during this period that they need to acquire the habit of looking up to saints for inspiration. If they need to dress up in a costume, encourage them to dress up as a Catholic saint or hero.
4. pray for deceased family members. In conjunction with paying respect to all the saints, the feast day following All Saints Day is All Souls Day. It is understood that the faithful who have attained salvation but have not attained eternal reward are suffering in the fires of purgatory. We may have family members who are still suffering in Purgatory. We should pray for them throughout the year. It is on this day that the Church reminds and encourages us to have them present in our thoughts and concerns.
5. visit a cemetery and pray for all the souls in Purgatory. There are suffering souls in purgatory who have no one to pray for them. Their family line may have ended, or family members may have forgotten about them. Their descendants may no longer practice the faith. Whatever the case may be, there are always suffering souls in need of prayers.

Three good practices include sprinkling holy water on the grave for the benefit of suffering souls, make a sign of cross and a short prayer whenever passing by a cemetery, and pray the following prayer daily:

“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let the perpetual light shine upon them. And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

6. decorate your home with items associated with the saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ or God in general. Avoid or throw away horrendous Halloween decorations that are associated with the devil or evil things, since they are toxic for the soul.

Halloween was intended to be celebrated as a Catholic feast day cycle. It can once again be restored to its roots but, as with all movements of conversion, it needs two necessary initial steps. We need to burn what we have adored and adore what we have burned.

Halloween, is also a Feast of Charity to the Poor

All Saints Day remembers those who are uncanonized in heaven so that they might have their feast too. All Souls Day remembers the poor souls who are saved from the eternal fires of hell yet are suffering for a time in purgatory.

On the eve of these two feasts, the bells would ring, and town criers would remind all to pray for the poor souls. Thus, on All Hallows Eve, later Halloween, children from poor families would go door-to-door, receiving food and sweets in exchange for praying for the souls of the dead. This “souling” as it was called, gave rise to canvassing for “soul” cakes which became part of the tradition. Harmless pranks awaited the stingy givers. The revellers would sing:

Soul! Soul! Soul-cake!

Please good Missis, a soul-cake!

Apple, pear, plum or cherry,

Any good thing to make us all merry.

One for Peter, two for Paul

Three for Him who made us all.

Halloween was thus a feast that benefited the poor on earth and those who were so much poorer in purgatory. It was a time of mirth but also great charity.

The Church as Mother

While there are times of penance and fasting in the liturgical year, there are also times of joy. The Church as a true mother provides the faithful with festive days of feasting and merrymaking. Thus, the Church has no problem with merrymaking in which people dressed up in costumes to visit their neighbours.

In medieval Europe, it was very popular for people “to go mummering,” the practice of visiting neighbourhoods while dressed up in disguises. The revellers would sing, feast and play tricks in return for refreshment, money or good wishes. Such mummering was very popular on major feast days, of which there were many, in the Middle Ages. They did not degenerate into rowdy or bawdy festivals like those which plague today’s de-Christianized Mardi Gras or other such feasts.

Protestant Prohibition and Eventual Acceptance

In Protestant Europe and America, Halloween was on the prohibited index of religious practices in colonial times, a list that some radical sects extended to Christmas. It was not observed until Irish Catholic immigrants in the nineteenth century brought the custom with them to their new homeland. In the twenties, a secularized version of Halloween was introduced with the practice of trick or treating. It gradually gained traction and acceptance by the fifties.

Can Halloween be Christianized Again?

The modern focus of Halloween is increasingly focused on a fascination with evil, horror, and gore.

However, the more recent celebrations have stressed its pagan origins with its preternatural and ghoulish overtones. It has combined with slasher and horror films and zombie-themed parties and events to make it a festival of darkness embracing the evil side of the spiritual world.

Thus, Halloween has returned to its pagan origins and abandoned those of Christian charity. It no longer belongs to the poor but to those engaging in amusement and self-indulgence. Once the feast of innocent little children, it now includes revelling adults. Those who celebrate do not pray for the salvation of poor souls but harbour instead a diabolical glee over damned souls.

Can Halloween be Re-Christianized?

The question remains if Halloween can be re-Christianized in today’s world.

Resourceful clergy and parents have found alternatives that capture the imagination of children. Many of these include parties in which children dress up as saints or religious figures as a way of celebrating All Saints Day. These alternative events can be helpful in imparting some Catholic culture to children. But they can only go so far.

Such celebrations cannot compete with the super-charged media promotion of today’s neo-pagan Halloween. Children will be exposed to the ghoulish Halloween in stores, schools or the house decorations in their neighbourhood. Like other aspects of modern culture, they cannot be ignored, or Benedict Optioned out.

Arranging a peaceful co-existence between Catholic and pagan celebrations of Halloween is bound to fail since it does not address the need to fight against evil. It prepares the child for defeat later in life, since all must eventually confront the reality of evil without the help of others.

Re-Christianizing Halloween

That is why the only real way to re-Christianize Halloween is to reject any peaceful co-existence in these cultural matters. This will happen when clergy and parents teach children to confront the world they cannot ignore or avoid. They must delve deeply into the Faith. Children must be fortified by sacramental life and prayer to engage in this battle in a manner appropriate to their age.

Thus, any Christianized celebration of Halloween needs to reinforce the idea that there is a cultural battle going on between the forces of good and evil. Hell exists, and its fires must be avoided. What better way to demonstrate these truths than to point out the macabre manifestations of evil that appear everywhere during Halloween.

It could also serve as an occasion to point out the victory of the saints over the evils of their day. The eve of the Church’s two holy days might even return to be a time to make merry and eat sweet soul cakes while praying for the poor souls suffering in purgatory.