How can we celebrate Halloween in an authentically Catholic way? If you are alive you have probably heard Halloween, if it is Catholic at all, is just a thinly veiled co-opting of a pagan harvest festival where it was believed the dead and demons roamed the earth and witches gained more power. If you are Catholic you have probably heard by now that Halloween isn’t really pagan in its origins at all. The whole goblin-ghoul-witches-demon thing celebrated with fire and stuff is just a fake pagan LARP retconned into history. As you can see, you can probably guess where I fall on the debate. Halloween is essentially Catholic and finds its origins in the liturgical calendar. For something so easy to verify historically it is shocking how much misinformation can be passed off as the definitive truth. Halloween, as we understand it today, originates in a weird mishmash of Catholicism, the misremembering of history, bad historical scholarship attempting to usher in long abandoned pagan practices (that never existed, or only did in very specific regions of the world), corporate advertising, and good old fashioned folk fun preserved and modified with each new generation. I want to highlight some concepts that I think could restore Halloween in our imagination and facilitate us practicing it in the spirit of Catholicism rather than the spirit of the age.
Note: Below I have put a list of online articles, videos, and some books to help those inclined to learn more about Halloween. I won’t do any significant historical argumentation in this piece, nor will I dive deep into any arguments regarding the occult, instead I am mainly seeking to provide a positive re-imagining of Halloween for the average Catholic.
Embracing Halloween’s Liturgical Nature
So what is one of the first and easiest things we can do to situate Halloween properly in our lives? Well, we can plan on fulfilling our obligation to attend mass for the solemnity of All Saints on its eve! We can actually organize our week around this liturgical celebration rather than subordinate the liturgical aspect of the feast to the afterparty. If we cannot attend mass that day, or desire to go the day of, you can attend vespers at a nearby Church who does such a thing, or you could even organize vespers at your parish. Usually these services are early enough that you can still fit in the bulk of trick or treaters afterward. Just leave your porch light off while you are at mass, or simply leave a bucket of candy with the certainly-to-be-obeyed sign that reads, “please take one” until you get home.
This seems small, but it isn’t. It is a powerful witness of priorities and purpose to those whom you might be attending a Halloween gathering that night with. It also ensures that our hearts are in the right place. Halloween parties can be fun, just like any intentional community gathering. I remember karaoke with family and friends into what felt like the wee the hours of the night after trick or treating in our neighborhood as a child. These are fond memories. I also remember, in college after my re-version, attending all saints day parties which were incredibly fun and no less lively (though less debaucherous) than “secular” Halloween gatherings.
When we keep the liturgical nature of the day in mind it naturally creates a barrier in our hearts and actions toward the more obscene qualities of the secular (neo-pagan) version of Halloween promoted today. It is going to be a lot harder to dress in an overly eroticized immodest outfit after receiving holy communion, or to dress in a blasphemous satanic pope costume after chanting the Gloria, or to watch slasher films all night after taking the time to intentionally pray the Litany of All Saints. That isn’t to say there is always something wrong with Halloween movies or shows. Of course there are plenty of creepy, uncanny, even scary movies that could be watched in moderation on Halloween to maintain some of its eerie quality. The point is to be selective and not just promote or participate in anything just because it is popular. Make sure it doesn’t contradict your faith or makes you complicit in sin (or the near occasion of sin). Keeping the feast in mind helps us approach Halloween in an integrated way and assists our overall discernment about the appropriate level of macabre and spook (especially around children. Don’t lose your common sense about what is appropriate for littles!).
Souling, Courir/Carnival, and the Martrys
But it isn’t just about praying. It is also about celebrating. Solemnities are times of great rejoicing together and Catholics ought to have fun. I think one of the great examples of this is the carnival-like time of Mardi Gras (being from St. Louis and having lived in southern Louisiana I can’t help myself here). “Fat Tuesday” is, in its secular celebration, a time of absolute hedonism and vice, but in its proper context it is a time of great fun before great fasting and penance. To really get why having such a big party makes sense at that time of year one must keep in mind Ash Wednesday, Lent (and subsequently, Easter). If there wasn’t going to be a time of fasting and penance than Mardi Gras would lose its luster (as it has for many people) as a big, little party before the season of spiritual preparation for the big, big party of Easter.
I prefer to focus not on the New Orleans parades (exciting as they might be) but on the Courir de Mardi Gras, the tradition of ritualized begging during a chicken run in Acadiana. During the run everyone dresses in a traditional masked outfit meant to look ridiculous and they are called Mardi Gras. It grants an anonymity to the performance. But the performance also has, ironically, strict expectations. The people participating in the run are both the runners, who go house to house begging for ingredients for the gumbo to the tune of music, but also the people in the house who give money, ingredients, or throw a live chicken to be chased down for the meal. Afterwards the community gathers and shares in a big pot of gumbo. It takes all day and is a big deal.
Of course, people are drinking and dancing and having a grand time the entire event, but that's the point. This type of Mardi Gras celebration is the rural equivalent to the carnival in the big cities and it is meant to be not only a time of eating, drinking, and dancing, but a sort of ritualized mocking and adjuring of the rich. In this playful mockery of the rich (and potentially even the stingy clergy) there is a hidden theme being promoted: charity is necessary for salvation.
So why do I mention this? Well, a similar folk tradition is occurring at Halloween. Though now it is much more toned down and stripped of its more avante garde characteristics. In Ireland, the arguable place of origin for many of the customs which have evolved into our modern celebration of the day (especially in America), Halloween is (or at least used to be before America redefined the world’s Halloween in its image) characterized by a lead up of children going to houses in their neighborhood and rhyming for money or food like fruit, nuts, or soul cakes. The most common rhyme in North Ireland goes like this:
Halloween is coming and the geese are getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you,
And your old man, too! (Source: Jack Santino, The Hallowed Eve, 16)
This might remind us of an American equivalent,
Trick or treat, smell my feat,
Give me something good to eat.
If you don’t. I don’t care.
I’ll pull down your…(you get the point; Source: my childhood).
But this concept is much older than our contemporary versions. It goes back to the Middle Age tradition known as 'souling” where peasant children and (sometimes) adults would go to the houses of the wealthier and beg by offering to pray for their dead in exchange for food or money. It is here, in this idea of ritual begging, that beckons for the most concise location for the element of masquerade (costume wearing) in Halloween. Dressing in ridiculous outfits allows people to embrace begging in a manner that preserves their dignity through anonymity. But the begging is not for its own sake. Like we said, Halloween originates from the solemnity of All Saints. Saints are the holy ones, made holy by the grace of God which caused them to live lives of repentance and service to God and others in Him. By incorporating ritual begging the night before the feast there is not only an expectation of begging, but also an expectation of Christian charity, what we call almsgiving. By means of the costumes, the givers too can preserve that when giving to the needing their left hand doesn’t know what their right is doing (Matthew 6:3). It also breaks down the barriers of class and wealth, allowing every Christian to be on universal footing. When it comes to judgment it won’t be money that saves you, but rather God’s charity. An old souling song that clearly inspired the versions of our rhyming and trick-or-treating goes like this:
A soul, a soul, a soul cake
Please, good missus, a soul cake
An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry
Any good thing to make us all merry
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all
God Bless the master of this house, the mistress also
And all the little children who around your table grow
Likewise your men and maidens, your cattle and your store
And all that dwells within your gates
We wish you ten times more
The lanes are very dirty and my shoes are very thin
I’ve got a little pocket I can put a penny in
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do
If you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you. (Source: Treat or Trick: Halloween in a Globalizing World, 40)
I say all this simply to say trick or treating, trunk or treating, or whatever treating your community is doing is completely fine and actually is a very Catholic thing to do. So don’t skimp on what you give. Be generous as if Jesus was knocking on your door dressed as Woody from Toy Story, Batman, or the classic bed-sheet ghost. It is the Christian thing to do. Also consider making soul cakes for your guests at your Halloween party. I will be trying my hand this year on an Irish one that incorporates tea-steeped dried fruit within! And perhaps even do some extra charitable deed of almsgiving for the solemnity, and after the solemnity, on All Souls day, do the charitable deed of praying for the souls in purgatory. The point is to not lose the spirit of the gathering in the festivity of it.
Avoiding the Second Death: Memento Mori and the Victory of Christ
You are probably noticing I haven’t mentioned anything about twelve-foot skeletons in your driveway, realistic graveyards and hangings, or other such Halloween norms. There is a reason for that. The secular narrative of Halloween being a day for witches and demons is not, as most common historical accounts claim (with abysmal evidence) a day that was usurped by the Church with the saints placed on top of it. Rather, this secular (ironically new pagan holiday) version of Halloween originates as a response to the solemnity of the saints. As I said before, the way Halloween is discussed and embraced now is just live-action role playing of a pagan festival that never was. So what was? How did Hallowtide get so spooky if it is the eve, the celebration of all the glorified in heaven, and a day to pray for the souls in purgatory?
In medieval Catholicism there are two traditions worth taking note of: memento mori and the danse macabre. Both explain how in Catholicism there has always been an aesthetic of the macabre and the gothic. Death is a core part of our spiritual life. Death, alongside, sin and the devil, is what Jesus defeats on the Cross. Jesus promises those in His Body eternal life. But this of course doesn’t mean that we don’t experience earthly death. It means we don’t experience the second death: damnation, eternal separation from God and communion with others.
In memento mori we remember that we will die. For the Christian this is a reality check meant to shake us out of our sin-snuggling stupor and get serious about the spiritual life, usually by embracing a more disciplined approach, and also getting more serious about loving Jesus by more fervently embracing the mass and charity toward others. Halloween by the play acting of charity through trick-or-treating is also, as eastern orthodox iconographer Jonathan Pageau explains, a play-acting of what we ought not to do when monsters come knocking at our door: placating them with treats. So it is both the acting out of the positive to be embraced (charity) and a representation of the negative to be avoided (giving the demons what they ask for).
Life is short, be serious about your salvation and the love of Jesus Christ. Don’t waste the little time we have zoning out in overconsumption or listening to the bad counsel of demons. Instead, embrace the victory of Christ over death. It is always helpful to keep in mind the shocking reality of death to see the shocking victory of Jesus clearly again. This is inverted in the secular decorum of Halloween today where death, violence, and the demonic are put on display in an obsessive fashion that is more kitschy than a Hallmark Christmas town. I have seen entire cars at the grocery store painted orange with every slasher monster imaginable slapped on all the windows. That is weird and not properly ordered. Remembering death is supposed to be an initial spur toward sanctity. It is a means to the end of holiness. The way Halloween is celebrated now by obsessively watching horror movies, decorating one’s house with realistic body bags and other disturbing scenes (best left unsaid) is missing the point.
So, my suggestion? Don’t do that. Let any form of death-related decoration be subordinate to the primary feast of All Saints. Catholicism manages to maintain the weird and wild while orienting them to the glory of God. Every altar is built over a grave or contains a bone of the saints within it. There are entire chapels decorated with actual bones. But these scenes of death are subordinated to the worship of God. That is how we ought to celebrate Halloween. Otherwise. you are simply participating in the secular liturgical season of the culture of death that makes neighborhoods impossible to fully enjoy in the fall with one’s little children. That doesn’t mean you can’t share scary, uncanny, or dramatic stories. If they teach a good lesson they are well worth the time, but don’t embrace a disposition of glorifying and centering what is meant to be seen as tragic and on the fringes.
We must let the weird remain weird and the tragic remain tragic. Instead of exaggerating death to the point of turning our lawns and homes into a Quintin Tarantino set we ought to incorporate the macabre just enough that we can tastefully be reminded that we will die and those we love will die too, that some of those we love have died (and we ought to pray for them), and that some of those who have gone to that great sleep are already with the Lord’s company of angels. Let death be an eschatological slingshot to the higher things than quicksand to the depraved.
Similarly with the danse macabre, an art style depicting the living dancing with the dead. A tasteful rendition of this is found in a television series, Over the Garden Wall, episode 2, in the town Pottsfield. It is uncanny and yet not sadistic. Death comes for us all and brings us to the grave. It is up to us whether we are dancing to the harmonious tune of the saints or the dissonant tune of the reprobate. Consider familiarizing yourself with the ancient liturgical rite known as the sequence of the mass for the dead, Dies Irae. This can be a devotion that can be learned as a family and recited briefly as a reminder of the reality of this life. There is no shortage of saints reflecting on death. I prefer Alphonsus Ligouri’s meditations in his work Preparation for Death or there is the classic Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis. We ought, during Hallowtide, to also make a particular pilgrimage to the graves of those we love, or of any saints buried in our midst, so that we can adorn them with flowers and lanterns on the vigil of All Saints and make prayers for their souls on All Souls day (especially having masses said for them). This used to be a common practice, which is why cemeteries are so often invoked in Halloween imagery.
Once again, the point here is not to forbid certain forms of decoration or celebration (though it should never be occult, obscene, or blasphemous). I won’t even go so far as to say what can and cannot be worn (though it must be modest and, I think, never glorifying the demonic). The point is to refresh our minds for Halloween. To celebrate Halloween with the mind of Christ. Let us purify and reorient how we party at this time. We ought to have fun, and a lot of it! But we ought to have it in a Catholic way. If there is no solemnity, no piety, then the purpose of the feast is lost and cheapened. What that looks like will be the result of the unique wrestling of each Catholic with their local customs and expectations. Don’t be afraid to be countercultural, but also don’t be overscrupulous and fearful where there is an opportunity for real communal levity. I am of the belief that most people just want good family fun on Halloween. Be the event planner of your circle and host a genuinely spooky but properly ordered Halloween party. After all, Catholics know how to party because we know that God didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it.
So let us avoid the second death, embracing charity and festivity, revel in the victory of Christ, pray for the holy souls in purgatory, and ask all the saints of heaven (known and unknown to us), to pray for us.
Some Helpful Resources on Halloween and Halloween-Adjacent Things:
https://ucatholic.com/blog/the-catholic-origins-of-halloween/
https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/its-time-for-catholics-to-embrace-halloween/
https://adoremus.org/2018/10/the-holy-ghosts-of-halloween-resurrecting-a-catholic-feast/
https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/a-defense-of-devil-costumes/
https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/holy-ghosts-on-purgatory-and-the-paranormal/
Book: The Catholic All Year Compendium: Liturgical Living for Real Life by Kendra Tierney
Book: The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine
Book: Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs by Francis X. Weiser
Book: Dies Irae by Nicholaus Gihr
Book: Treat or Trick: Halloween in a Globalising World edited by Malcolm Foley and Hugh O’Donnell, article by Robert A. Davis entitled “Escaping Through Flames: Halloween as a Christian Festival”
Book: The All Hallowed Eve: Dimensions of Culture in a Calendar Festival in Northern Ireland by Jack Santino
Note: Information in some of these articles contradict each other regarding historical origins of certain practices. I take the article by Robert A. Davis to be the most likely and accurate historical account for the origins of many of Halloween’s customs in America, despite the fact many articles repeat the trope of Halloween being a pagan new years celebration co-opted by Christians. Looking at the liturgical origins of All Saints and All Souls days makes the version of Halloween originating as syncretism virtually impossible so we must look for other more complex explanations for some of these customs which I have attempted to do here.
Here is another good resource on Halloween I discovered after writing the article! https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=z3X20a2I7ik