Halloween: Christian Celebration or Pagan Tradition?

Halloween is a contraction of “All Hallows Eve,” and designates the vigil of All Hallows Day, which is commonly known today as All Saints Day. The vigil or eve of the feast, October 31, is commonly known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. Hallow as noun is an old English word for saint, and as verb it means to make something holy or to honor it as holy. All Saints Day which falls on the 1st of November is a Holy Day of Obligation. Holy Days of Obligation are days other than Sundays on which Catholics are required to participate in the Liturgy, our primary form of worship. Both the feast and the vigil have been celebrated since the early 8th century, when they were instituted by  Pope Gregory III in Rome, which he extended to the church at large after a century.

All Saints Day is instituted to honor all the saints, known and unknown. It arose out of the Christian tradition of celebrating the martyrdom of saints on the anniversary of their martyrdom. When martyrdoms increased during the persecutions of the late Roman Empire, local dioceses instituted a common feast day in order to ensure that all martyrs, known and unknown, were properly honored.

By the late fourth century, this common feast was celebrated in Antioch, and Saint Ephrem the Syrian mentioned it in a sermon in 373. In the early centuries, this feast was celebrated in the Easter season, and the Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, still celebrate it then.

The current date of November 1 was instituted by Pope Gregory III (731-741), when he consecrated a chapel to all the martyrs in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and ordered an annual celebration. This celebration was originally confined to the diocese of Rome, but Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the feast to the entire Church and ordered it to be celebrated on November 1.

Contrary to other denominations’ claim, Halloween has no pagan origin. Previously, there was an attempt to connect between the vigil of All Saints Day and the Celtic Harvest festival of Samhain. Samhain was an Irish Celtic Festival that marked the beginning of the winter season which was held without a specific calendar day but rather whenever the harvest was finished for the year, which came over a thousand years after All Saints Day became a universal feast, and there was no trace of evidence that Gregory III or Gregory IV was even aware of Samhain.

In the 1980’s, Halloween had been criticized by non-Catholic Christians because of claims that:

1) it’s the Devils’ Night, 

2) urban legends about poison and razor blades in Halloween candy which allegedly seriously injured or killed children as a result of ingesting adulterated candy, apples, or other treats collected door-to-door) and 

3) explicit opposition to Catholicism.

By the late 1990’s, many Catholic parents who are not aware of the anti-Catholic origins of the attack on Halloween, had likewise started to doubt Halloween which caused alternative celebrations to be popular.

Halloween, like Christmas, was becoming highly commercialized by the early 20th century which resulted this to be downplayed because of pre-made costumes, decorations, and special candy which all became widely available. The advent of horror films and especially slasher movies of the late 70’s and 80’s contributed to Halloweens bad reputation.

Why do we honor these Saints? Are there Biblical passages that can be attributed to? Please browse on the verses below:

Daniel 7:18  But the HOLY ONES of the Most High SHALL RECEIVE THE KINGSHIP, TO POSSESS IT FOREVER AND EVER."

John 17:20-23  I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I HAVE GIVEN THEM THE GLORY YOU GAVE ME, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

2 Peter 1:3  HIS DIVINE POWER HAS BESTOWED ON US everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.

Luke 20;35-36 but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, FOR THEY ARE LIKE ANGELS; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.

1 Corinthians 6;2-3 Do you not know that THE HOLY ONES WILL JUDGE THE WORLD? If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts? DO YOU KNOW THAT WE WILL JUDGE ANGELS? Then why not everyday matters?

1 Corinthians 6:17 But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Ephesians 2:19-20  So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are FELLOW CITIZENS WITH THE HOLY ONES AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.