Are you celebrating Halloween like a pagan? 5 ways you can celebrate it like a Catholic.

Are you celebrating Halloween like a pagan?

Here are 5 ways you can celebrate it like a Catholic.

This year Americans are projected to spend $9.1 billion dollars on candy and costumes. Some call Halloween as the second most anticipated “holiday” of the year in America. Though it doesn’t exactly compete with Christmas in retail sales, it is curious how it does compete in many other ways.

The Spirit Of Halloween VS The Spirit Of Christmas

The contrast between the two festivities 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. You can see this in the usual displays of skeletons, of corpses, and of tombstones. In Christmas, we think of angels, kings, shepherds and drummer boys. In Halloween, people think of ghouls, devils, zombies, witches, warlocks, and even the undead clawing its way out of its tomb is celebrated. In Christmas, we fill the hearth with innocent carols and heart-warming stories of conversion and generosity. In Halloween, we fill amusement parks with creepy music and heart rending screams of the possessed or the murdered. Everything we associate with Christmas portrays goodness, generosity, cheer and merriness. Everything we associate with Halloween portrays the ugly, evil, the harmful, the occult and the satanic.

It is likewise curious that both events have children as a main target audience both commercially and in entertainment.

Is Halloween Pagan Or Christian?

Some say Halloween is a pagan celebration. The celtic druids did have a festivity on November 1 commemorating the beginning of the Winter Solstice, called the Samhain (pronounced sow-in) 3 when spirits were expected to be highly active and therefore spells and incantation. Presumably during this time, either concerned Irish or early Irish Christians dressed in a way that would ward off spirits. It was not celebrated by the early Christians of Ireland but by the Druids.

Halloween itself is a Christian term even according to Merriam-Webster. The original name for All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation celebrated on November 1, was originally called All Hallows Even (evening). This was abbreviated to All Hallows Eve, later to Hallow e’en, to today’s form of Halloween. 2 In and of itself, it was not and never was a pagan festival but a Catholic one.

The feast was established by Boniface IV in 615 and was transferred from May 13 to November 1 by Gregory III in 844. 4

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

Celebrating Halloween Like A Pagan?

How do you know someone is celebrating Halloween like a pagan? It’s very simple.

First, you can tell by the way a family decorates their homes. The trend has always been the scarier, the better. People fill their front yard with spider webs, figures of ghosts, witches and monsters. Some have placed tombstones and even an image of the undead 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.

Second, you can tell by how families encourage their children to dress up as characters who look ugly, evil, sinful, harmful or malignant. that represent murderers, an evil person, a sinful person, and even as the devil himself. Children, in their innocence, have a natural aversion to all of that. Many costumes today focus exactly on these exact characteristics.

Third, you can tell by the choice of entertainment. TV networks and cables, are promoting horror shows over Halloween. Many focus on malignant creatures who terrorize a community. Some however are about demons, witches, the occult and the possessed. The fifth top grossing film this year is It, a movie about a malignant clown who abducts and eats children. 1

The Danger Of Celebrating Halloween As A Pagan

In October of 2014, the International Association of Exorcists met in Rome. It gathered 300 exorcists from around the world. Fr. Aldo Buonauioto, of the association, talked about the danger of letting children be exposed to this type of behavior 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 its 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 at the time of the 31 October,” he said.

It is undeniable that Halloween today is celebrated more as a pagan festivity than a Catholic one. However it is still as a feast day to celebrate all saints and, on the following day, to celebrate deceased members, especially those still in purgatory, can be celebrated in a Catholic way. Doing away with Halloween because of the abuse is like doing away with society because it is steeped in frenetic intemperance, or with culture, because modern culture is immoral.

Can There Be A Return To Catholic Halloween?

To deny that Halloween can be restored is to deny a fundamental desire of the soul which is hope. As a rule, if it can be changed once, it can be changed again. If a faithful falls into a state of sin, the possibility of his conversion exist until his death.

If culture can be restored then we can start with Halloween. Here are six ways you can do to celebrate Halloween like a Catholic.

First is go to Mass. It is a holy day of obligation. What could be more important than celebrating it in its original intent?

Second is to pray to all the saints and martyrs. Saints and martyrs are representative characters of the Church. They are our natural role models. It is very important in our struggle to attain the salvation of our souls to admire the saints who came before us. If you want to be a great athlete, imitate the great athletes that came before you. If you want to be a great musician, imitate the great musicians that came before you. If you want holiness, we need to imitate the blessed that came before us.

Third is to encourage devotion to patron saints in children. The act of admiring saints has to be restored. It also needs to be habitual, a custom. It needs to become part of our culture. It needs to start with children. Children have an uncanny inclination to admire people that surround them. It is especially during this period that they need to build 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.

Fourth is to 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 we attained salvation but has 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 at this day that the Church reminds and encourages us to have them present in our thoughts and concerns.

Fifth is to pray for all the souls in Purgatory. It is possible that there are suffering souls in purgatory who have noone to pray for them. Their family line may have ended. Their family members may have forgotten about them. Their descendants may no longer practice the faith. Whatever the case may be it is very likely that there are suffering souls in need of prayers.

Three good practices include sprinkling holy water on the ground for the benefit of suffering souls, make a sign of cross and a short prayer whenever passing by a cemetery, and include the prayer the following prayer in your daily prayers: “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.”

Sixth is to decorate your home with anything that reminds of saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus and God. If you have already bought something horrendous, throw it away. Yes, it is always painful to throw something away but it is sometimes very necessary. This is true with anything that will do harm to your family. If the fish left on the countertop turns toxic, no one will even think of salvaging it at the hazard of food poisoning. Decorations that resonate with the devil, with evil and the horrendous are toxic for the soul. It’s best not to keep them.

With these suggestions, perhaps one day, we can reverse the trend in America. To change American culture, it will need to be done part by part. Halloween is one of those parts. It was intended to be celebrated as a Catholic feast day. 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.