Celebrating Halloween can feel like a conflict between faith and secular traditions. By rediscovering its Catholic roots, families can celebrate All Hallows’ Eve in joyful, faith-centered ways.
The children wait with excitement
The excitement builds in our house as All Hallows’ Eve approaches. Day fades to dusk, and the children wait outside while I make the final preparations. The house is getting dark; the prayer table, clothed in purple, is adorned with red roses, skulls, and the images of several dozen Saints each accompanied by a small flickering candle. With preparations complete, the children enter and we sing the ‘Soulin’ Song’, exchange soul cakes among ourselves, and start Black Vespers – the Vespers of the Dead.
It’s hard to imagine what All Hallows’ Eve would have looked like in ages past, but it is something I’ve contemplated over the years. Trick or treating? Costumes? Ghosts and ghouls? The prevailing ‘Halloween’ culture feels uncomfortably at odds with being Catholic and yet there resides in these customs some vestiges of our Catholic heritage.
But where does Halloween come from?
As with Easter and Christmas, some try to detract from Halloween’s Christian character by claiming it was inspired by a pagan celebration. In particular, they allege it took over the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, which occurred at the end of October to coincide with the end of the harvest.
When Pope Sixtus designated the feast of All Saints as a Holy Day of Obligation in 1484, the vigil of All Hallows – Halloween – came into being. Whether the similarities between Samhain and Halloween are coincidental or point to the intentional Christianisation of a pagan festival, the fact remains that its place in the Christian calendar is longstanding and the ‘Halloween’ we have today comes from this Christian tradition.
All Hallows’ Eve is the beginning of ‘Hallowtide’, and the three days of Hallowtide are tied to the three states of the Church. On All Hallows’ Eve, we – the Church Militant – contemplate hell and how we might avoid it; on All Saints’ Day we commemorate the glorious Saints in Heaven – the Church Triumphant; and on All Souls’ Day we pray for the poor souls in purgatory – the Church Penitent.
In medieval times people dressed in scary costumes to mock evil and death because Christ delivers us from these things. The modern celebration instead delights in the gruesome and macabre.
The American iteration
The modern ‘Halloween’ customs with which we are most familiar – dressing up, trick o’ treating, and the emphasis on scary and spooky things is a conglomeration of practices brought to the United States by French, English, and Irish Catholics. From the French comes the custom of dressing up as ghosts, ghouls, common men, kings and everything in between, and ‘dancing to the grave’ – the ‘Danse Macabre’. From the English comes the practice of going from door-to-door ‘soulin’, offering to pray for the souls of departed loved-ones in exchange for a soul cake. The Irish, it is said, would spend the vigil commemorating those in hell and contemplate how to avoid this end for themselves. These were expressions of the momento mori: (Latin for ‘remember that you have to die’) reminders of the inevitability of death.
So the ‘gruesome and gory’ elements have not emerged out of nowhere but, needless to say, the modern pseudo-festivities have deviated a long way from their Catholic origins.
In medieval times people dressed in scary costumes to mock evil and death because Christ delivers us from these things. The modern celebration instead delights in the gruesome and macabre. Nor do these fascinations draw the masses into a contemplation of their own mortality, but instead provide ephemeral entertainment, ‘spook’-value and a little ‘harmless fun’.
What can we do?
I would say that, now more than ever, we need to reclaim this day and recover some of the ways of the folk religion which gave rise to it. The authentic celebration of All Hallows’ Eve is one that is rooted in the Catholic tradition of memento mori coupled with the knowledge that Christ conquers death.
As a family we’ve rediscovered some simple ways to celebrate this great vigil that strike a balance between the darkness and the light. Here are eight things we do.
1. Being intentional with the name
We prefer to call the feast day All Hallows’ Eve to distinguish it from the now secular ‘Halloween’.
2. Prayers of the Dead
For inspiration for our modern-day celebrations, it is worth looking back to our older liturgical traditions, especially if feast days are no longer widely celebrated in the Church’s calendar. It was a custom in some places in Europe to pray ‘Black Vespers’ on All Hallows’ Eve. These ‘Prayers of the Dead’ are taken from second Vespers of All Saints’ Day (which is to say, the evening before All Souls’ Day). This downloadable ebook contains the prayers.
3. Illuminating the prayer table
Since All Hallows’ Eve is an anticipation of All Saints’ Day, we also like to set up our prayer table with many illuminated saints cards and pray first Vespers of All Saints’ Day, which has a jubilant tone. I choose saints to whom we have a particular devotion and the children love to look at them and work out who they are!
4. The skull
Having a (fake!) skull on your prayer table or somewhere else in your house is also an appropriate momento mori and something which is likely to evoke conversations with little ones and maybe even visitors!
5. Reparation against occult
Further, the editor of the small devotional which our family uses for this vigil has added the full length Prayer to St. Michael and St. Patrick’s breastplate. Families can pray these to make reparation for the occult and satanic practices which often occur on this evening.
6. Soul cakes
We enjoy baking soul cakes together earlier in the day and eating them in the evening.
7. Visit neighbours
If you’re blessed with Catholic neighbours who want to share in the traditional All Hallows’ Eve festivities, you could reignite (or reimagine) the ‘Soulin’’ tradition and visit neighbours offering to pray for their deceased relatives in the hope of receiving a soul cake in return.
8. Costumes
Families might also like to embrace costuming and other customs that harken back to the older traditions – while keeping in mind what these things properly represent.
The darkness and the light
In response to the modern perversions of All Hallows’ Eve, it can be tempting to do away with all the dark things and just focus on the light. But as Catholics we know this is neither the tradition nor the reality. We need to grapple with death because it reveals Christ’s victory as even more resplendent.
Our family traditions have the capacity to engage the senses and sensibilities and transmit the faith in ways that formal lessons cannot. The traditional Halloween customs could, admittedly, be a little frightening in some ways, but these customs can enchant us, cause us to wonder and draw us into contemplation: child and adult alike. Let us not abandon Halloween, but instead, let us celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, the Catholic way.
Miriam lives in Ipswich, QLD, with her husband and five young children. She has been interested in education since she was a child, and now home educates, teaches Latin online and finds much joy in creating a family culture of faith, festivity, and learning. Miriam’s other great love is spending time outdoors with the family, especially in the Australian bush.
5 Responses
Wow! You have opened my eyes to this. I was very anti-Halloween for obvious reasons, but you have revealed that there can be a better and more holy way to celebrate this day. All glory to God!
Not at all convinced that the above is the proper Christian, Biblical response to a now well & truly pagan festival. Reading the Gospel, singing a Christian song, plus prayer to God through Christ only (not the saints) – see John’s Gospel 14:6 – is an answer.
Thank you.
I will be teaching this in my classes!
Soul cakes are a great idea. I baked some today to take round tomorrow to people who celebrated Halloween, to
encourage generous memories of their loved ones on All Saints Day… Deo Gratias
Thank you for this well-written article. I particularly like how you call for a return to the name All Hallows’ Eve.