Florida Catholic | Halloween

COMMENTARY

Halloween: from paganism to Christian celebration

Part two of three articles explaining the Christian roots of Halloween, a holiday
that has come into disfavor in some circles in recent years.

MONSIGNOR MICHAEL REED | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 10.19.07

Coin bearing the likeness of Pope Gregory III.

Festivals commemorating saints find their origin in the fourth century with celebrations for heroic martyrs. In the Eastern church, All Saints Sunday was celebrated the week after Easter or the Sunday following Pentecost. In the west, All Saints Day evolved from a variety of feast days dedicated to saints. Pope Boniface IV (A.D. 608-615) tried to consolidate the many different saint days into one celebration and in A.D. 610 found the opportunity. Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon, the old pagan temple to the gods of Rome, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, and the martyrs. This dedication of the Pantheon as a Christian church was a great victory for Christians who were once martyred and persecuted by the Roman Empire. The new Christian church was a monument to the death of the Roman Empire and pagan religion. It was made holy by the martyrs' bones brought to the church from the Christian catacombs.

In 735, Pope Gregory III (A.D. 731-741) established a feast day of all saints by building a chapel in St. Peter's to their honor. This action of Gregory III seems to have served as the inspiration for a feast of All Saints in England and Ireland on Nov. 1.

Finally, Pope Gregory IV (A.D. 824-844), with the approval of his many bishops, mandated the feast of All Saints to be celebrated throughout his empire. From this time, All Saints had a vigil or day of preparation. By the 11th century Pope Gregory VII set aside Nov. 1 as the date for universal celebration of All Saints' Day.

As a day of preparation, holy evening or "Halloween" was marked in the Christian Church with Mass. This evening was to be like a mini-Armageddon (Rv 19:11-21; 20:1-15). It was to be the final battle between the forces of evil and the forces of God — the battle of Archangel Michael with his army of saints against the devil with his demons. Catholics knew how it would all end. God would prevail and the good would be victorious. What better way to commemorate this battle than with the eucharistic celebration in which we are reminded that with Jesus' body and blood, sin and evil are defeated?

The Celts and Samhain

Some of the present-day traditions surrounding Halloween began with the conversion of the Celts to Christianity. The Celtic lands of present day Ireland, Scotland, England and Northern France allowed Christian missionaries to Christianize their pagan holiday of Samhain, their god of death. This was certainly not an easy task for missionaries who worked and prayed hard to wean the Celts from their superstitious ways.

Samhain was not only a reminder to the Celts of the inevitability of human death, but also reminded them of the death of all creation. How could they forget the encroaching season of winter cold, darkness and decay? This was their new year's day.

Prior to Christianity, the Celtic new year was marked by people extinguishing their hearth fires. Their Druid leaders would then build a large bonfire of oak branches. Participants superstitiously believed that if they built the fire in a way pleasing to their gods that winter would not come or at least not be harsh. The fire served also to chase wandering evil spirits back into their graves. Often sacrifices of crops, animals and human beings were offered in these bonfires, often referred to as "bonefires" because of the human sacrifices offered in them.

Since the Druids were not just religious leaders but also enforcers of justice, the human sacrifices offered were criminals who had committed heinous acts against the Celtic peoples. Not only was the bonfire used to rid the world of the harshness of winter, but also used to rid the world of the harshness and cruelty of inhumanity. During their Samhain celebration, groups of people were purged from society because of their bad and evil ways. This was the Druid way of capital punishment.

Costumes to ward off evil spirits

During Samhain, the Celts used every resource available to ward off evil spirits. They believed demons might possess and take the bodies of the unprotected for themselves. The technical phrase for this is transmigration of the soul. Protection was found behind terrifying and ghastly costumes. People would dress up in hopes of scaring away the "body hungry" demons and tormented souls who were desperately taking this last chance to find a new home. Horrible costumes fooled the evil spirits into thinking that a wearer was one of them.

Dressing poorly with rags and old clothes was another way evil spirits were chased away back into their graves. No spirit wanted to take over the life of a poor person.

For the Celtic people, this great drama made the devil and his evil spirits look stupid and shallow. The celebration of Samhain made a mockery of the power of evil that judged people only by their outward appearance. What a glorious trick for Celtic people to dress in costumes and scare away evil spirits and the souls of the dead!

We can see why this custom of costumes on Halloween was continued by Christians who warded off the powers of darkness in clever disguise. Christians were to be as "wise as serpents" (Mt 10:16) and know that their Almighty God could see beneath the costume and read their hearts (1 Sm 16:7; Ps 44:21; Acts 8:21; 15:8). For Christians the trick is on the devil who is no match for God and his army of saints.

Seeds of charity: trick or treating

While bonfires were one way of celebrating Halloween, there were still other ways Celtic Christians prepared for All Saints' Day. One of these ways was to plant seeds of charity, like the yeast or mustard seed mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 18, Verses 18-21. Planting seeds and not allowing the weeds to destroy or choke them was the goal (Mt 13:1-23; Mk 4:1-2; Lk 8:4).

Christians were ready to accept this goal with uncompromising zeal. The end result of seed planted on Halloween was that All Saints' Day would be a day devoid of evil, filled with nothing but blessing. It was to be a day without conflict, war, hunger or hatred. It was dedicated solely for glorying in the goodness and sovereignty of God.

Poverty and hunger had always been a problem among the Celtic peoples, as in other places in the world. There were famines and selfish people just like anywhere else. But on "Holy Evening" the evil of hunger was to be overcome through generosity. No one was to go hungry or steal for food on All Saints' Day. The custom began that those who were poor would go begging from house to house on Holy Evening and be given food and goodies to eat. These goodies were often referred to as "soul cakes." Besides meeting a physical need, "soul cakes" encouraged the soul and spirit of a person. This gesture on the part of Celtic Christians witnesses to the goodness of humanity — that the world was not totally selfish, Godless and forlorn.

Msgr. Reed is chancellor of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

Return to Diocese of Pensacola - Tallahassee Front Page

Halloween: from paganism to Christian celebration

The Celts and Samhain

Costumes to ward off evil spirits

Seeds of charity: trick or treating

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