Halloween displays don’t have to be spooky. Outside Rosary Preschool in Waipio, pumpkins and cartoon characters reflect a hap-pier message. (Celia K. Downes / Hawaii Catholic Herald)
Together with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, All Hallows’ Eve is a time for reflection and celebration
By Jennifer Rector
Hawaii Catholic Herald
When it comes to Halloween, haunted houses, ghosts and pumpkins are just a few things that come to mind.
Dressing up in costume is a hallmark of the day, whether it’s as a favorite character or a more sinister image.
Even stores feed into the celebration by setting up spooky decorations and filling aisles with candy for trick-or-treating, masks, costumes and a wide array of adornments for both body and home.
Certainly, Catholics should have nothing to do with this sort of holiday that invites fear and thrills — or is it in fact OK?
Religious origins
Halloween, originally known as All Hallows’ Eve, has Catholic roots.
Pope Gregory IV instituted the feast day in the year 840. It marks the beginning of a three-day liturgical celebration from Oct. 31-Nov. 2 that includes All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day; together, the period is called Allhallowtide.
Just like Christmas Eve is the vigil for Christmas, All Hallows’ Eve is the vigil for All Saints’ Day, and it’s meant to commemorate the lives of the saints.
“Hallowed means holy, like ‘hallowed be your name’ in the Lord’s Prayer,” said Father Stephen Macedo, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Papaikou on Hawaii island.
In the early years of the celebration, people would go to Mass on All Hallows’ Eve and dress up as saints.
Father EJ Resinto, pastor of Sacred Heart Church and Maryknoll School in Honolulu, said that’s where dressing up in costumes comes from.
“People would dress up as saints or they would dress up as their loved ones and they would celebrate by having food and drink,” he said.
“Children would go around, and people would give them candy. That’s how you get trick-or-treating. Candy was given to remind people of the sweetness of sainthood or the sweetness of the beatification to be in heaven,” Father Resinto said.
Secular shift
Father Macedo said that “the pagan part came later, and our society has added the fixation on death, violence and evil.”
Halloween, like many holidays with faith-based origins, has been “hijacked,” Father Resinto said.
Easter, for example, is the pinnacle celebration of the Catholic Church — but from a secular point of view, it’s less about Christ’s resurrection and more about bunnies and colorful dyed eggs.
Halloween is no different; instead of cute bunnies it has been transformed to unlock fear. With gore, demons and mysticism, the holiday is far from what it was meant to be. That’s why Father Resinto said it’s important to be mindful of what the day is really about.
“It’s about celebrating the first day of this triduum, honoring the saints and praying for the dead,” he said.
So is it wrong or evil to participate in trick-or-treating or dressing up? Father Resinto said no and offered ways to reintroduce the true meaning of All Hallows’ Eve, such as sharing the history of Halloween with children, going to Mass and praying.
Children are also encouraged to dress up as saints for both Halloween and All Saints’ Day. This could be a way for kids to learn about the saints and to be inspired.
“All Saints’ Day gives us time to reflect on all the people throughout history who have been successful at following Jesus,” Father Macedo said.
“We look to the saints, both canonized and uncanonized, to ask them for their intercession for us to hopefully one day be with them,” said Father Resinto.
Honoring the dead
On Nov. 2 the celebration continues with All Souls’ Day. This feast day is for the dead and includes praying for loved ones or ancestors who have passed and who might still be in purgatory.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, purgatory is the place where God allows us to be purified in order to enter heaven.
Some of the saints were able to achieve that level of holiness while living. For most of us, though we are meant for heaven, our souls might not be ready and might need some time to get rid of what separates us from being in complete union with God.
The Catechism states: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC 1030).
A person who dies can’t pray for himself or herself. That’s why the faithful are encouraged to pray for the dead, but also for themselves.
“This triduum of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are also a reminder of our mortality that one day we will die,” Father Resinto said. “So, we need to be prepared for that moment because we don’t know the day or the hour when the Lord will call us home.
“Therefore, as much as we pray for the dead, we also pray for ourselves and we purify ourselves of any sins that we might commit or be mindful of, and to pray that God will have mercy on our souls so that when we die hopefully we won’t go to purgatory.”
Another commemoration that might be familiar this time of year is “Dia de los Muertos,” or “Day of the Dead.” Celebrated in Latin America, the holiday coincides with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on Nov. 1 and 2.
People celebrate by visiting their dead loved ones in the cemetery and sharing the favorite food and drink of the deceased. Some even paint their faces to resemble skulls — not to be scary, but to embrace death. This concept goes back to “remember you will die,” or in Latin “memento mori.”
Though Dia de los Muertos is not traditionally Catholic, many priests in the region participate by celebrating Masses for the dead and praying in cemeteries.
“The cemetery can be a place of healing and a place of peace where we remember that we are dust and to dust we return, and that our life really begins in heaven,” said Father Resinto.
Looking at the entire three-day period, Father Resinto said it’s about celebration, prayer and sacrifice.
A child stands amid pumpkins and gourds at The Pop Up Farm ahead of Halloween in Flamstead, England. (Andrew Couldridge / Reuters / CNS / 2022)
Allhallowtide activities
- Go to Mass.
- Go to confession. “I would recommend to people make use of the sacrament of reconciliation just as a reminder that we are mere mortals, and we are always in need of God’s mercy,” says Father EJ Resinto.
- Read the stories of the saints to your children and meditate on their stories. “Not all of us are called to be Mother Teresas or Father Damiens or Mother Mary, but even in our own ways, how are we attaining our sainthood in whatever vocation God has called us to be?” Father Resinto says.
- Tell stories about your loved ones who have died and pray for them.
- Visit a cemetery and pray for the dead.
