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“PAGAN” Halloween & Christianity

“PAGAN” Halloween & Christianity

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:09 pm by Dave Armstrong

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“PAGAN” Halloween & Christianity 2026-06-13T13:09:13-04:00 Dave Armstrong

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is a transcript of the initial portion of the video, Can “PAGAN” Halloween Be “Christianized”? (Catholic Bible Highlights with Kenny Burchard, 10-30-25).

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Every year we hear some Christians – most often, evangelical Protestants — condemning Halloween as a terribly sinful scandalous practice of paganism, the occult, or worse. But is it intrinsically evil and irredeemable? It’s always good to consult history to see things came about in the first place. First, let’s take a closer look at the word itself. It derives from All Hallows’ Eve, or the eve (vigil) of All Hallows’ Day, now known as All Saints’ Day, on November 1st. The word hallow comes from the Anglo-Saxon halig and the German heilig (holy, sacred, etc.): both having the same meaning as the Latin sanctus, where we get our words saint and sanctity. Hallowe’en is from hallow and the old English word even, or evening. It means, literally, All Saints’ Eve. The article devoted to the holy day in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) states:

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. . . . the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. . . . We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). . . . In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. . . . Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself.

Now, it’s true that the Church has often throughout history “Christianized” or “baptized” many pre-Christian practices – in and of themselves morally neutral. This is consistent with the Apostle Paul’s approach in his sermon to the pagan Athenians (Acts 17:18-32), where he took the opportunity to build upon what they already believed, in proclaiming to them the gospel, utilizing direct quotes from two of their own “poets” / philosophers, that is, “In him we live and move and have our being” and “For we are indeed his offspring” (Acts 17:28, RSV). Paul also wrote, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor 9:22).

The great Catholic apologist G. K. Chesterton wrote an entire brilliant book, The Everlasting Man (1925) that demonstrated the fact that various pagan beliefs were compatible with, and indeed, anticipated – in God’s Providence — Christianity. Truth is truth, wherever it may be found. Well-known Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis said that this book influenced him more than any other, and he himself did a similar thing in his 27-page Appendix, “Illustrations of the Tao” from his 1947 book, The Abolition of Man, drawing from pagan, mythological, and non-Christian religious sources and attempting to support Natural Law.

Many today, however, claim that Halloween and its customs primarily hearken back to the Celtic / Druidic harvest feast of Samhain [“SAH-win”], held on November 1st in ancient Ireland and Britain. In the book Stations of the Sun (Oxford University Press, 1996, 542 pages) historian Ronald Hutton, who specializes in ancient British paganism, contended that “The medieval records furnish no evidence that 1 November was a major pan-Celtic festival,” and observed that medieval Welsh literature didn’t take note of anything particularly supernatural in it.

It seems rather more likely that the exact opposite scenario is true: Halloween began as entirely Christian and then over many years became increasingly secularized, much as Christmas has, and as we see in, for example, the not always very “pious” folk traditions of Mardi Gras, preceding Lent. Our society’s relativist and indifferentist views about God, combined with the current fascination with pre-Christian and non-Christian religions arguably have caused it to create a mythical history of Halloween, as if it had nothing to do with a Catholic holy day. Aspects are then attributed to Celtic pagan rituals that don’t hold up under historical scrutiny.

Human beings all over the world have tended to reflect upon the dying of the natural world every autumn. The Catholic All Souls’ Day (November 2nd) perhaps incorporated to some extent the existing preoccupation with death and the change of seasons at this time of year. Belief in ghosts is biblical: Moses and Elijah appeared at Jesus’ transfiguration (Mt 17:1-4), and the real Samuel appeared to Saul (1 Samuel 28:14-19) and predicted his death in battle the next day. Thus, the preoccupation with the dead on Halloween (big skeletons and fake graveyards are the big thing these days) can just as plausibly be traced to those biblical aspects (dead saints and souls in purgatory), even though now it’s almost totally secularized and “de-Christianized.” But Halloween in America, even today – even including the “spooky” themes –, is mostly a mix of various fun and harmless customs.

Making jack-o’-lanterns during Halloween seems to have begun in Ireland and Britain in the 19th century, with “turnips . . . hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces”: thought to represent either spirits or supernatural beings (Hutton, 382-383), and/or intended to scare off evil spirits. Catholics associated the good spirits with the souls in purgatory. The custom arrived in America with the immigrants from those areas, and pumpkins started being used. The Oxford English Dictionary states that 1837 was the earliest date for “jack-o’-lantern” referring to a lantern carved from a turnip or pumpkin. Pranks, done to frighten people with these pumpkin “faces” at night, were also common in the 19th century.

Trick-or-treating, according to one plausible theory, may have come from the custom of German-Americans in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the early 19th century called “belsnickeling”. Belsnickel was a stern companion of Santa Claus in German folklore. We know that it was also present in Virginia until as late as 1910. In the later variety, kids dressed up in costumes one or two weeks before Christmas and visited neighbors, who had to guess their identities. A wrong guess meant that they would be given snacks. Many Christmas customs in America also come from Germany.

Most people, I think, are blissfully unaware of the histories and original meanings of holiday customs, and hence are not consciously practicing something deliberately known to be sinful or contrary to Christianity. As long as Halloween customs and costumes are not intended to be occultic or satanic, etc., then they are harmless. Sin proceeds from the heart, after all. Jesus said, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil” (Lk 6:45).

On the other hand, as our society becomes increasingly secularized and hostile to Christianity and prone to excess, it’s important for Christian parents to exercise discernment regarding various sinful or dubious aspects of some forms of celebrations of Halloween. Catholics ought to focus on honoring the saints, alongside the innocent fun and candy-collecting, since this is the deepest purpose of what is a required holy day, after all. My view on Halloween as it currently is practiced is similar to what I expressed years ago about young Christians reading the Harry Potter books and watching the movies:

If a child is prone to being led off in a million directions, then chances are that danger might lurk in reading these books or watching the films. If, on the other hand, the child is strong and persistently able to withstand any competing ideas, contrary to Christianity, then likely no particular danger would be present.

If parents allow their children to take part in this craze, then it must be with caution and discussion about the relationship of these stories to Christian doctrine and the ontology of the real, spiritual world that we live in. Fantasy is just that, but we know that the devil can use all things to lead people astray: especially if they are not vigilant. Without a Christian grounding, it could quite possibly be spiritually dangerous for some kids with troubled backgrounds and lack of education in Christianity.

My four children had that grounding, unlike myself. I got into all kinds of occultic-type practices in my childhood and teenage years, before devoting myself to Christ at age 18. Likewise, with Halloween, “scary movies”, secular education or anything else. Chesterton observed that the problem with people who left Christianity was not that they would believe in nothing, but that they’d believe in anything.

The Christian task, as always, is what Paul commands us to do in Romans 12:2: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within” (that’s from J. B. Phillips’ wonderful paraphrase).

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