THE excesses of Halloween — both its commercialism and occult grotesqueries — have led some Americans to reject the day altogether. It’s no wonder. Even normal days are creepy and horror-filled — with people walking around with purple hair and fish hooks in their faces. Halloween has likewise become so extreme in some places it seems like a trip to a super-commercialized corner of hell.

A Protestant writer has turned his back on Halloween:

“Even little girls as young as three years old are being dressed up in sexually provocative costumes. What kind of message does this send to them?”

His concerns are valid. But he then claims a scriptural basis for totally condemning Halloween celebrations:

The Scriptures are very clear about this sort of thing.  Deuteronomy 18:9-13 says the following: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults with the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord”.

Is a child who dresses up as a princess, monster or ghost really engaging in witchcraft and sorcery?

Some Catholics also are eschewing Halloween and opting for All Saints Day parties instead. Children dress up as saints instead of witches or ghosts.

But let’s face it. It’s just not as much fun to dress up as a saint as it is to dress up as a sinner. For this day, it should be okay to be a swashbuckling pirate or a princess with excess jewelry. That isn’t the same thing as endorsing piracy or vanity. It isn’t Catholic to condemn fun or categorically ban images of demonic evil — think of all the hideous gargoyles on medieval cathedrals.

Halloween, though secularized, has Christian meaning. One of the purposes of the day is to remind us of hell. And hell is scary.

Fish Eaters offers some history:

The Vigil of, or evening before, All Hallows’ (“Hallows’ Eve,” or “Hallowe’en”) came, in Irish popular piety, to be a day of remembering the dead who are neither in Purgatory or Heaven, but are damned, and these customs spread to many parts of the world. Thus we have the popular focus of Hallowe’en as the reality of Hell, hence its scary character and focus on evil and how to avoid it, the sad fate of the souls of the damned, etc.

How, or even whether, to celebrate Hallowe’en is a controversial topic in traditional circles. One hears too often that “Hallowe’en is a pagan holiday” — an impossibility because “Hallowe’en,” as said, means “All Hallows’ Evening” which is as Catholic a holiday as one can get. Some say that the holiday actually stems from Samhain, a pagan Celtic celebration, or is Satanic, but this isn’t true, either, any more than Christmas “stems from” the Druids’ Yule, though popular customs that predated the Church (such as the use of holly to decorate) may be involved in our celebrations (it is rather amusing that October 31 is also “Reformation Day” in Protestant circles — the day to recall Luther’s having nailed his 95 Theses to Wittenberg’s cathedral door — but Protestants who reject “Hallowe’en” because pagans used to do things on October 31 don’t object to commemorating that event on this day).

Some miseducated Catholics, objecting to the definite secularization of the holiday and falling for the myth that the entire thing is “pagan” to begin with, refuse to celebrate it in any way at all, etc. Other Catholics celebrate it without qualm, though keeping it Catholic and staying far away from some of the ugliness that surrounds the day in the secular world. However one decides to spend the day, it is hoped that the facts are kept straight, and that Catholics refrain from judging other Catholics who decide to celebrate differently.

For those who do want to celebrate Hallowe’en, customs of this day are a mixture of Catholic popular devotions, and French, Irish, and English customs all mixed together. From the French we get the custom of dressing up, which originated during the time of the Black Death when artistic renderings of the dead known as the “Danse Macabre,” were popular. These “Dances of Death” were also acted out by people who dressed as the dead. Later, these practices were moved to Hallowe’en when the Irish and French began to intermarry in America.

From the Irish come the carved Jack-o-lanterns, which were originally carved turnips. The legend surrounding the Jack-o-Lantern is this:

There once was an old drunken trickster named Jack, a man known so much for his miserly ways that he was known as “Stingy Jack,” He loved making mischief on everyone — even his own family, even the Devil himself! One day, he tricked Satan into climbing up an apple tree — but  then carved Crosses on the trunk so the Devil couldn’t get back down. He bargained with the Evil One, saying he would remove the Crosses only if the Devil would promise not to take his soul to Hell; to this, the Devil agreed.

After Jack died, after many years filled with vice, he went up to the Pearly Gates — but was told by St. Peter that he was too miserable a creature to see the Face of Almighty God. But when he went to the Gates of Hell, he was reminded that he couldn’t enter there, either! So, he was doomed to spend his eternity roaming the earth. The only good thing that happened to him was that the Devil threw him an ember from the burning pits to light his way, an ember he carried inside a hollowed-out, carved turnip. And when you carve up your pumpkin, keep the seeds to roast!

Total condemnation of Halloween is wrong-headed. This is one of our Christian customs, and rather than refuse to celebrate it altogether, we should try to keep it wholesome. Let’s fight for Halloween, not throw it away.

What’s more fun for a child than dressing up in a costume? What’s more fun than being someone else for a night; seeing neighbors you may rarely see; walking around in the dark and eating as much candy as you want? What’s more fun than jack-o-lanterns in the night with their golden glow and earthen beauty?

Happy Halloween!

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