Reclaiming Halloween: What Catholics Forgot (Fr Cristino)

Is Halloween something Catholics should avoid — or something we should reclaim? 🎃

In this episode, Fr. Cristino and Ken unpack the Catholic origins of Halloween — “All Hallows’ Eve” — and explain how this ancient vigil of All Saints’ Day can still be celebrated with joy, faith, and reverence.

Transcript

[Music]

Father Cristino, welcome back. Thank you, Ken. So, a few days from now, little kids are going to be out into the streets and they're going to be knocking on doors saying trick or treat. Yes. Asking for candy. So, many Catholic families find themselves at this time of the year wondering, is it appropriate for a Catholic family to participate in Halloween? And a couple of the questions arise from this. So, um, I want your response to this. So, I guess I'll open up with a general question. Your thoughts on families participating in Halloween, right? Well, look, I'm I'm I'm a priest. I have opinions. I'll share some opinions with you now. Uh, I'm not the head of a family. I'm not the head of a household. So, families need to make their own decisions. And I I'm If I can help them in their deliberations, great. But I don't want anyone to hear my opinions on this and think that this is the church's teaching on Halloween. The magisterium according to Father Christine. Right. Exactly. This is my personal magisterium. I don't know what the value is in that. But uh I think that we need to first contextualize this by saying what is Halloween? And in history all it really was was All Hallows Eve which was the traditional name of All Saints Day. A hollow is the word for holy in in old English and holy and saint in Latin and Latinbased languages are always the same word. Santo or sanctus means both saint and holy the holy ones. And so all hallows means all saints and all hallows eve is the night before all saints day which is November 1st. So that's where we get the tradition on October 31st of having some way of preparing ourselves to celebrate the feast of All Saints Day. So that's the origin of this. Uh and there's many customs to accompany that that have developed over time like lighting candles and putting them on your porch uh or handing out uh candies or special treats or baked goods because it was a somnity. And so you have the opportunity to feast on somnities and somnities are so important to us that we start celebrating them the night before. So that's where a lot of these traditions have come from. Now there's different places in different cultures that have adapted other ways of of honoring the the the feast of all saints and that have carried over into what we do on Halloween. Now, the extent to which a family decides they're going to participate in the customs of where we live, which is to put on a costume, knock on people's door, and ask for candy and come home and eat it. I don't see anything wrong with that. It's just part and parcel of participating in the place where you live. As with anything, all good things or even innocuous things can be corrupted. And so now we would see especially in the last number of years a a really prevalent sense of Halloween being associated with evil. So we see scary gory movies getting released around uh Halloween time, the costumes that people wear looking like ghouls and demons and I mean okay so I say go ahead let your kids dress up and go and knock on doors for candy. that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to dress your kid up like a devil. Why would we want to impersonate that, right? It's inappropriate. Uh so there's obviously limits to what would be acceptable, but I don't think all of Halloween observant should therefore be off limits. Okay. And so it would be fair to say that there's very little that's left of honoring all saints the day before in our culture. like there's it has nothing to do with the Catholic calendar. No, definitely not. So, it it's it's really we can tell teach our children that I'm just thinking there's just nothing I could say to my children as they look at this culture is preparing for the next day. It's completely devoid. What I see is like a in large part a glorification of gore. Mhm. Of darkness. Um for me as a father I I the kids enjoy dressing up and knocking on doors. And we have limits in our home about, you know, what you can and can't dress up as. Sometimes they dress up as a saint. Sometimes not. Sometimes they just paint their face up and we're not sure what that is. Yeah, but uh as a family we don't try and draw attention to the glorification of gore that happens in some places. In fact, we will avoid houses that intentionally look pretty dark. Yeah. And I that that's that's our approach. Now, some some might push back and say, well, Ken, you've acknowledged that there's a glorification of gore and a glorification maybe of evil. you're participating perhaps in oultic activities by just the virtue of being going out that night. What would you say? Well, I I would say that it's next to impossible to function in a fallen world with an uncchristian or even anti-Christian society. We're living on a day-to-day basis isn't going to be participating in something that shows that it's contrary to our faith. We have to set our own limits and then use opportunities to educate our children about where they find themselves. So I think it's very valuable for families to say to their kids on Halloween, you do know why this is even happening, right? And it's all about what's happening tomorrow when as a family we will celebrate All Saints Day with even greater semnity than the night before when you painted some white dots on your face and went out and asked for free candy. Uh I think the more that we can trivialize Halloween as being just a custom that we do in our culture, this is part of what it means to be a kid growing up in Canada, no problem. Go ahead and participate in it. fill your pillowcase with as much candy as you can that I didn't have to buy for you and great. And I think teaching our children not to make something more out of it than it actually is is a good education for them, especially if it's coupled with a reminder to them of why this ever actually developed in the first place. And then demonstrate that for them all the more powerfully the next day. I don't know, saints day. As a family, maybe we make the point of trying to get to a mass. Uh or we celebrate something that shows the lives of the saints. Maybe we ask our kids to dress up as saints instead of dressing up as whatever some other random some bunny rabbit or something. There's ways that I think we can redeem what has been taken away or has been corrupted uh precisely by participating in it as opposed to issuing it alto together. So, if there was a um an el elderly person watching the video and then now their kids are all gone out of the house and they have been feeling guilty of participating this and handing out candy, you would say there's nothing wrong with answering the knocks and saying, "Here's your chocolate bar." I give candy at the rectory every Halloween when I can actually be in the house. Okay. And I actually make a point of trying to keep myself free that evening. I remain dressed in my clerics and some I think some families think that it's just my costume when they come by my door. Uh but then when my parishioners come, they're excited that they got candy from father. Okay. And I make sure that I let them know that they got lots extra compared to any other kids that come by that I don't know. So your parishioners are welcome to knock on your door and ask for candy even outside of Halloween. There you go. It's been stated publicly. Come anytime and if I got candy I'm happy to share. We will just not release your address. Yeah, maybe don't do that cuz it's not going to be on the bottom of the screen. Okay. And on All Saints Day, Father Cristino and I are going to come to you with a special release of a video. It's going to be fun. So stay tuned. We'll see you on Saturday. Father Cristino, thanks for your time today. Pleasure to be with you as always. Thank you. [Music]