Is it a sin for Catholics to celebrate Halloween?

[Michie]

As with many things, it all depends on your definition of "Halloween" and which activities you indulge in on the popular holiday.

Catholics are often divided in their response to Halloween and whether or not it is an appropriate holiday to celebrate.

Some Catholics believe Halloween is evil and sinful, while other Catholics see no harm at all in the festivities.

Which is it?

Is Halloween evil?​

Continued below.

Is it a sin for Catholics to celebrate Halloween?

As with many things, it all depends on your definition of "Halloween" and which activities you indulge in on the popular holiday.

aleteia.org

 

[mourningdove~]

I don't believe it is a sin; I do believe it is a matter of conscience.

I grew up loving Halloween. It was a fun and happy time. Not having a whole lot, it was great getting all that free candy!!! All of that holiday was so much fun.

But when I was much older, I learned more about how 'others' celebrate the 'holy day'. Others like the satanists and those involved in the occult. I will spare you the graphic details, but there are those who don't spend Halloween wearing costumes and gathering candy. There are others ... yes, still today ... who celebrate their 'holy' time of year doing very sinister things.

Learning all that ^, I stopped celebrating the holiday. I miss the old happy Halloween childhood days, but I know too much now about the holiday to celebrate it.

A matter of conscience ... yes.

 

[Michie]

I don't believe it is a sin; I do believe it is a matter of conscience.

I grew up loving Halloween. It was a fun and happy time. Not having a whole lot, it was great getting all that free candy!!! All of that holiday was so much fun.

But when I was much older, I learned more about how 'others' celebrate the 'holy day'. Others like the satanists and those involved in the occult. I will spare you the graphic details, but there are those who don't spend Halloween wearing costumes and gathering candy. There are others ... yes, still today ... who celebrate their 'holy' time of year doing very sinister things.

Learning all that ^, I stopped celebrating the holiday. I miss the old happy Halloween childhood days, but I know too much now about the holiday to celebrate it.

A matter of conscience ... yes.

I made you a costume of Alco foil but it will have to wait till next year.

 

[mourningdove~]

I made you a costume of Alco foil but it will have to wait till next year.

...
Well, if I WAS celebrating Halloween this year, I think I'd be wearing a costume something like this one.
(And I think garbage bags are cheaper than foil!)

 

[RileyG]

I don't think so. Halloween is NOT pagan in origins, like the anti-Christians want you to believe.

 

[mourningdove~]

Halloween is NOT pagan in origins, like the anti-Christians want you to believe.

Halloween has strong roots in paganism and witchcraft. Halloween traces back to the days of the ancient Celts and their priests, the Druids. It began as the Druid festival of Samhain. On the eve of October 31, which marked the transition from summer into the darkness of winter, they celebrated the Celtic New Year. On this "Feast of Samhain", bonfires were lit to Samana, the Lord of Death. He was the dark Aryan God, leader of ancestral ghosts. On this night, supposedly, the spirits rose up and sought a warm house. The people tried to appease these beings with gifts. (a "treat" to offset any "trick" for not inviting these "spirits" into the house.)

​

 

[RileyG]

Halloween traces back to the days of the ancient Celts and their priests, the Druids. On the eve of October 31, which marked the transition from summer into the darkness of winter, they celebrated the Celtic New Year. On this "Feast of Samhain", bonfires were lit to Samana, the Lord of Death. He was the dark Aryan God, leader of ancestral ghosts. On this night, supposedly, the spirits rose up and sought a warm house. The people tried to appease these beings with gifts. (a "treat" to offset any "trick" for not inviting these "spirits" into the house.)

​

All Hallows Eve is the day before All Saints Day.

It is NOT pagan in origin.

 

[mourningdove~]

All Hallows Eve is the day before All Saints Day.

It is NOT pagan in origin.

But in your post, you said that 'Halloween' is not pagan in origin.

'Halloween' does have its roots in paganism. Do you deny that?

 

[RileyG]

But in your post, you said that 'Halloween' is not pagan in origin.

Halloween does have it's roots in paganism.

Samhain? Yes.

All Hallows Eve AKA Halloween? It depends.

Christianity took several pagan holidays and "baptized" them.

Nothing wrong with that.

 

[mourningdove~]

Nothing wrong with that.

I disagree, but that's when we get into the personal 'matter of conscience' area.

Peace, Riley.

 

[RileyG]

I disagree, but that's when we get into the personal 'matter of conscience' area.

Peace, Riley.

God bless

 

[David Lamb]

I don't think so. Halloween is NOT pagan in origins, like the anti-Christians want you to believe.

The name Halloween is not pagan. It comes from "All Hallows Eve", the day before All Saints Day. However, the things done to celebrate Halloween (Pumpkin lanterns, dressing up as devils, skeletons, ghosts, witches, etc., trick or treating, and the rest) cannot be Christian.

 

[JSRG]

Halloween has strong roots in paganism and witchcraft. Halloween traces back to the days of the ancient Celts and their priests, the Druids. It began as the Druid festival of Samhain. On the eve of October 31, which marked the transition from summer into the darkness of winter, they celebrated the Celtic New Year.

Halloween's origins were that it was the day before All Saints' Day (or All Hallows' Day), a holy day in the Catholic Church (the word Halloween derives from All Hallows' Eve, meaning the day before All Hallows' Day). That is its origin. It is a bit odd to see you try to claim it comes from paganism because if so, then so does All Saints' Day. This is why some fundamentalists try to use Halloween to argue the Catholic Church just appropriated a pagan holiday.

But as for the question of All Saints' Day and Samhain, what connection there may be between the two is unclear. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells me that Pope Gregory III set the date of All Saints Day to November 1 and that Gregory IV extended this to the entire church. Samhaim was a Gaelic celebration, and it is unlikely that popes living in Rome would be setting their holidays around what people all the way over in the British Isles were doing. The similar timing would likely be coincidence.

That is, if there was similar timing. Samhain might have fallen on October 31-November 1 later, but the earliest material leaves its date unclear. Its date itself been set later to coincidence with All Souls Day. Even if it Samhain was always October 31-November 1, it is again unclear whether Samhain actually had any connections to pagan religion.

Indeed, we do not even know for sure that Samhain predated Christianity, given that our earliest mentions of it come after Christianity had become established in Ireland. There's just too many assumptions about Samhaim someone has to make in order to posit some kind of pagan origin of Halloween/All Saint's Day or its practices.

This video has some useful information on it:

Or if someone's in a hurry, here's a shorter version by the same person:

On this "Feast of Samhain", bonfires were lit to Samana, the Lord of Death. He was the dark Aryan God, leader of ancestral ghosts.

As far as I can tell, this claim is made up.

On this night, supposedly, the spirits rose up and sought a warm house. The people tried to appease these beings with gifts. (a "treat" to offset any "trick" for not inviting these "spirits" into the house.)

This sounds made up too, particularly given that trick or treating appears to be of considerably later origin.

 

[mourningdove~]

Halloween's origins were that it was the day before All Saints' Day (or All Hallows' Day), a holy day in the Catholic Church (the word Halloween derives from All Hallows' Eve, meaning the day before All Hallows' Day). That is its origin. It is a bit odd to see you try to claim it comes from paganism because if so, then so does All Saints' Day. This is why some fundamentalists try to use Halloween to argue the Catholic Church just appropriated a pagan holiday.

But as for the question of All Saints' Day and Samhain, what connection there may be between the two is unclear. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells me that Pope Gregory III set the date of All Saints Day to November 1 and that Gregory IV extended this to the entire church. Samhaim was a Gaelic celebration, and it is unlikely that popes living in Rome would be setting their holidays around what people all the way over in the British Isles were doing. The similar timing would likely be coincidence.

That is, if there was similar timing. Samhain might have fallen on October 31-November 1 later, but the earliest material leaves its date unclear. Its date itself been set later to coincidence with All Souls Day. Even if it Samhain was always October 31-November 1, it is again unclear whether Samhain actually had any connections to pagan religion.

Indeed, we do not even know for sure that Samhain predated Christianity, given that our earliest mentions of it come after Christianity had become established in Ireland. There's just too many assumptions about Samhaim someone has to make in order to posit some kind of pagan origin of Halloween/All Saint's Day or its practices.

This video has some useful information on it:

Or if someone's in a hurry, here's a shorter version by the same person:

As far as I can tell, this claim is made up.


This sounds made up too, particularly given that trick or treating appears to be of considerably later origin.

I am not here to convince anyone of anything.
As far as I have seen so far in my research, the RC says it is okay to celebrate Halloween.
So, for the purposes of this thread, that is all a Catholic needs to know.