In response to the Halloween culture that glorifies gore, horror, and the occult, an author wrote an article in The Denver Catholic encouraging Catholics to take back, rather than abandon, the holiday with a strong faith-based response.
“Let’s not let such a culturally important day pass without bringing the faith to bear upon it,” wrote Jared Staudt, who is the director of content for Exodus 90 and an adjunct professor at Rosary College, Oct. 23. “There are good, neutral and bad ways to celebrate. It’s good to tie the eve back to the feast [of All Saints’ Day], neutral to trick or treat in safe spaces with costumes derived from pop culture and bad to expose kids to things that should be avoided.”
“We need to banish and avoid absolutely anything related to the occult, horror and demonic themes,” he added. “Rather, let’s draw out the practices that point to the holy souls.”
“Ghosts are real — the souls of the departed — and not a laughing matter or something macabre,” he wrote. “We’re too disconnected from death and our departed loved ones. Halloween’s focus on death can be turned to fill a much-needed hole in the Christian life today.”
He argued that it is impossible to “hide from Halloween” and noted disturbing “decorations,” such as dead bodies hanging from trees, that many people opt for during the season.
Some people mistakenly argue that Catholics “shouldn’t overreact” to the cultural approach to the holiday, saying “trick or treating is fun, and it’s good to focus on death and evil in lighthearted ways,” he wrote.
“That may sound all fine and good, but that kind of experience hasn’t existed for decades,” he continued. “It’s becoming ever more evident that the holiday has become a cover for evil to come out of the shadows. If the Celts thought evil spirits ran wild on this night, they are doing so again.”
Normalizing or valorizing evil can open a doorway to demonic influence, he cautioned. For example, secular Halloween has glorified witchcraft, and the number of people in the U.S. practicing witchcraft is on the rise, according to Staudt.
“Catholics redeem time and space, and the resurgence of evil this time of year should serve as a rallying cry,” he wrote. “We can recover elements of our own tradition and also make use of some contemporary practices to support them.”
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Halloween has some ties to the Catholic Hallowtide feast of All Souls’ Day, which falls on Nov. 2, he noted. One tradition on the eve of this feast was to ring the bells at nightfall, illuminate the windows with lights representing holy souls, and leave out a special cake in their honor, according to Staudt. The cake would then be given to the poor who would go door to door begging for alms.
He added that Catholics also use imagery such as the skull to remember death, and on the feast of All Saints, many faithful would dress up as holy men and women for religious pageants.
“This gives us enough to work with to baptize rather than completely banish Halloween, reclaiming the day and sanctifying it through the saints and souls,” Staudt wrote. “Let’s banish Satan and his minions, including all their empty work, turning this secular holiday back into a holy day.”
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