From Things That Go Bump in the Night, Lord Deliver Us

Lea McCarthy provides practical advice for reclaiming the secularized holiday of Halloween. 

Holiday = Holy Day  

Did you know that, despite how strongly our western culture promotes and celebrates Halloween, the origins of this day have Catholic roots? The word “Halloween” is a shortened form of “All Hallow’s Evening”, referring to it being the vigil of All Saints’ Day. This great feast honors every single soul who is in heaven, even including souls of miscarried babies who died before they were baptized. The Church deliberately chose the date for All Saints’ Day to counteract the pagan celebration of “the night of all the witches” before the Celtic new year, which began on November first (Adoremus.org).  

As neat as that history is, it’s hard to believe the origins of Halloween were once Christian with how distorted and secularized the day has become. Answering the doorbell on Halloween these days is a gamble for those with nervous constitutions; you are likely to see costumes ranging from gruesome and gory to promiscuous, and the truly creative or fun ones are getting scarce. Some people choose to boycott this holiday altogether because it has become so paganized and morbid in our culture, and that’s quite understandable. However, Dr. Marcel Brown, a Catholic writer, suggests an alternative to boycotting Halloween: reclaiming it (Adoremus.org). 

Dress-up is a way for children to use their imagination and creativity; in fact, emulating a heroic or virtuous figure is a great way to learn about the good, the true, and the beautiful as they pretend to be that character. There’s nothing morally wrong with going trick-or-treating for Halloween. The problem is that our culture promotes death and hedonism, not life, and the costumes that are chosen on Halloween are a prime example of that. It’s basically turning back into the pagan muck of evil and death that the Church plunged the standard of Christ into so many centuries ago with the institution of All Saints’ Day.  

Tricks, I mean Tips, for Warfare 

What’s a Catholic mom to do when the kids are clamoring to go trick-or-treating like their friends?

Teach your kids what Halloween is all about.

(Hint: It’s not about the Great Pumpkin.) It’s important to know that it’s the beginning of the festivities of All Saints’ Day, and to tie it into the feast that you celebrate the next day. Make sure you are showing by your actions that the feast of All Saints is important. Besides going to Mass on All Saints’ Day, which is a holy day of obligation, you can also make it a festive occasion in your home. Perhaps you can cook a special meal, prepare a family altar with candles and pictures, medals, or statues of favorite saints, or even recite the litany of the saints as a family. Involve your kids in making this holy day special. 

Familiarize your children and yourself with the stories of the saints.

There is literally a heroic figure in each decade of history, and if you think they are all cookie-cutter monastery types, think again! There’s a saint for every trope that humanity has invented stories about. Princesses and kings? Yep. Dragon slayers? Check. Hunchbacks? That too! The more your kids know about the saints and their fantastic lives, the more they will be impacted by their example. 

Be creative and flexible. 

Even if your child has a fascination with the macabre, this too can be channeled appropriately. Instead of dressing up as a werewolf, what about Saint Francis with the terrifying wolf of Gubio? Is your child into mummies? Try Lazarus, complete with burial wrappings. Many of the martyrs suffered violent and bloody deaths for their faith, but unlike death-centered figures like the Grim Reaper, point toward the eternal life of heaven.  

Consider trick-or-treating an evangelization opportunity. 

Make sure your child knows something about the saint they are dressing up as, for their own understanding but also so they can be little missionaries. Perhaps your neighbor has never heard of Saint Sebastian, who was martyred at arrowpoint! But now your child just told her who he was dressed up as, and perhaps it will pique her interest to learn something about him. You never know what will happen when a seed has been planted.  

Take Back This Holiday

So let’s take back this holiday and return it to the holy day it was meant to be, when we gear up for the celebration of the entire Church Triumphant the next day. Let’s teach our children about the true superheroes of the family of God, and help them to want to emulate virtue and good character. In doing that we will shine the light of Christ into the dark places of our culture and reclaim them for Him. 

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Copyright 2025 Lea McCarthy
Images: Canva