Halloween

[JoyToTheWhirled]

I’m coming at this from the perspective of a former evangelical protestant - who viewed Halloween with extreme suspicion and shut down any mention of it or celebration of it in our family and so on. Our church was equally anti. But now I’m moving towards Catholicism I’m wondering what the Catholic position is on celebrating it - particularly as one of the objections to it from my evangelical days was the ‘Papist’ elements of it. I’m wondering what’s appropriate for my kids to join in with. Any advice?

 

[Kit15]

Jimmy Akin just gave this question a ridiculously thorough answer recently on one of the Q&A shows. It still should be available if you want to hear it for yourself. Any answers I give seems really inadequate by comparison.

feeds.feedburner.com/catholic/cal - the episode is #7199. If you want to listen, you should get it now because in a week or so it will fall off the feed.

But basically there is nothing wrong going door to door and asking people for candy while in costume. Even a potentially scary costume. Just mind what you wear and don’t hurt other people or their property.

 

[Kelfa28]

Our parish is fairly Orthodox (Latin Mass, Perpetual Adoration, loads of families of all sizes). The kids are particularly excited about the annual Halloween party the parish school throws every year.
They have dancing, costumes, the teachers give out candy at each classroom and they do a “haunted stage”.

My oldest is going as a butterfly and my middle is going as Minnie Mouse. I’m making Halloween goody bags for my oldest’s class with stickers, candy and glow sticks.

We’re looking forward to heading out on Halloween night to our neighbors’ houses to collect candy.

Both of my girls have been practicing their “scary faces” and surprising my husband and I by jumping out of hiding places and yelling “Boo!”

My only concern is that we don’t get too many trick-or-treaters and they’ll leave some Kit-Kat bars for me.

I dunno…I really fail to see anything wrong with this. It seems to be just plain and wholesome fun with our family.

I was always taught that Halloween was just a fun holiday where I got to dress up, head out and get candy.

My MIL was and still is suspicious of Halloween and never allowed my husband to celebrate it.

Our parish school also celebrates All Saint’s day by encouraging the kids to come in dressed as their favorite saint.

 

[Sugabee43]

When my kids were little and participating, we always dressed up as Saints or Bible characters, and I gave out candy with a little slip of paper explaining “Hallow’s Eve” and All Saint’s Day. I was determined to educate the public!

Now that they’re grown, it’s not an issue. Half the time, we aren’t home on Hallow’s Eve. When we are, I display a realistically fake pumpkin that I carved a cross into and give out candy with no paper.

What bugs me about Halloween today is the nauseatingly gory costumes, and the equally nauseating hypersexualized costumes for adults/teens - and the fact that the “holiday” is made a bigger deal of than Thanksgiving; aside from the sales.

 

[misspriss]

As a former baptist, the only time I have celebrated halloween was one time I went as an inappropriate cat to a party in college. My son has been too young to care for two years, and this year I have finally decided to dress the kids up!

 

[EasterJoy]

What is the ‘Papist’ element of Halloween? Does that refer to the whole concept of feast days, in general, or the last things, or what?

 

[pensmama87]

What is the ‘Papist’ element of Halloween? Does that refer to the whole concept of feast days, in general, or the last things, or what?

Actually I think that’s exactly it - because it’s the day before All Saints Day.

Some fringe Protestants don’t celebrate Christmas for the same reason - they figured out “Mass” is right there in the name.

I don’t love the overly commercialized and sexualized aspect of Halloween today, but it’s perfectly OK to poke fun at scary things and eat candy. I heard someone describe Halloween as “laughing at the devil,” and I like that. He tries to make himself out to be a lot more powerful than he is, and to get us to despair over death, but we don’t need to.

 

[Trad_Catholic27]

Halloween should be done respectfully with regards to protecting children and adults form impure thoughts so that means no hypersexualized oufits.

Remember please pray the Holy Rosary during all Saints Day for the faithful departed.

 

[Jeannie52]

Our parish is fairly Orthodox (Latin Mass, Perpetual Adoration, loads of families of all sizes). The kids are particularly excited about the annual Halloween party the parish school throws every year.
They have dancing, costumes, the teachers give out candy at each classroom and they do a “haunted stage”.

My oldest is going as a butterfly and my middle is going as Minnie Mouse. I’m making Halloween goody bags for my oldest’s class with stickers, candy and glow sticks.

We’re looking forward to heading out on Halloween night to our neighbors’ houses to collect candy.

Both of my girls have been practicing their “scary faces” and surprising my husband and I by jumping out of hiding places and yelling “Boo!”

My only concern is that we don’t get too many trick-or-treaters and they’ll leave some Kit-Kat bars for me.

I dunno…I really fail to see anything wrong with this. It seems to be just plain and wholesome fun with our family.

I was always taught that Halloween was just a fun holiday where I got to dress up, head out and get candy.

My MIL was and still is suspicious of Halloween and never allowed my husband to celebrate it.

Our parish school also celebrates All Saint’s day by encouraging the kids to come in dressed as their favorite saint.

Thank you for sharing the fun way your family celebrates Halloween.

Regarding the part of your post that I highlighted, what a great way for the kids to celebrate All Saint’s Day!

 

[Jeannie52]

Halloween should be done respectfully with regards to protecting children and adults form impure thoughts so that means no hypersexualized oufits.

Remember please pray the Holy Rosary during all Saints Day for the faithful departed.

Amen and Amen! Very well said.

 

[UbiCaritas]

Halloween should be done respectfully with regards to protecting children and adults form impure thoughts so that means no hypersexualized oufits.

Remember please pray the Holy Rosary during all Saints Day for the faithful departed.

Not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with praying for the dead at any time, but why All Saints Day specifically, versus All Souls on November 2?

 

[Ph0enix]

Halloween should be done respectfully with regards to protecting children and adults form impure thoughts so that means no hypersexualized oufits.

Remember please pray the Holy Rosary during all Saints Day for the faithful departed.

I see no point in sexual outfits on Halloween

where i am it gets rather cold around that time

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Excellent info, thanks everyone. The ‘papist’ thing comes pretty much from the idea of Catholic ‘novelties’, things that aren’t explicitly biblical and were added by the church - as already mentioned Christmas is another example, and you get the same kind of thinking around Easter in some circles too.

I love the idea of dressing up as a favourite saint, and yes, a rosary sounds like an excellent suggestion too. I would avoid hypersexualization like the plague anyway, but thank you for the caution, it’s appreciated

 

[Kelfa28]

Thank you for sharing the fun way your family celebrates Halloween.

Regarding the part of your post that I highlighted, what a great way for the kids to celebrate All Saint’s Day!

It’s actually a huge hit with the parish school that gets talked about far more often then Halloween.

When Kateri Teckakwitha was canonized almost all of the girls dressed up in Native American outfits.

It’s a lot of fun for everyone.

 

[UbiCaritas]

Excellent info, thanks everyone. The ‘papist’ thing comes pretty much from the idea of Catholic ‘novelties’, things that aren’t explicitly biblical and were added by the church - as already mentioned Christmas is another example, and you get the same kind of thinking around Easter in some circles too.

I love the idea of dressing up as a favourite saint, and yes, a rosary sounds like an excellent suggestion too. I would avoid hypersexualization like the plague anyway, but thank you for the caution, it’s appreciated

Oh, yeah, I’m familiar with some of that. I grew up in really conservative homeschooling circles. I still remember a particularly silly Christmas play put on by the Christian homeschool co-op drama class. The them of it was, I kid you not, why we shouldn’t sing “The First Noel”. Yes, the carol. Why? Because one line says, “…on a cold winter’s night that was so deep,” it doesn’t say in the Bible that Christ was born on a cold winter’s night, and this is example #572 of the eeeeeevil Catholics keeping the Bible from the world because if the writer of “The First Noel” had been allowed to read the Bible, he wouldn’t have written it that way. Never mind that we don’t actually know who wrote the carol in question, or if he was Protestant or Catholic (it dates from 16th century England, so either is possible)–it was all those eeeeevil Catholics and their Bible-hating ways!



Suffice to say, they weren’t particularly fond of Halloween, either.

 

[pianistclare]

Not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with praying for the dead at any time, but why All Saints Day specifically, versus All Souls on November 2?

Because the souls are still in purgatory. We pray for their speedy relief and entry into heaven.

 

[UbiCaritas]

Because the souls are still in purgatory. We pray for their speedy relief and entry into heaven.

Interesting. Is this focus on the souls in Purgatory on All Saints’ Day a cultural tradition in certain places, or one that I just missed out on?

I’m used to the focus on 11/1 (All Saints’) being on the saints in Heaven, so a sort of big-celebratory day, and the focus on 11/2 (All Souls’) being the souls who, as you say, are still in Purgatory, and therefore quite restrained, with a more reflective sort of focus. Not, as I said, that I expect either to be offended by praying for the souls in Purgatory on All Saints’ day, as well as any other!

 

[truetofaith]

I wish there was no such day as Halloween. It used to be like a masquerade party but in recent yrs. it has become more gory & evil.

Your kids will feel rejected if you don’t let them dress up & go door to door. My mom used to say it was like “begging.”

Halloween is so blown up in stores etc. that it makes All Saints & All Souls Day, insignificant. The evil one is sure to be happy!

 

[Mayita30]

me (a Catholic) : Do you celebrate halloween???

friend (protestant) : Halloween???..Why should I celebrate the devil??

okk end of story…since that conversation happened…NO MORE HALLOWEEN FOR ME

 

[Mayita30]

Catholic holidays are

November 1 : All saints day
November 2: All souls day

We are required to go to mass on Nov. 2…