How to prepare for Halloween?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TrueRomanCatholic
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
As a kid I liked Halloween and I think it’s ok for Catholics to celebrate it as a secular holiday. However, it’s also a bit disturbing to me. C. S. Lewis wrote that the biggest achievement of the Devil is that he convinced the majority of us that he doesn’t exist. I feel like the celebration of Halloween is a bit similar. We think it’s not a big deal, but we are actually continuing a pagan tradition with some demonic elements. I live in the Czech Republic :czech_republic: and we have a similar folk holiday at the begining of spring. Like Halloween it’s been secularised and almost nobody “believes” in it. Our culture has continued a few pagan traditions and It doesn’t bother me when they are included in a Christian framework (like Christmas being celebrated at the time of Saturn’s feast etc.), but when there is a demonic aspect to it like I thing there is in Halloween and in the Czech “Walpurgis night”, I abstain from it.
 
Is it normally very cold on Halloween where you are at? Because we are usually stuck with lousy weather on Halloween and we also don’t get a lot of trick or treaters. No point in getting all dressed up if you have to put on heavy winter gear over it anyway.
 
GiftofMercy said:
Thanks but no thanks. According to that article Halloween originated so Christians could make the devil. Mocking the devil is dialogue with the devil and we as Catholics are taught not to do that. Did Jesus mock satan , ever, no. Did Pope Francis tell us to mock the devil or not to dialogue with the devil.

Also Christians should not be mocking anyone as per in true Christian charity.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of our holidays are Christianized versions of pre-existing folk holidays. I don’t see anything wrong with that, because society’s celebrations don’t go away just because they aren’t holy days. When something is a folk holiday, though, it is also true that not all of the traditions are going to be dictated from the theological top but will grow up from the grassroots, which isn’t always the source of the best-developed theology.

Halloween is an optional folk holiday that can be observed in ways that aren’t in opposition to the Catholic faith, but it is also a holiday that can be ignored by Catholics if they don’t find anything positive in it. Our kids liked dressing like something or someone that inspired them or that they wanted to be when they grew up. They went trick-or-treating at the neighbors, some of whom didn’t see them very often. We enjoyed giving out candy to the neighbor kids and carving pumpkins with funny faces. We still buy candy to give out and carve jack o’lanterns so the local kids know we have goodies for them. I don’t see any harm in it, but if we don’t get trick-or-treaters we won’t be doing anything except maybe watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Who wants to go a year and not do that, lol?
 
Last edited:
I spend the day getting my kids’ costumes ready. Some years we go to an All Saints Day party and some years we just go trick or treating in the neighborhood. Then I get them to bed, hopefully on time, and take a few pieces of their best candy. Oh, and I make sure they brush their teeth really, really well.
 
I remember years ago as a child going to my uncle’s house on Halloween to treat or trick.

There was this pale woman in a white dress who came floating towards me.
She had the scariest face. I ran away. I found out the next day it was one of my uncle’s contraptions. He usually went all out during Halloween. Instead of just treats at his house, you get tricks too.

One time he dressed up as a vampire and popped out of a coffin.
 
Last edited:
If anyone isn’t getting trick or treaters anymore and misses them…come to my neighborhood! We literally get hundreds. Folks drop their kids off at one end and pick them up at the other, then go home to their own homes.

I’m not sure when it started that our neighborhood was so great for the treating but we certainly have it now! I buy about 14 different bags of candy and maybe have a handful left by 9pm. My town is about 90,000 people so not huge, not small. But our neighborhood is da bomb!
 
GiftofMercy said:
40.png
gracepoole:
Neat. Perhaps you should write a letter to Catholic Answers (which owns this forum) and explain how misguided their apologists are.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your suggestion. Catholic Answers is an Apostolate of an American ArchDiocese.
Did you sign an agreement when you joined saying you would agree with all their statements or opinions?
I certainly did not.
I also note the disclaimer at the base of the forum.
’ the views and opinions expressed in these forums do not necessarily reflect those of CA.’

Are you stating CA is misguided? Or are you claiming another said it. If so, please cite where.
Click to expand...
I didn’t think this was so confusing. You dismissed an article I shared – an article that comes from Catholic Answers – as being against Catholic teachings. I assume you’ll now want to write to CA and explain to its apologists how misguided they are. I can’t wait to hear their response. As for these forums, it’s odd that you would engage here when you disapprove of this apostolate.
 
Kullervo said:
C. S. Lewis wrote that the biggest achievement of the Devil is that he convinced the majority of us that he doesn’t exist
Click to expand...
Exactly!!! I feel that this is exactly what’s going on with today’s society.

As for all of you who are putting ghost emojis or candy suggestions: NOT HELPFUL!

I’M CONCERNED WITH PROTECTING MYSELF AND MY HOUSE FROM DEMONS, NOT WHICH MARS BAR IS TASTIEST!!!
 
I think the problem is internet. One click and you are in an evil website. That is the big problem.
In my opinion Halloween is a bit like X-mas. People have tried to take away certain Catholic things about it. Even Catholics.
So Halloween means All Halliows eve. People don’t like to think about saints who were good at examination of conscience, death and dying and praying for the dead. It is very interesting to see a cemetary with candle in this dark autumn (might be much lighter in other parts of the world).

I don’t mean to sounds morbid or wierd but X-mas is not just about a cute child in a manger.
He was born to die for us. This is not very cute although a child can be cute. And wonderful winterland, you know that tune. There is something beautiful about it but not when it i icy and people die in the traffic. My theory is: we öike to flee from death and dying. The only things we carry with us at the time of death are a good conscience and the grace from the sacraments (even if you never were a Catholic as you still have Priests saying Mass for the dead).
 
Last edited:
I do the same thing every morning. I keep holy water in a spray bottle. While I give a spray to each room I pray that all who enter my house be blessed, and be aware that the Lord loves them.

As for Halloween…I retire to my room early and keep the shades down and no lights on near the front door.

My Halloween (All Hallowed Eve) swan song was to have a CD player in an open front window playing hymns, and a lit candle in front of the cement statue of Our Blessed Mother on my front porch. I temporarily put a statue of St. Joseph and St. Francis of Assisi on the front porch and when my doorbell rang (parents were with the children) I asked the child their name, and then repeated their name and gave them a lollipop and a small card with a scripture passage on it.

Across the street was a horror house with howling recordings and arms and legs sticking up from the lawn. One little boy said to me “I don’t like that house”, and it made me feel good.
 
Last edited:
TrueRomanCatholic said:
The time is quickly approaching where demons can walk among us…Halloween!
Click to expand...
where did you get the idea that demons walk among us on Halloween?

I enjoy Halloween. It’s a big costume party as far as I am concerned. I don’t see the secular holiday as having anything to do with real demons or religious matters. I’m also a devout Catholic who won’t be missing Mass on a holy day of obligation.
 
Personally, I like to watch a few horror movies around Halloween to get prepared. 😆. Other than that, I don’t celebrate Halloween too much, although I do use the season to prepared myself for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day.

There’s nothing wrong with Halloween. But if you feel especially concerned, there’s no problem with sprinkling a little Holy water around your house. It’s a good practice regardless of the season.
 
Last edited:
My plan is to dress up in a costume (don’t tell the commenter in the other costume thread that I’ll be dressing up as a man, and my husband will be dressed as a female character) and then give out candy to the 800+ kids who show up at our door.

Halloween is fun, not an occasion to anticipate demonic activity.
 
Can I move in, I have snacks and a black dog called Wednesday.
 
800!!! I’ll get 20-50 on a good night.
We have a block not far from me that actually blocks the entire street off. Neighbors have bonfires and a pot luck, and the kids come in their costumes for games, etc. Lots of fun. It does take away from our trick or treaters, though, because it is where the kids want to go.
What I hate is having bought more candy than kids. Then I eat it.
 
TrueRomanCatholic said:
I always hate this time of year
Click to expand...
How to prepare? Carve some pumpkins for your front stoop, stock up on candy, and enjoy the little cuties coming to your door dressed as Anna, Elsa, Batman, and Spiderman.

Halloween is not only licit in our Church, but it’s also fun! Our parish priest enjoys the holiday, especially when he walks into the Halloween pop-up store - invariably in his collar - to see what kind of reaction he gets from the employees. 😉 He said that Halloween is a reminder that that goodness will prevail over evil, and it’s our chance to poke fun at evil.

Where did Catholics get the idea that this is a horrible holiday? Certainly not from Church teaching!
 
Last edited:
Blimp said:
Soo… what exactly you’re gloryfying wiht those skulls (like human skulls?) and crows?

Just asking…Because we, Catholics are celebrating the All Saints’ Day. We’re celebrating Communion of Saints, eternal life in Heaven, remembering those who were very dear to us and now are with Lord.
Not the day of the dead. Not the day of the death. Just a reminder that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living” Luke 20:38
Click to expand...
Memento Mori

Don’t get to be a saint in Heaven until you’re a corpse on Earth.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top