Halloween has been a popular tradition across the West for quite some time. People dress up for the occasion, and children play trick-or-treat or decorate pumpkins. Although 31 October isn’t formally a holiday, it’s been widely accepted as the date of Halloween in our part of the world.

Many believe that this feast originates from some pagan Irish tradition. Such an explanation isn’t accurate. Interestingly enough, the roots of Halloween are to be found in the rich history of the Catholic Church.

In the first centuries of our era, the Solemnity of All Saints (also referred to as “All Hallows”) was celebrated on 13 May. In 741, Pope Gregory III moved it to 1 November. A century later, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be celebrated everywhere in the Catholic world. The preceding day became the feast’s evening vigil, “All Hallows Even,” or “Hallowe’en.” Back then, what became later known simply as “Halloween” didn’t have any particular meaning for Christians or any other religious group. 

In the late 10th century, St. Odilo from the French monastery of Cluny, added a celebration on 2 November to the Christian calendar, which was to become a day of remembrance for the dead. The newly-established feast spread to the rest of the continent under the name “All Souls Day”. 

From that moment on, the Church had feasts not only for souls in heaven but also for those in purgatory. Yet there remained the damned souls which found themselves in hell. 

In an article published in Catholic Parent back in 2000, Father Augustine Thompson argues that in the Middle Ages, Irish Catholics developed the following concern: “if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble.” 

“So it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered, even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the church calendar,” – Father Thompson explains. 

Time passed, and various French, Irish, and British traditions intertwined, especially on American soil where numerous Catholic immigrants from Europe started to mingle in the 18th century.

Today, Halloween clearly lost its Christian connotation. It’s even perceived by some believers as a no-go feast given its morbid character, sometimes interpreted as a praise to the Devil. One thing is sure, Halloween in the 21st century has far more to do with pumpkins than with the immortality of souls.

Image: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen