Observed on October 31, Halloween is widely thought of as an American holiday connected to children dressing up in macabre costumes, Jack-o-Lanterns, trick or treating and chilling ghost stories.
However, Bishop Peter Ingham from the Diocese of Wollongong believes that Halloween, a feast initially influenced by the Celtic harvest festival, is an opportunity to deepen our understanding of another aspect of the Catholic faith.
“Halloween leads us into the back-to-back feast days of All Saints and All Souls,” Bishop Ingham said.
All Saints and All Souls are celebrated on November 1 and 2 respectively; the former commemorates the departed who have attained the beatific vision and the latter commemorates the faithful departed.
“These two days celebrate what we affirm in the Apostles Creed, ‘I believe in the Communion of Saints’, which means the union that exists between the blessed in Heaven, the souls expiating their sins in purgatory and we who are still on our earthly pilgrimage to eternal life with God,” Bishop Ingham said.
While Bishop Ingham sees a connection between Halloween and the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, he disagrees with dressing up in costumes – a major part of the culture of Halloween.
“Costumes and decorations that glorify witches and devils are hardly appropriate,” he said.
“Witches and devils symbolise the evil that Jesus Christ has overcome by his death and resurrection.”
Death, another major theme of Halloween, is a subject which Bishop Ingham discuses with frankness.
“You and I need to press the pause button in our crowded lives to reflect on our own mortality with all the spiritual and practical consequences that go with it,” Bishop Ingham said.
“Halloween invites us to talk openly about death, which is a taboo for so many, almost as if it were not a real fact of life.”
Bishop Ingham acknowledged that the popularity of Halloween has risen over the years, and he believes one positive aspect of the commercialisation of Halloween is that it creates awareness of the Christian faith in secular society.
However, he fears that its Catholic roots are in danger of becoming lost.
Bishop Ingham said the feast of All Saints has an integral link to Halloween.
“Halloween is All Hallows Eve,” he said. “Hallow is a word in the Lord’s Prayer, hallowed be thy name, so to celebrate Halloween without connecting it to All Saints Day would be like celebrating Christmas Eve without a Christmas Day.
“Fortunately, each year the Church gives us two feasts; All Saints and All Souls.”
He also said that if the saints were taken away from Halloween, along with the Christian beliefs about the dignity and destiny of humans, only a pre-Christian superstition about the dead would be left.