Facts About Halloween You Might Not Know

There are only nine days left until Halloween, so I feel in the mood to write about this holiday. This holiday is one of my favorites because of its fantastic aesthetic.

Halloween is a holiday with a storied past. It’s often misunderstood by well-meaning people, who think it to be an intimidating and possibly demonic holiday. And, to be fair, some people enjoy Halloween for that experience. But Halloween is more than spooky sights and scary frights. It has depth far beyond what television and movies will tell you. In this post, I hope to enlighten you on five facts about Halloween.

1. Halloween has a Christian origin.

A lot of people think that it was invented by Satanists or pagans, but it was invented by Christians. The word “Halloween” was derived from “Hallowe’en”, an eighteenth-century Scottish portmanteau of “hallow” and “even” (short for evening). The word “hallow” means “holy” because Halloween was the day before All Saints’ Day, a Catholic holiday implemented by Pope Gregory III in the early eighth century. Halloween takes place on the eve of All Saints’ Day, similar to how Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas. This article in Crisis Magazine explains the history behind it well.

Though many elements of Halloween have branched into unholy and unhealthy regions, its root sleeps in sacred ground. Both the feast and the vigil of All Saints Day have been observed since the early eighth century, instituted by Pope Gregory III; and Pope Gregory IV applied them to the Universal Church. Families of faith frequently attempt to awaken this hallowed origin by instructing children to pray for the Holy Souls in purgatory and to invoke the patronage of the Holy Saints in heaven. Such activities are, without doubt, laudable as they encourage a traditional awareness and attitude by turning the minds and hearts of children toward eternal things. Moreover, as a compromise with the cultural demands of celebrating Halloween, All Saints Day costume parties have become quite fashionable—if not the only respectable thing to do.

2. Halloween is meant to help the souls in Purgatory.

According to Roman Catholicism, those souls that die in God’s favor but are stained by venial sin are trapped in Purgatory “till they have paid their last penny” (Matthew 5:26). Catholics help these poor departed souls through prayer and devotion. Just as the redemptive suffering of purgatory precedes one’s ascension into Heaven, Halloween prepares good Christians for All Saints’ Day. During All Saints’ Day, Christians were instructed to honor all the saints in Heaven for their virtuous lives and invoke their patronage. Halloween mirrored this by having Christians honor the faithful departed, those who would one day enter Heaven.

3. Halloween’s creepiness comes from its association with death.

In addition to honoring the souls in Purgatory, Halloween also served as a reminder of life’s fragility and how vain were the glories of earthly life. Important to Catholic philosophy is the concept of memento mori or “remember you have to die,” the philosophical reminder that death unites us all. Medieval Christians would create macabre decorations and artwork as a constant reminder of this fact. People could take comfort in the fact that everyone, from the greatest emperor to the poorest peasant, from the wisest pope to the most foolish child, met the same fate in death. In a way, this ghastly imagery was comforting.

4. Halloween became associated with evil spirits with the rise of Protestantism.

With a few exceptions, Protestants rejected the doctrine of Purgatory as a medieval innovation. However, they inherited many of the traditions that came from Catholicism, including the most popular feast days like Halloween. But then, if Purgatory didn’t exist, what was the holiday about?

To reconcile Halloween with their rejection of Purgatory, the theology of All Hallows’ Eve was redefined. Now, Halloween was about evil spirits that were haunting the land. Rather than assisting the faithful departed, Protestants believed that the diabolical and the damned wandered the night committing all kinds of evil.

5. We have Catholic immigrants to thank for mainstreaming Halloween in America.

The Puritans and other Nonconformist Protestants who first came to America were opposed to celebrating the majority of Christian holidays, including Halloween. Their resistance to this was carried forward for centuries by their descendants, who saw such holidays as a nuisance. To be fair, there were serious problems with how the holidays were celebrated. People would use the opportunity to get drunk and cause mischief. Catholic immigrants were responsible for bringing a great many holidays into the mainstream. However, many attempts by public authorities were made to pacify and secularize the holiday to maintain social harmony. The explicitly religious elements of the holiday were removed, and the practice of giving candy to children was done to keep those children out of trouble (hence the name “trick-or-treat”).

Halloween is an amazing holiday, and it’s probably my favorite holiday. As much I have enjoyed trick-or-treating over the years, I also enjoy the religious aspect of the holiday. But most of all, I enjoy the long and storied history of this amazing holiday.