10.31.20 - Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday?

At times, people who know nothing have claimed Halloween is a pagan holiday that Catholics assimilated into Christianity. That's a humorous claim, but the best lies have some connection of truth within it, as this one does!

Halloween was indeed an old Catholic celebration, similar to Marti Gras before Lent, except more for children. Here's the juicy connection:

The day after Halloween (Oct 31) is All Saints Day (Nov 1), which celebrates all the named and unnamed Saints since the time of Christ who successfully stood against evil. Since the saints were being honored on Nov 1, then it made sense to celebrate good-bye to all the pagan gods the day before, whose worship included druids, demons, and witches. Halloween comes from "All Hallow-even” which is Scottish for “Eve of All Saints.”

When the Scottish and Irish brought this custom with them to the United States, America was mostly inhabited by Protestants, who disdained all things Catholic. Remember, the Puritans came to America because England wasn’t Protestant enough, so you can imagine what they thought about this horrible "Catholic custom."

Nowadays, as our society strives to remove all traces of God from the public square, it is little wonder that Halloween has become a source of worry to some. If we forget its original point was to celebrate Good overcoming Evil, then in a sense paganism is left standing. But not us - not the Northern Virginia Bible Study group, no sir. We will never forget! :)