My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

If you do an internet search for the word “Halloween,” one of the links that pops up takes you to a website that says, “Halloween is an American slasher media franchise that consists of thirteen films, as well as novels, comic books, a video game and other merchandise. The films primarily focus on Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he escapes to stalk and kill the people of the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois.” The original Halloween movie, released in 1978, is said to have inspired a long line of slasher films. A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools.

Judging by the Halloween decorations seen in front of many people’s homes, Halloween seems meant to be like a horror film designed to scare you. But that is far from the original understanding of Halloween.

According to Britannica online, “Halloween’s origins can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which was held on November 1 in contemporary calendars. It was believed that on that day, the souls of the dead returned to their homes, so people dressed in costumes and lit bonfires to ward off spirits. In this way, popular Halloween tropes such as witches, ghosts, and goblins became associated with the holiday. In the 7^th century [A.D.], Pope Boniface IV created All Saints Day, originally celebrated on May 13. A century later, Pope Gregory III moved the holiday to November 1, likely as a Christian substitute for the pagan festival of Samhain. The day before the saintly celebration became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween.”

All Saints Day is a celebration of all those already in heaven, for that is the definition of a saint. Some saints are officially canonized by the pope. Canonization is an infallible declaration by the pope that a person is in heaven, normally after an extensive process that requires two miracles attributed to the intervention of the deceased person, one preceding beatification as a blessed and the second preceding canonization as a saint. The vast majority of saints in heaven, however, are uncanonized. They are saints simply because they are in heaven with God, but they are uncanonized because we do not know for sure if they are in heaven.

The next day, Nov. 2, is observed as All Souls Day, dedicated to praying for the souls in purgatory. Everyone in purgatory is on the way to heaven, but it is a final stage of purgation or purification before seeing God face-to-face.

The word “Halloween” comes from a shortening of All Hallows Even. All Hallows is another name for the Christian holy day known as All Saints’ Day. In saying All Hallows Even, even means the same thing as eve— the evening or day before a holiday (as in Christmas Eve). The word hallow means “holy” and is used in reference to the saints.

So Halloween rightly understood is a celebration of those living in heaven, not those condemned to hell. The only thing frightening about Halloween should be to scare the hell out of us, literally, so that we will live in such a way so as to avoid going to hell when we die, but aim for living in God’s grace so that we can spend eternity as saints with God in heaven. Instead of wearing Halloween costumes that focus on death, it would be good to dress up in the garb of a saint, since encouraging us to strive for sainthood is ultimately the goal of All Saints Day.

The month of October is Respect Life Month, observed as a time for promoting respect for all human life from conception to natural death. As Christians, it would be good for us to remember that we believe in life after death won for us through the death and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us not throw away that great gift by succumbing to sin, but if we do, we should not hesitate to ask God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation, for God is rich in mercy and wants us to live with Him forever in heaven. May God give us this grace. Amen