Halloween is a glorification of evil. It has no association with the Church. There’s an air of spookiness around – especially because ‘Halloween’ is here.
Every year, social media floods with imagery and discussions that are offensive to the Christian community world over. The impactful imagery of the Halloween seen world over shows Christian cemeteries and the Crucifix etc. along with entities from the underworld. It’s sad that over the centuries, despite the Church’s efforts to correct this false image being related to their faith and creed, there has been no stopping it. As a matter of fact, it is becoming worse since social media, in our part of the world in particular, overflowing with comments that have made Halloween seem like a religious festival of the Christians. One of the most attention grabbing comments was on the social media page of an educational institute. The comment made by a parent regarding Halloween celebration in school stated: “Halloween is a Christian religious activity for evil spiritual powers.”
A significant percentage of the population has no clue as to what Halloween is about.
In fact, no one even wants to make an effort to learn the truth about it. Frankly speaking, even online search engines are misleading since they want readers to know what they want them to know.
Halloween came in years after the Church’s celebration of All Saints Day on November 1 and observance of All Souls Day on November 2 came into practice. These ancient feast days are held to honour the saints and commemorate the martyrs and the faithful departed respectively. First celebrated in the 609 by Pope Boniface IV, All Saints Day was held on May 13.
In 837, Pope Gregory IV moved it to November 1. The idea to move to ‘Feast of All Saints’ was to replace the Celtic pagan festival now known as Halloween. Since the Feast of All Saints is also referred to as ‘All Hallows,’ the night before the feast is called ‘All Hallows Eve.’ Therefore, to put the Church down as an act of ungodliness, pagans and evil worshippers pronounced their festival as ‘Halloween.’
Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, has already criticized Halloween as a “negative culture about death” urging the faith to embrace godliness and shun away all evil practices such as this. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI even slammed Halloween as ‘Dangerous.’ In one of the articles titled ‘The Dangerous Messages of Halloween,’ the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano quoted liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying that, “Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian.” Aldo Bonaiuto, former head of the Catholic Church’s anti-occult and sect unit, warned parents of the dangers to children and that the event ‘promotes the culture of death’. He has repeatedly commented in various articles that ‘Halloween pushes new generations towards a mentality of esoteric magic and it attacks sacred and spiritual values through a devious initiation to the art and images of the occult.
At best, it gives a big helping hand to consumerism and materialism. Halloween simply glorifies evil.’
Through global commercialism and consumerism people are being inspired to embrace rituals and trends that are anti-religious. The sad part is that all such socially and morally manipulating festivities are assumed to be associated with a community that itself negates it. Through different traditional and online sources, we have been able to gain knowledge and educate ourselves on subjects that are beyond our understanding. While this is helping us keep ourselves abreast with current global trends we remain aloof and lack the right knowledge on many such subjects like the Halloween.
Because not all online sources are reliable, you will find some literature on Halloween that claims it to be associated with Christianity. A number of online forums are making people believe that Halloween is harmless. Those that are trying hard to discourage the celebration of Halloween have, however, incomplete or vague facts and information. Hence, minimizing the influence to prevent Halloween. The suggestion is: Research and get your facts right!
To celebrate or not to celebrate Halloween is your personal choice. The fact however remains: Halloween is a glorification of evil.
People/ consumers follow like sheep and the herd gets lost in consumerism and following the ‘fashion’trail!