It’s that time of year again. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing and people are fighting on the internet about whether it’s okay for Christians to participate in Halloween festivities. But Catholics made up Halloween, so if it’s appropriate for anyone, it’s appropriate for us.
In fact, virtually all historical attacks on the celebration of Halloween have come about specifically because it was too Catholic. Halloween is All Hallows’ Eve, aka the vigil of All Saints’ Day, which was instituted as a feast by Pope Gregory III in the eighth century. And while some of the ways Halloween is observed today are mirrored in some ancient Celtic traditions associated with the harvest, the spookier side of Halloween was never occult or even pagan – it was all Catholic.
