It’s Halloween season. You may have noticed that by walking on the streets near your home and encountering those all-too-familiar garish orange-and-black decorations. Then again, maybe you have visited stores with shelves packed with bags and bags of candy and scary kids’ costumes.
This is also a time when some Catholic churches advertise Halloween get-togethers or parties for children and their families. That’s a reminder that Halloween and religion aren’t such strange bedfellows.
It’s also the time when newspapers and websites start rolling out those often predictable Halloween stories. The reason for this is two-fold.
First, journalists need to find a “news hook” when doing a story. As part of the five Ws — who, what, when, where and why — the reason for doing the story is often answered in the why. Timeliness is a major reason for why a story is being done at this moment in time. It’s the reason why this very piece you are reading is being posted at this moment in time.
Second, the internet has impacted news coverage in all the ways some of you already know. One big way has been in the use of “keywords” and “algorithms.” All news organizations with a website rely on these two for clicks (readers, that is) and the little money from advertising that they can reap from those page views. Halloween is one of the most-searched words during October. It’s a word that trends on Twitter. Therefore, content is created for this very purpose.
That sets up my point: Halloween stories are popping up this month because or both timeliness and SEO (Search Engine Optimization, the function that helps you find stories when you use a search engine). It’s this process by which keywords appear in headlines that readers can access them on Google News.
It’s the content in these Halloween stories, however, that often lacks a religion angle. For many, Halloween is some extension of witchcraft and paganism. It’s a holiday, some Christians believe, that is celebrated by Satanists.
It is also a big part of Christianity, specifically Roman Catholicism. That’s the part most-often overlooked by the mainstream news media. Yes, some stories you’re bound to read over the next two weeks will have more holes in them than a carved Jack-o’-lantern.
In a wonderful piece written by Aleteia, a Catholic news website, from 2016 serves as a solid primer for journalists to refer to over the next two weeks. Here’s the key takeaway from that explainer:
The word “Halloween” is a Scottish shortening of the phrase “Allhallow-even,” literally meaning “All Holy Evening” and dates to the 18th century. The English have a similar phrase, “All Hallows’ Eve,” with the same meaning. Both words denote the night before All Saints Day, November 1, and refer to the celebration of the holy men and women who are recognized in the Catholic Church as residing in Heaven.
Pope Gregory III established the feast during the 8th century after consecrating a chapel named in honor of “All Saints” in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The feast was then extended to the universal Church by Pope Gregory IV and made into a holy day of obligation for all Catholics.
Along with its celebration, All Saints Day was given a special vigil Mass the night before (October 31), which led to that date being regarded by Catholics as a “holy evening.”
Indeed, so much Halloween coverage neglects All Saints Day (a feast followed on Nov. 2 known as All Souls Day). Therefore, that Christian connection — specifically the Roman Catholic one — is one that should be included in news/features coverage. That is often seen in parts of Texas, the Southwest and California, where there is, and has been, a lot of Mexican immigration.
Why? The “Day of the Dead” — in Spanish it’s known as Dia de los Muertos — is a holiday celebrated south of the border and throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world. This is a holiday tied to All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Here’s how the website Learn Religions, a site dedicated to covering various faith traditions, described the Halloween festivities in a post from last year:
Despite concerns among some Catholics and other Christians in recent years about the “pagan origins” of Halloween, there really are none. While Christians who are opposed to the celebration of Halloween frequently claim that it descends from the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain, the first attempts to show some connection between the vigil of All Saints and Samhain came over a thousand years after All Saints Day was named a universal feast.
Halloween is very much an American holiday thanks largely to waves of Catholic immigration to the United States. For instance, the English, Irish and French brought with them various customs and feasts. Dressing up for Halloween comes from the French, Jack-o-Lanterns come from the Irish and the English begged from door to door promising to pray for the departed loved ones of those who gave them treats in return. These customs have become entangled over the years into what we know Halloween to be today.
Over the summer, a petition, originally launched last year by the nonprofit Halloween & Costume Association, gained momentum in arguing that moving the date of Halloween to a weekend would lead to a “safer, longer, stress-free celebration.” CNN, on its website, reported that the holiday “originated as a pagan festival celebrated by the Celts thousands of years ago.”
There was no mention of Catholicism. All together now: Boo!
Another story from the religious press, in this case Catholic News Agency, did a feature story in time for Halloween two years ago that addressed these traditions and the dilemma devout Catholic parents may face when seeing children dressed as witches and devils.
The story went the extra step by interviewing Father Vincent Lampert, a Vatican-trained exorcist and a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Lampert is a wonderful source for anyone in the press looking to delve deeper and find that Catholic connection to Halloween. Here’s what the story says:
He said when deciding what to do about Halloween, it’s important for parents to remember the Christian origins of the holiday and to celebrate accordingly, rather than in a way that glorifies evil.
“Ultimately I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the kids putting on a costume, dressing up as a cowboy or Cinderella, and going through the neighborhood and asking for candy; that’s all good clean fun,” Fr. Lampert said.
Even a sheet with some holes cut in it as a ghost is fine, Fr. Lampert said.
The danger lies in costumes that deliberately glorify evil and instill fear in people, or when people pretend to have special powers or dabble in magic and witchcraft, even if they think it’s just for entertainment.
“In the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 18, it talks about not trying to consult the spirits of the dead, not consulting those who dabble in magic and witchcraft and the like,” he said, “because it’s a violation of a Church commandment that people are putting other things ahead of their relationship with God.”
Of course, exorcism always gets the mainstream press excited. For a good piece on that, The Atlantic published a story earlier this year on its recent rise. Just last month, my former New York Post colleague Rod Dreher, writing for The American Conservative, posted a deeply moving — and troubling — piece on demonic possession, about a woman he has chronicled before named “Emma.”
In general, Catholics should not shun Halloween. Instead, they should know the history and origins of the holiday. At the same time, it’s incumbent on the press to cover the Halloween story in a complete manner. It’s not just about pagans and witches. It’s about Catholicism, immigration and a holiday that dates back centuries.