In Focus - Choosing the Hallowed ( March 2026 )

Title: Choosing the Hallowed

Intro

As she notes how Halloween has shifted gears towards a more evil and occult practice, Dr Annilyn Sebastian shares how Catholics can respond to what was once a celebration of All Hallows’ Eve.

Highlight

When evil is portrayed as amusing, harmless and stylish, it can weaken a child’s natural aversion to sin. Evil is real, but is neither fascinating nor victorious.  Because Christ has conquered sin and death, we as Catholics should not react defensively, but we should respond thoughtfully, by choosing what forms the soul towards goodness and quietly refusing what distorts it. 

Article

I remember celebrating Halloween during my elementary school days here in the US. I looked forward to wearing simple costumes and going trick-or-treating in the evening, and seeing it also as a great opportunity to meet and greet neighbours. I remember dressing up as a television set to school one year, which I made with a cardboard box, by colouring the knobs and controls on it, and cutting out the area that would show my face. The following year, I made a US Postal Box, taking the same idea; simple homemade costumes without spending much money. My mom would take us out for trick-or-treating and we would be happy with the small amount of candy we’d get, which would last us for the next few weeks or months. This was my idea of Halloween – costumes and candy, though I do remember several spooky houses and decor even back then in the 1980s. There was obviously evil lurking behind the scenes, though it was not as obvious as we see today.  

Fast forward a few decades, and one can easily see a cultural shift where evil is glorified, and becomes ‘amusing’.  

Let’s try to understand a little about the history of Halloween, and its evolution. Historically, Halloween (All Hallows’ Eve) precedes the great feasts of All Saints’ Day on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November. These days remind us of the communion of saints, the reality of death, and the hope of resurrection. Today also, we celebrate Halloween on All Hallows’ Eve. But today, the Christian roots are often forgotten, and replaced with mockery of death, and a fascination for the occult. 

In the early Christian era of Halloween, before the 1800s, death was acknowledged with hope, and evil was resisted with prayer and faith. But things started changing with the influx of Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 1800s. During this time, mischiefs, pranks, disguises and superstitions started taking centre-stage, thus slowly pushing aside the religious focus. In the 1900-1960s, candy companies and costume manufacturers came into play, thus commercialising the holiday, and standardising trick-or-treating. Costumes shifted from being homemade and neutral, to largely scary (ghosts, witches, monsters) or even sensational. Though fear was suggested, it was not yet glorified. It was in the late 1960s to 1980s that Halloween started shifting its major emphasis to darkness. Today, Halloween presents evil no longer as something to fear, but something ‘cool’ and amusing. Also horror entertainment, occult fascination, and celebration of evil has become mainstream.  

What used to be All Hallows’ Eve, is now a month-long immersion in darkness, as we can see stores starting to promote spooky Halloween decor as early as end of September! Lots of families also start ‘decorating’ their houses for Halloween with scary figures even as tall as their houses!  

Scripture reminds us: Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:21–22).

Not everything labelled ‘fun’ is spiritually neutral. Entertainment forms the imagination, especially in children. What we normalise, we eventually accept. What we repeatedly expose ourselves to, we begin to find amusing, or worse, attractive. 

The Catechism warns clearly against occult practices: ‘All forms of divination are to be rejected… They contradict the honour, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.’(CCC 2116). This includes not only active participation in occult practices, but also casualising them; turning witches, demons, and darkness into harmless playthings. So is it right for Catholics to celebrate Halloween?  

The Church does not issue a blanket prohibition on Halloween, yet she calls the faithful to wisdom, prudence, and a clear rejection of anything that glorifies evil, trivialises sin, or dulls our sensitivity to spiritual realities. When evil is portrayed as amusing, harmless and stylish, it can  weaken a child’s natural aversion to sin. Evil is real, but is neither fascinating nor victorious. Because Christ has conquered sin and death, we as Catholics should not react defensively, but we should respond thoughtfully, by choosing what forms the soul towards goodness and quietly refusing what distorts it. 

Catholic discernment does not require withdrawal from society, but intentional engagement. Families may choose to participate focusing on what is morally neutral or good: Innocent and neutral costumes that can be creative or homemade; community and neighbourly interaction that teaches courtesy, generosity and gratitude; daytime or parish-based events such as trunk-or-treat, or fall festivals. In addition, Catholic families can choose All Saints’ costume parties, acts of charity or prayer for the dead, family nights with sacred stories or saint biographies and the like. If kids are into carving pumpkins, they can choose to carve Catholic or Christian themes, by reciting the ‘pumpkin prayer’, and placing a light inside, as a way to evangelise. 

Whether families may choose careful participation, only saint-centred or parish celebrations, or abstention altogether, we should hold fast to shared principles: evil should never be celebrated, innocence should be protected, and Christ should remain at the centre. 

The following are things we as Catholics should definitely not do: 

(1) We should not celebrate or glorify evil, even playfully, in areas of costumes, decorations, activities. 

(2) We should not trivialise the occult. 

(3) We should not seek fear provoking entertainment, eg: gore based attractions, etc. 

(4) We should not mock death or the sacred. 

What we as Catholics should do instead: 

(1) We should exercise discernment in choosing activities. 

(2) We should prioritise innocence and beauty – costumes, activities, decorations that are joyful, creative, and wholesome.  

(3) We should use this season as a teaching moment, helping children understand the difference between fantasy and spiritual reality, giving due seriousness to evil and the occult, while also having them understand Christ’s victory.  

(4) We should celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, highlighting the joy of heaven, heroism of the saints, and the hope of resurrection.  

(5) We should choose peaceful participation or peaceful abstention, depending on circumstances and discernment. 

(6) We should witness quietly to hope, by showing that joy does not require darkness, and evil does not deserve fascination.  

By choosing prudence over fear, and not reacting defensively, we Catholics model a mature faith, one that engages the world, without being shaped by it, and that forms hearts firmly anchored in peace, hope and trust in God.  

In a world fascinated by darkness, we as Catholic families are called to be quietly radiant with light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).