Is Halloween Pagan? The Catholic Origins of All Hallows’ Eve
Wait… Isn’t Halloween Pagan?
Every October, the same argument comes back.
Someone posts that Halloween is a pagan festival.
Someone else says Christians should stay home with the lights off.
And somebody’s kid just wants to dress up as a pirate.
But here is something most people never hear.
The name itself is Catholic.
A lot of people believe this:
“Halloween is really the old Celtic festival of Samhain. The Church just slapped a Christian name on a pagan holiday.”
And at first that sounds right.
Plenty of documentaries say it.
Ghosts, bonfires, and costumes do not exactly sound like something from the Bible.
But then you look at where the word and the date actually come from, and you have to stop for a second.
The question is not whether Halloween has picked up spooky customs. It is where the feast came from.
Start With the Name
“Halloween” is short for “All Hallows’ Eve.”
“Hallow” is an old English word for a holy person.
A saint.
You already know the word.
You say it every time you pray the Our Father:
“Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
— Matthew 6:9
Hallowed.
Holy.
So All Hallows’ Day is All Saints’ Day, November 1.
And All Hallows’ Eve is the night before.
Just like Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas.
Halloween is not a pagan name. It means “the eve of All Saints.”
The Bible Says We Are Surrounded
Why would Christians have a feast for all the saints in the first place?
Because Scripture says the faithful who have gone before us are not gone.
“And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us:”
— Hebrews 12:1
Wait.
A cloud of witnesses.
Over our head.
And John sees them in heaven:
“After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands:”
— Revelation 7:9
A multitude no one could number.
Too many saints for each to get a day of their own.
So the Church eventually gave them one day together.
The First Christians Honored the Martyrs
From the beginning, Christians gathered at the tombs of the martyrs on the anniversary of their deaths.
They called that day the martyr’s “birthday” into heaven.
But during the persecutions, so many Christians were killed that no calendar could hold them all.
So churches in the East started keeping one feast for all the martyrs together.
You can watch it happen:
Around A.D. 373, St. Ephrem the Syrian mentions a common day for the martyrs.
Around A.D. 379, St. Basil the Great invites the bishops of Pontus to keep a feast of the martyrs together.
Around A.D. 407, St. John Chrysostom mentions a common day in Antioch, on the Sunday after Pentecost.
The Eastern churches still keep All Saints on that Sunday today.
Notice the dates.
Hundreds of years before anyone wrote about Halloween.
And nowhere near Ireland.
No one gets forgotten. That was the whole idea.
Then Rome Dedicates the Pantheon
In Rome there was a famous pagan temple called the Pantheon.
Its name means “all the gods.”
Pope Boniface IV asked the Emperor Phocas for it.
On May 13, A.D. 609 (some sources say 610), he dedicated it as a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs.
Wait a second.
A temple to all the gods became a church for all the saints.
That is not the Church copying paganism.
That is the Church taking a pagan building and giving it to Christ.
How November 1 Became All Saints’ Day
Pope Gregory III (who reigned A.D. 731–741) dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints.
And he fixed its anniversary on November 1.
Then Pope Gregory IV (who reigned A.D. 827–844) extended the feast of All Saints on November 1 to the whole Church. The date usually given is around A.D. 835.
Notice where this is happening.
Rome.
Not Ireland.
Not Scotland.
The feast that gives Halloween its name was set by popes in Rome, not borrowed from a Celtic festival.
Meanwhile, in Ireland
Here is a detail most people never hear.
If the Irish Church had been “baptizing” Samhain, you would expect its own feast of all the saints to fall on November 1.
But the oldest surviving Irish calendar of saints, the Martyrology of Tallaght (around A.D. 830), keeps its feast of “all the saints of Europe” on April 20.
April.
Not November.
November 1 as the great feast of All Saints became fixed in Ireland over the following centuries, as Rome’s calendar spread.
Wait.
The date of All Saints traveled from Rome to Ireland, not from Ireland to Rome.
Then Came All Souls’ Day
Around the year 1000, St. Odilo, the abbot of Cluny in France, asked his monasteries to pray for all the faithful departed on November 2.
Tradition gives the year 998. Some historians place it a few decades later.
Either way, the custom spread through the whole Church.
So now there were three days in a row.
October 31: All Hallows’ Eve.
November 1: All Saints.
November 2: All Souls.
The Church in heaven.
The Church being purified.
And the Church on earth, praying for both.
Why Pray for the Dead?
Some Christians are surprised that Catholics pray for people who have died.
But it is in Scripture.
After a battle, Judas Machabeus took up a collection so sacrifices could be offered for fallen soldiers.
“It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”
— 2 Machabees 12:46
Wait.
A holy and wholesome thought.
The Church teaches that those who die in God’s friendship but still need purification are helped by our prayers (CCC 1030–1032).
That is why November is called the month of the Holy Souls.
We explain more in Why Catholics Pray for the Dead and What Purgatory Really Is.
Praying for the dead is not a Halloween superstition. It is a holy and wholesome thought.
Want to pray the Rosary for the Holy Souls this November? Get our free printable Rosary guide.
What About Samhain?
Here is the fair version of the other side.
Samhain was a Gaelic festival that marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter, around November 1.
Some customs in Ireland and Scotland, like bonfires and going door to door in disguise, may have older folk roots.
Historians still debate how much of that carried over.
But a few things are clear.
Most of what we know about Samhain was written down by Christian monks centuries later.
There was no Celtic “god of the dead” named Samhain. That idea goes back to a 1786 book by Charles Vallancey, who gave no evidence for it.
And the popular claim that “the Church stole Halloween from Samhain” mostly comes from writers in the 1700s and 1800s, not from the early Church.
You may weigh the folk customs differently.
But you at least have to admit:
The name, the date, and the meaning of the feast come from the Church.
Where Trick-or-Treating May Come From
In England and other places, a custom called “souling” grew up around All Saints and All Souls.
The poor, and later children, went door to door.
They were given small “soul cakes.”
In return, they promised to pray for the household’s dead.
It was common enough that Shakespeare, in the 1590s, could compare a whining voice to “a beggar at Hallowmas.”
Many historians see souling as one of the ancestors of trick-or-treating.
Which means the original deal was not candy for a costume.
It was a treat for a prayer.
Isn’t It the Devil’s Night?
Halloween has picked up some dark decorations.
And some people do use it to play with the occult.
Scripture is blunt about that:
“Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.”
— Deuteronomy 18:11
Wait.
Seeking the truth from the dead.
That is exactly what a séance or a Ouija board is.
The Church is clear that séances, Ouija boards, fortune-telling, and “calling up” the dead are wrong (CCC 2116–2117).
That is not because Halloween is evil.
It is because those things are evil any night of the year.
The eve of All Saints belongs to the saints.
Christians do not need to hand October 31 to the devil. It was never his.
A Quick Note on Reformation Day
Many Protestant churches also mark October 31.
That is because Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints.
So Christians on both sides already share the date, for a reason that goes back to the feast of All Saints.
Even Reformation Day is dated by All Saints.
How Catholic Families Can Keep All Hallows’ Eve
You do not have to choose between fun and faith.
Dress the kids up as saints.
Go to the vigil Mass of All Saints, if your parish has one.
Light a candle and pray for family members who have died.
Visit a cemetery in early November and pray for the souls there.
Tell the kids why the night is called All Hallows’ Eve.
Want to keep going? Pray the Responsory for All the Faithful Departed.
Keep the costumes. Give the night back to the saints.
So What Is the Catholic Claim?
Here it is in plain words.
Halloween means “All Hallows’ Eve,” the night before All Saints’ Day.
Scripture says we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and that it is holy to pray for the dead.
Christians in the East kept a common feast of the martyrs by the 300s.
Rome gave the Pantheon to all the martyrs in 609, and fixed All Saints on November 1 in the 700s and 800s.
The oldest Irish calendar of saints did not even keep All Saints in November.
Then the Church added All Souls on November 2.
Some folk customs may have older roots, but the name, the date, and the meaning come from the Church.
So the real question is not:
“Is Halloween pagan?”
The better question is:
“Whose night is it?”
It belongs to the saints.
And they are cheering us on.
Keep reading: All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, What Catholics Mean by the Communion of Saints, and Why Catholics Pray for the Dead, or browse more questions in Catholicism Explained.
If this helped you, consider supporting Christian Catholic Media so we can keep creating content.
Catholic Sources
Scripture (Douay-Rheims): Matthew 6:9; Hebrews 12:1; Revelation 7:9; 2 Machabees 12:43–46; Deuteronomy 18:10–12.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 946–962 (the communion of saints); CCC 1030–1032 (purification and prayer for the dead); CCC 2116–2117 (divination and magic).
Early Christian witnesses to a common feast of the martyrs:
- St. Ephrem the Syrian, sermon mentioning a common day for the martyrs (c. A.D. 373)
- St. Basil the Great, invitation to the bishops of Pontus to a common feast (c. A.D. 379)
- St. John Chrysostom, homily mentioning a common day for the martyrs, Antioch, Sunday after Pentecost (c. A.D. 407)
Rome and the feast of All Saints:
- Pope Boniface IV dedicates the Pantheon to St. Mary and all the martyrs, May 13, A.D. 609 (or 610)
- Pope Gregory III (A.D. 731–741): chapel of All Saints in St. Peter’s, anniversary on November 1
- Pope Gregory IV (A.D. 827–844): All Saints on November 1 extended to the whole Church (usually dated c. A.D. 835)
Ireland: Martyrology of Tallaght (c. A.D. 830), feast of all the saints of Europe on April 20.
All Souls: St. Odilo of Cluny, commemoration of all the faithful departed on November 2 (around the year 1000; traditionally 998).
Customs and claims: Charles Vallancey, A Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland (1786), source of the “Saman, lord of the dead” idea; William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590s), “a beggar at Hallowmas.”
