Parental Guide for Halloween - A Catechist's Thought

October 31 is Halloween. On this day, during dusk hours into early evening, many children, accompanied by their parents or guardians, are strolling the neighborhood everywhere in the US, shouting, “Trick or treat!” in front of neighbors’ door steps.  This scene is rather comical, as both the children and their parents/guardians, as well as the neighbors, are having fun. 

If you ask children in the US, what comes to their mind first on Halloween, many will say, “Trick or treat”, or simply, “a lot of candies”.  

For children of the faithful Christians, however, Halloween should not be reduced to mere fun candy collection “trick or treat” strolling in the neighborhood.  Besides a health concern for children having excessive sugar intake from these collected candies, there is a very important spiritual concern about Halloween – if these children are not taught what Halloween really is in light of the Church’s tradition. 

First, it is important that Christian parents teach their children that Halloween is like Christmas Eve or Holy Saturday (Easter Eve). It is the eve of All Saints Day. Thus, it is the eve of all hallows day. The name, “Halloween” came out of “all Halloween”. If children ask, “what ‘hallow’ means, you can easily remind them of the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, ‘hallowed’ be thy name…”, and tell that ‘hallow’ means ‘holy’.  So, Halloween means the eve of the feast day of all holy people, namely, saints. 

Most Christians believe that saints are in heaven, based on Revelation 5, though their bodily remains stay on earth. As the Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox, believe that Mary was assumed into heaven, Christians of these denominations can envision, St. Mary being in heaven. In this regard, we can see Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and Enoch (Genesis 5:24) being in heaven, too.  Regardless of where saints are now, we know that they are the people holy enough to be in heaven, even though many of us are not yet so worthy to be there. For this reason, Catholics believe that most of us need to go to purgatory, upon death, to make more spiritual refinement of our souls, to be truly worthy for heaven – to be saints.  Because of this spectrum from earth to heaven via purgatory for most people, while saints are the ones who took an “express way” straight from earth to heaven, we observe  All Souls Day, following All Saints Day, praying for the souls in purgatory, after praying for holy souls of saints in heaven. 

For this reason, Halloween is a day to prepare for this feast for holy people and for the souls of those who are in their final process to become holy, while we are working hard to be holy and to be worthy to be in heaven, through our practice of faith in Christ. 

With this authentic Christian understanding of Halloween, children can have fun collecting goodies, dressed as their favorite saints or the saints they are named after, as neighbors are offering whatever they can for these “little saints” to honor them. 

The fact that these children “tricking or treating” often dressed like little demons.  This may be appropriate for children of diabolic parents. However, if you are Christian parents and want to make sure that your children observe Halloween as it is meant, then, you and your little ones can dress like saints and enjoy your neighbors’ admiration for saints in heaven, as they pay their respect for these saints through goodies. 

Yes, Christians can have fun on Halloween. It is not as a satanic practice, as some Christian critics may say, though many “trick or treaters” and their parents do not seem to understand that their way of observing Halloween can be honoring demons. Unless you want to raise your children to be diabolic, we must guide our children on the right path.