![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2019\/10\/HalloweenPaganism.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Mark Shea made a great statement on this:<\/p>\n
I have to say that my feelings toward Halloween have mellowed with the years. As an Evangelical, I used to dislike it intensely as a night given over to the devil. But as time has gone on, I find I enjoy the rare opportunity for the whole neighborhood to turn out and all visit each other. I love the brisk night air. I love the little kids in their goofy costumes getting to run around after dark. I love the gasps of wonder from the various people at the various doors, admiring the goofy costumes. I love giving out candy to cute little kids who are trying to remember to be polite and say \u201cthank you\u201d with mommy and daddy\u2019s prompting. On the whole, Halloween is an occasion for conviviality, and I have a hard time believing the devil can do much in the face of that other than feel like Wile E. Coyote or Scrat, whose best laid plans always seem to blow up in their faces.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My thoughts exactly. I loved all this same stuff last night. We all had a marvelous time (my wife Judy\u2019s mother also came along, then we visited my parents). My kids had \u201chorrible, wicked\u201d and pagan costumes like Dorothy (complete with red sparkly shoes) and the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, Indiana Jones, and a knight in shining armor. Pretty frightening, scandalous stuff there.<\/p>\n
My only slight difference with Mark (and that only concerning his former views) is that I never disliked this night intensely as an evangelical (I had a great costume as Moses \u2014 complete with the two tablets \u2014 at one church Halloween party: you get the idea). I had some qualms about it but didn\u2019t get legalistic like so many Protestants do. But now as a parent seeing this innocent fun (I converted just before I became a parent, as it turned out), I think that would have gone out the window even if I had never become a Catholic.<\/p>\n
My good friend and fellow Catholic author Rod Bennett offered another similar take on Halloween from a Catholic perspective, in an article for Catholic Exchange<\/em> (10-31-00), entitled \u201cHoliday Hysteria\u201d. I cite most of it:<\/p>\n
Many of our Evangelical friends shun America\u2019s October spook festival altogether. They tell their children that Halloween is \u201cthe devil\u2019s holiday\u201d and that trick-or-treating is little better than dabbling with a Ouija board or consulting an astrologer. . . .<\/p>\n
Basically Halloween is our local manifestation of one of mankind\u2019s oldest and most basic impulses: the impulse to contemplate \u2014 and even to celebrate \u2014 the idea of death during the fall of the year.<\/p>\n
After all, the natural world itself dies in the autumn \u2014 and that death (along with our sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection for it next spring) has always set human beings to contemplating their own impending date with mortality. The pre-Christian world was positively overflowing with these local death festivals. Whether it was the turning of the leaves along the Danube or the first frost on the haystacks of Burgundy, the pagans who lived in Europe before the coming of Christianity found something driving them to tell ghost stories around the end of October, to dress in creepy costumes, and to build bonfires against a new (and not entirely unpleasant) chill in the air. In some places, dances were held to drive away evil spirits; in others, it was believed that the shades of departed loved ones might take a holiday from Hades on this particular night, and could turn up at your doorstep for a spooky reunion. . . .<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, we know from history that Pope Gregory sent his missionaries out with those explicit instructions: that anything in the local culture which was not actually incompatible<\/em>\u00a0with Christianity was to be left strictly alone. Today, we call this approach \u201cmissionary enculturation,\u201d and most of us have realized that it isn\u2019t really necessary for a Bantu tribesman to put on a three-piece suit before we allow him to come to church. We may feel very enlightened when we take this approach today, but the truth is that the whole evangelization of Western Europe (325-1100 AD) was accomplished under this principle.<\/p>\n
This is the real reason why many Christian holy days correspond to older festivals from the pre-existing pagan calendar. The Europeans, for example, had many cherished family traditions surrounding their winter solstice festivals, and so the Church allowed them to incorporate many of these customs (Christmas trees, etc.) into her Nativity celebrations. Likewise, Easter was already a spring holy day for the pagans, devoted to the contemplation of rebirth, new life, and resurrection. It was only natural, then, that many of these ancient customs found themselves gaining new and deeper significance under the reign of Christ, the true God of Springtime and Fertility.<\/p>\n
The pagan death festivals were superseded in just this way by two Christian holy days based on a similar theme \u2014 All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2). . . . As St. Paul dramatically points out in his Epistle to the Romans, paganism already had a good deal of inchoate truth in it already. What the Church actually did was to gather up some of these inchoate truths, sift out what was patently unusable, and then point the pagans to the final fulfillment of their ancient longings as revealed in the faith of Christ. . . .<\/p>\n
[What] causes me to worry [is] this knee-jerk response that Halloween is to be feared solely because it has \u201cpagan origins.\u201d The truth is that a good deal of what all of us do every day has pagan origins. The mathematics we use has pagan origins, our form of government has pagan origins, the very letters with which this sentence is written have pagan origins. In fact, most of the churches from which these anti-paganism sermons issue are, architecturally speaking, Greek revival temples in the \u201cneo-classical style.\u201d So \u201cpagan origins\u201d alone isn\u2019t quite enough to damn Halloween all by itself. As a matter of fact, it\u2019s one of the great glories of Christianity that it does save and redeem and baptize pagan things \u2014 ourselves included!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
***<\/p>\n
Related Reading:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
Is Catholicism Half-Pagan?<\/a>\u00a0[1999]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nIs Easter Pagan & the\u00a0Word<\/em>\u00a0a \u201cPagan Compromise\u201d?<\/a>\u00a0[1999]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIs Catholicism Half-Pagan, & a Blend of Gospel & Lies?<\/a>\u00a0[2007]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nHarry Potter<\/i>: Literary Magic or Magical Mystery Sewer?<\/a>\u00a0(Dave Armstrong) (see also\u00a0vigorous discussion on Facebook<\/a>) [7-19-05 and 10-28-10]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nMy Nature-Mystic, Occultic, Practical Atheist \u00a0Period (1967-1977)<\/a>\u00a0[7-27-11]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nMy Conversion: Part One:\u00a0Nominal Methodism, Occult, and the Seeds of a Serious Christian Commitment (1958 \u2013 early 1970s)<\/a> [2013]<\/p>\n
My Conversion: Part Two:\u00a0Nature Mysticism, Romanticism, Bible Movies, and the \u201cGreat Depression\u201d (1968-1977)<\/a> [2013]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Dialogue with a Friendly Atheist #1: My Pagan \/ Occultic Period (+ Circumstances and Factors Regarding my Evangelical Conversion in 1977 at Age 18 and Catholic Conversion at Age 32)<\/a>\u00a0[8-3-17]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nRomantic & Imaginative Theology: Inklings of the World Beyond (My Links Page)<\/a><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n***<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nUnfortunately, Money Trees Do Not Exist<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0If you have been aided in any way by my work, or think it is valuable and worthwhile, please strongly consider financially supporting it (even $10 \/ month \u2014 a mere 33 cents a day \u2014 would be very helpful). I have been a full-time Catholic apologist since Dec. 2001, and have been writing Christian apologetics since 1981 (see\u00a0my Resume<\/a>).\u00a0My work has been proven (by God\u2019s grace alone) to be fruitful, in terms of changing lives (see the tangible evidences\u00a0from unsolicited \u201ctestimonies\u201d<\/a>).\u00a0I have to pay my bills like all of you: and have a (homeschooling) wife and three children still at home to provide for, and a mortgage to pay.<\/div>\n\n*<\/p>\n
My book royalties from\u00a0three bestsellers in the field<\/a>\u00a0(published in 2003-2007) have been decreasing, as has my overall income, making it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.\u00a0 I provide over 2600 free articles here, for the purpose of your edification and education, and have\u00a0written 50 books<\/a>.\u00a0It\u2019ll literally be a struggle to survive financially until Dec. 2020, when both my wife and I will start receiving Social Security. If you cannot contribute, I ask for your prayers. Thanks! See my\u00a0information on how to donate<\/a>\u00a0(including 100% tax-deductible donations). It\u2019s very simple to contribute to my apostolate via PayPal, if a tax deduction is not needed (my \u201cbusiness name\u201d there is called \u201cCatholic Used Book Service,\u201d from my old bookselling days 17 or so years ago, but send to my email: apologistdave@gmail.com). Another easy way to send and receive money (with a bank account or a mobile phone) is through\u00a0Zelle<\/a>. Again, just send to my e-mail address.\u00a0May God abundantly bless you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
***<\/p>\n
(originally 11-1-06; expanded on 10-31-16)<\/p>\n
Photo credit:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Cate Storymoon<\/a>\u00a0(11-1-14). \u201cPhoto from my new home in Second Life (a virtual world)\u201d<\/span> [Flickr<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 2.o<\/a> license]<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guest Post by Rod Bennett and Mark Shea Mark Shea made a great statement on this: I have to say that my feelings toward Halloween have mellowed with the years. As an Evangelical, I used to dislike it intensely as a night given over to the devil. But as time has gone on, I find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":40275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[2566,2568,2571,2521,2569,2567,3408,7741,729,2564,856,2572,345,2565,2570],"class_list":["post-40272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inquisition-crusades-scandals","tag-baptizing-pagan-practices","tag-catholicism-paganism","tag-druids","tag-easter","tag-halloween","tag-history-of-ideas","tag-mark-shea","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-pagans","tag-rod-bennett","tag-roman-festivals","tag-secularism","tag-syncretism","tag-wicca"],"yoast_head":"\n
Halloween Joys & the "Baptizing" of Pagan Customs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every year we observe intense debates about whether Halloween is intrinsically evil because of its largely pagan origins. But the Church has always "baptized" neutral pagan customs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/10\/halloween-joys-the-baptizing-of-pagan-customs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halloween Joys & the "Baptizing" of Pagan Customs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every year we observe intense debates about whether Halloween is intrinsically evil because of its largely pagan origins. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. 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Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. 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Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Halloween Joys & the \"Baptizing\" of Pagan Customs","description":"Every year we observe intense debates about whether Halloween is intrinsically evil because of its largely pagan origins. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}