Spanish clergy have "sounded the alarm" regarding secular Halloween activities, indicating that...
* Halloween is "not an innocent festivity", noting that it "has a background of the occult and anti-Christianity"
* Parents should focus on All Saints Day & celebrating the saints ("a festival that encourages life and not death") rather than encouraging their children to dress up for Halloween, which may be a "celebration of death" ("Children dress as witches, vampires, ghosts, masks, corpses, skeletons. And parents favour this type of festivities which plays with elements of death. But when a relative dies they prevent them from seeing the dead relative")
* They worry that "pagan" customs will "replace Christian customs like devotion to saints and praying for the dead" and note that "Christian piety recommends a visit to the cemetery to pray for them and for the families who experience the pain of human separation. For pedagogical reasons, it is necessary for children to discover the value of life and goodness, and not promote death."
* Hollywood horror movies may be partially blamed for the "growing popularity" of pagan Halloween celebrations
In contrast, traditional Catholic observances of All Hallows Eve (the vigil of All Saint's day) promote that which is good. The observation of All Hallows Eve "seems to have been held as early as the feast itself" (Catholic Encyclopedia), and the feast of All Saints Day itself may be traced back at least to the fourth century. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia...
"In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a 'Commemoratio Confessorum' for the Friday after Easter. In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church."
All Hallows Eve is traditionally a day of fasting and partial abstinence. In complete contrast to holy celebrations and practices traditionally employed by Catholics on All Hallows Eve, secular Halloween celebrations have roots in paganism and may celebrate evil & death. Furthermore, Halloween marks the tragic anniversary of Luther's nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church, starting the Protestant Rebellion which has cost many lives ("Protestantism was established and rooted by the shedding of torrents of blood") and, undoubtedly, leads to the loss of many souls.
"Luther's advocates might, if their eyes are not filmed, read with profit the following words which their master penned when he had genuine misgivings at the outset of his apostasy. 'How many times,' he writes, 'have I not asked myself with bitterness the same question which the Papists put me: Art thou alone wise? Darest thou imagine that all mankind have been in error for so long a series of years? I am not so bold as to assert that I have been guided in this affair by God. How will it be, if, after all, it is thou thyself who art wrong, and art thou involving in error so many souls who will then be eternally damned?' (Latin Works, Weim. ed., 8, p. 411 seq.)." (O'Hare)
[Also See: Traditional Prayers & Practices | Why Trust Martin Luther? | What Jesus Says vs. What Protestantism Says | Biblical References For Various Catholic Beliefs | The Importance of Being Catholic: Combating Religious Indifferentism]
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