October 31, 2024 β’ 10 mins
Are you ready to unearth the spiritual significance hidden beneath the spooky surface of Halloween? Join us for a captivating conversation with Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, and Father Christopher Pujol as we uncover the Catholic roots of this much-misunderstood holiday. Discover how Halloween, often seen as a secular or occult celebration, actually has deep connections to All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Learn how these sacred days form a meaningful triduum that reminds us of the importance of reflecting on death, the afterlife, and praying for those who have passed on. By examining the misconceptions surrounding Halloween, we clarify its true spiritual significance within the Catholic tradition and how it can serve as a reminder of God's grace.
Together, we will debunk the myth that Halloween is solely a festival of darkness linked to pagan traditions. Instead, Father Andrew and Father Christopher reveal how it is an opportunity to reflect on what could be without God's light and how the festivities can reinforce faith and hope. We delve into the modern-day practice of dressing up in costumes, urging listeners to remember the Christian elements behind this tradition rather than focusing on glorifying darker themes. With poignant insights on the importance of prayer and the triumph of light over darkness, this episode promises to transform your understanding of Halloween and inspire a celebration grounded in faith.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fr. Pujol (00:05):
Oh, I like that.
Welcome to the Diocese ofGreensburg.
Catholic Accent Podcast forthis special Halloween edition.
Jordan Whiteko (00:13):
Ooh spooky.
I'm Jordan Whiteko, along withFather Andrew Hamilton and
Father Christopher Pujol.
Fr. Pujol (00:19):
Kick it up a notch.
Fr. Hamilton (00:23):
If you use that as a filler thing.
Jordan Whiteko (00:28):
Thank you, Bishop.
It's been a while, but we'reback.
We've been busy.
Father Andrew has two newchurches and a new job.
You want to tell them what thatis?
Fr. Hamilton (00:39):
Big job.
Yes, I go into the prisonsevery Wednesday to minister to
the men that are in there thatneed the light of Christ just as
much as anybody else does, andit's a great opportunity for me
as well to challenge myself inministry and to, you know,
really just see where Christ isleading me in the midst of my
priesthood Nice.
Jordan Whiteko (00:58):
And you got some new responsibilities as well.
Fr. Pujol (01:02):
I have as well I have .
I'm now co-director of theOffice of Worship, and the
Office of Worship basically isto help Bishop carry out his
role as chief liturgist in thediocese.
Jordan Whiteko (01:12):
So you could say that the Catholic Accent
podcast really made you guysstars and they recognized you
know these guys need to be inother positions.
Fr. Pujol (01:21):
Jordan.
We are on the rise.
Jordan Whiteko (01:23):
You're welcome, just like our podcast.
This episode is not a part ofone of our seasons.
It's a special episode.
We're going to be talking aboutHalloween, and you know what
are the Catholic roots ofHalloween?
The name itself, you know,comes from All Hallows Eve,
which is the vigil of All SaintsDay, when Catholics remember
those who have gone before us.
(01:43):
So let's talk a little bitabout that.
Fr. Hamilton (01:46):
Yeah, so just take the name itself Hallow.
Hallowed be thy name.
That people know from the OurFather.
To be hallowed is to be holy,and so we have essentially that
Halloween comes from Catholicroots and that you would
celebrate the eve of All SaintsAll Saints and then All Souls.
It's almost like a littletriduum three days in the midst
of the year, just as at Eastertime we celebrate a triduum
(02:10):
right Going into the holiestdays of the year that there's
Holy Thursday, good Friday andthen leading into Easter itself,
and so we have this in theCatholic calendar, but some of
the Catholic roots have maybebeen a bit lost.
People argued about whetherHalloween is an occultic
celebration, especially of maybeGaelic or Irish origin, called
(02:30):
Samhain, but there's not goodscholarship on that to say that
that predated what all souls andall saints would be for the
Catholic faith Right.
Jordan Whiteko (02:39):
it's more like they're seeing those traditions
kind of can relate to these, butthat doesn't necessarily mean
that they cross paths.
Fr. Pujol (02:47):
And as Christianity really developed and exploded
throughout the world, there wasa whole change in viewpoint on
death and dying as well.
Because we know Christ came,suffered and died for us, we
always treated our dead withrespect and with reverence,
because we know that at the endof time, all of our dead with
respect and with reverence,because we know that at the end
of time all of our dead willrise.
And so a lot of times, if wetake today's viewpoint, cultural
(03:10):
viewpoint, and look atHalloween from a Catholic
perspective, people just seeghouls and ghosts and skeletons.
But really I think, Father, youknow we're the ones that made
that cool.
Fr. Hamilton (03:21):
In many ways too, catholicism, with its focus on
souls right that need prayers,what we talk about as purgatory
being in some sense like anantechamber to heaven.
So we're given the charge byChrist to be perfect as my
Heavenly Father is, perfect, tobe hallowed in some sense as my
Heavenly Father is hallowed, andso in that way, if we're not
(03:42):
perfect at the end of thisearthly life, we need some
purification, some being broughtto a wholeness and a perfection
, and that's actually a mercy ofGod, what we talk about in the
doctrine of purgatory.
And so that means that on allsouls, november 2nd, we pray for
our beloved dead, those thatstill need our prayers, helping
(04:02):
them as they draw closer to theLord.
Because in purgatory the soulsthere are completely dependent
upon God, because we're toldthat we need to become like
children so as to enter thekingdom of heaven, and children
are completely dependent.
We can't work our way intoheaven.
Rather, it has to be by God'sgrace and the communion of
saints and the help thereinthrough God, stooping low to
(04:25):
bring us up to the heights andglories of heaven.
So with that, I just want tomake mention what you see is
that Halloween, as a holiday inthe United States becomes
detached from the religiouspractice of the Church, mostly
because, if we remember aboutAmerica, it was founded not on
Catholicism but uponProtestantism, and within
(04:46):
Protestantism and many of theirchurches.
Protestantism is a wide body,so it's hard to describe all in
one, but mostly Protestants havea problem with the teaching of
purgatory and so, because ofthat, they wouldn't really
celebrate All Souls Day.
Of that right, they wouldn'treally celebrate All Souls Day,
(05:06):
and so therefore, what didHalloween become?
More of trick-or-treating, andless so of something that was a
religious holiday.
Fr. Pujol (05:11):
And even with that disconnect, we can find it in
the history of the US.
If we look at New England andthe Salem Witch Trials, that was
carried out by a Protestantsect of Puritans and it goes to
show that once you remove goodand evil and try to separate
them, or once you try toseparate religious practice from
(05:34):
a lived-out cultural experience, it starts to spiral.
So, yes, we have people todaydressing up as witches and this
and that.
Jordan Whiteko (05:42):
Is that okay to see kids running around, or even
adults?
You know, we see these costumesthat range from Dracula,
witches to mummies andwerewolves.
Fr. Hamilton (05:54):
Well, I think we don't want to glorify those
things, but we want them toremind us of Christian elements
of what we're celebrating.
So witchcraft, right, and it isa thing in the world.
Even in the Old Testament therewere witches that tried to do I
think from one of the readingspaltry things, and what it was
was a divinizing of God.
(06:14):
It was trying to.
In some ways, witchcraft isvoodoo, or like trying to
control things because you wantthem to be in your power, a
manipulation of elements to notfollow God's will.
Fr. Pujol (06:27):
Basically.
Fr. Hamilton (06:28):
Essentially to make God do your will.
Okay, the difference betweenthat and prayer is actually
extreme.
Right, we have prayer in whichthat we align our will to God's
will.
So that's the differencebetween casting a spell and
prayer.
Spell is make God do what Iwant Him to do.
For me, prayer is to alignmyself with what God wants me to
(06:50):
do, so they're inversions ofeach other in that way, and even
maybe Father Chris could talk alittle bit about the word or
the words, hocus pocus.
Fr. Pujol (06:58):
You know, I hear that's one of Jordan's favorite
Halloween movies.
It is, and it really is.
It's a good movie, butultimately that title, Hocus
Pocus, comes from a mockery,because Hocus Pocus is derived
from the words of institution ofChrist at the Eucharist.
So when Mass is celebrated inLatin, the words are Hic est
(07:22):
enim corpus meum, this is mybody.
And so oftentimes theProtestants would say you know,
the priest is just up theremumbling up at the altar, blah,
blah, blah, hocus pocus.
Jordan Whiteko (07:34):
Well, that's one of the lines from the movie too
is the kid is talking to thegirl, who's like believing in
the witchcraft, and he's likeit's all just a bunch of hocus
pocus.
Fr. Pujol (07:43):
So if you say higestetum corpus meum, very
quickly, as if you're rushing,it becomes hocus pocus.
Fr. Hamilton (07:50):
Another thing that we can focus on in general is
say Dracula, right, so Draculais like you think of Halloween
immediately with some of thesehorror stories, dracula is very
much an inversion of Christhimself, right, christ says this
is my body given up for you,this is my blood spilled or
poured for you so that you mighthave eternal life.
What is Dracula's phrase?
(08:11):
Your blood essentially for me,right, right, so taking life
from the other for oneself,whereas Christ is that universal
donor, giver of life to all ofhumanity.
And then there's other thingstoo, like so most of these
things.
Once you see them, you can'treally unsee them with how they
work, with Catholicsacramentality of the inversion
(08:31):
of good to a grotesque nature.
Think of a werewolf.
Right, a man during the day, atnight, in darkness, under a
full moon, becomes this otherbestial creature.
And often even in the midst ofthat transformation, when one
says the Christian name of theindividual for a second, they're
drawn back and maybe theyalmost start to come out of it a
(08:53):
little bit.
And then the light, of course,whenever it shows up, they
transform back into theirregular human nature.
What that shows us is what sindoes to us and giving ourselves
over to the darkness of sin.
It makes us like the beastsrather than contemplating the
beautiful things like the angels.
Jordan Whiteko (09:10):
So would that be the connection you know to
Dracula?
He would always be.
Fr. Pujol (09:14):
In the dark.
Jordan Whiteko (09:15):
But he would like back away if somebody would
hold a cross up up and and evengoing back to Hocus Pocus, what
happens when the sun rises?
Fr. Pujol (09:24):
The witches turn to dust, because, as scripture
tells us, whatever is hidden inthe darkness will come to light,
and when it comes to light,it's changed and it's taken for
God, and so evil cannot standbefore God.
Fr. Hamilton (09:38):
We see kind of a Puritanism maybe in today's
overreacting towards Halloween.
Many Christians will say don'tcome near it whatsoever because
it's completely a cult and soforth.
But it's because they're notdrawing back into the original
roots of Halloween, in whichthat we don't glorify the occult
in any way whatsoever, butactually look at sometimes scary
(09:59):
images to remind us of thingsto stay away from and then be
rather drawn into the goodnessof God and so many things
throughout Halloween.
When you actually look at themthey will be nightmarish.
They're the opposite of thesacraments, opposite of God's
Church, and it tells us what wewould become without God's grace
.
Fr. Pujol (10:19):
And so I think what we're saying, then, is Catholic
best practices of Halloween isto pray, first and foremost, for
everyone that has gone beforeus to not be afraid, because the
Lord never wants us to beafraid, and even in the darkness
of the night, we know that thelight comes again.
Jordan Whiteko (10:40):
Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent
Podcast.
Don't forget to follow, likeand subscribe to our show.
Fr. Hamilton (10:46):
Better kick it up a notch.
Fr. Pujol (10:48):
Kick it up a notch.
Fr. Hamilton (10:50):
Thank you, Bishop.
Oh, I like that.
Welcome to the Diocese ofGreensburg.
Catholic Accent Podcast forthis special Halloween edition.
Jordan Whiteko (00:13):
Ooh spooky.
I'm Jordan Whiteko, along withFather Andrew Hamilton and
Father Christopher Pujol.
Fr. Pujol (00:19):
Kick it up a notch.
Fr. Hamilton (00:23):
If you use that as a filler thing.
Jordan Whiteko (00:28):
Thank you, Bishop.
It's been a while, but we'reback.
We've been busy.
Father Andrew has two newchurches and a new job.
You want to tell them what thatis?
Fr. Hamilton (00:39):
Big job.
Yes, I go into the prisonsevery Wednesday to minister to
the men that are in there thatneed the light of Christ just as
much as anybody else does, andit's a great opportunity for me
as well to challenge myself inministry and to, you know,
really just see where Christ isleading me in the midst of my
priesthood Nice.
Jordan Whiteko (00:58):
And you got some new responsibilities as well.
Fr. Pujol (01:02):
I have as well I have .
I'm now co-director of theOffice of Worship, and the
Office of Worship basically isto help Bishop carry out his
role as chief liturgist in thediocese.
Jordan Whiteko (01:12):
So you could say that the Catholic Accent
podcast really made you guysstars and they recognized you
know these guys need to be inother positions.
Fr. Pujol (01:21):
Jordan.
We are on the rise.
Jordan Whiteko (01:23):
You're welcome, just like our podcast.
This episode is not a part ofone of our seasons.
It's a special episode.
We're going to be talking aboutHalloween, and you know what
are the Catholic roots ofHalloween?
The name itself, you know,comes from All Hallows Eve,
which is the vigil of All SaintsDay, when Catholics remember
those who have gone before us.
(01:43):
So let's talk a little bitabout that.
Fr. Hamilton (01:46):
Yeah, so just take the name itself Hallow.
Hallowed be thy name.
That people know from the OurFather.
To be hallowed is to be holy,and so we have essentially that
Halloween comes from Catholicroots and that you would
celebrate the eve of All SaintsAll Saints and then All Souls.
It's almost like a littletriduum three days in the midst
of the year, just as at Eastertime we celebrate a triduum
(02:10):
right Going into the holiestdays of the year that there's
Holy Thursday, good Friday andthen leading into Easter itself,
and so we have this in theCatholic calendar, but some of
the Catholic roots have maybebeen a bit lost.
People argued about whetherHalloween is an occultic
celebration, especially of maybeGaelic or Irish origin, called
(02:30):
Samhain, but there's not goodscholarship on that to say that
that predated what all souls andall saints would be for the
Catholic faith Right.
Jordan Whiteko (02:39):
it's more like they're seeing those traditions
kind of can relate to these, butthat doesn't necessarily mean
that they cross paths.
Fr. Pujol (02:47):
And as Christianity really developed and exploded
throughout the world, there wasa whole change in viewpoint on
death and dying as well.
Because we know Christ came,suffered and died for us, we
always treated our dead withrespect and with reverence,
because we know that at the endof time, all of our dead with
respect and with reverence,because we know that at the end
of time all of our dead willrise.
And so a lot of times, if wetake today's viewpoint, cultural
(03:10):
viewpoint, and look atHalloween from a Catholic
perspective, people just seeghouls and ghosts and skeletons.
But really I think, Father, youknow we're the ones that made
that cool.
Fr. Hamilton (03:21):
In many ways too, catholicism, with its focus on
souls right that need prayers,what we talk about as purgatory
being in some sense like anantechamber to heaven.
So we're given the charge byChrist to be perfect as my
Heavenly Father is, perfect, tobe hallowed in some sense as my
Heavenly Father is hallowed, andso in that way, if we're not
(03:42):
perfect at the end of thisearthly life, we need some
purification, some being broughtto a wholeness and a perfection
, and that's actually a mercy ofGod, what we talk about in the
doctrine of purgatory.
And so that means that on allsouls, november 2nd, we pray for
our beloved dead, those thatstill need our prayers, helping
(04:02):
them as they draw closer to theLord.
Because in purgatory the soulsthere are completely dependent
upon God, because we're toldthat we need to become like
children so as to enter thekingdom of heaven, and children
are completely dependent.
We can't work our way intoheaven.
Rather, it has to be by God'sgrace and the communion of
saints and the help thereinthrough God, stooping low to
(04:25):
bring us up to the heights andglories of heaven.
So with that, I just want tomake mention what you see is
that Halloween, as a holiday inthe United States becomes
detached from the religiouspractice of the Church, mostly
because, if we remember aboutAmerica, it was founded not on
Catholicism but uponProtestantism, and within
(04:46):
Protestantism and many of theirchurches.
Protestantism is a wide body,so it's hard to describe all in
one, but mostly Protestants havea problem with the teaching of
purgatory and so, because ofthat, they wouldn't really
celebrate All Souls Day.
Of that right, they wouldn'treally celebrate All Souls Day,
(05:06):
and so therefore, what didHalloween become?
More of trick-or-treating, andless so of something that was a
religious holiday.
Fr. Pujol (05:11):
And even with that disconnect, we can find it in
the history of the US.
If we look at New England andthe Salem Witch Trials, that was
carried out by a Protestantsect of Puritans and it goes to
show that once you remove goodand evil and try to separate
them, or once you try toseparate religious practice from
(05:34):
a lived-out cultural experience, it starts to spiral.
So, yes, we have people todaydressing up as witches and this
and that.
Jordan Whiteko (05:42):
Is that okay to see kids running around, or even
adults?
You know, we see these costumesthat range from Dracula,
witches to mummies andwerewolves.
Fr. Hamilton (05:54):
Well, I think we don't want to glorify those
things, but we want them toremind us of Christian elements
of what we're celebrating.
So witchcraft, right, and it isa thing in the world.
Even in the Old Testament therewere witches that tried to do I
think from one of the readingspaltry things, and what it was
was a divinizing of God.
(06:14):
It was trying to.
In some ways, witchcraft isvoodoo, or like trying to
control things because you wantthem to be in your power, a
manipulation of elements to notfollow God's will.
Fr. Pujol (06:27):
Basically.
Fr. Hamilton (06:28):
Essentially to make God do your will.
Okay, the difference betweenthat and prayer is actually
extreme.
Right, we have prayer in whichthat we align our will to God's
will.
So that's the differencebetween casting a spell and
prayer.
Spell is make God do what Iwant Him to do.
For me, prayer is to alignmyself with what God wants me to
(06:50):
do, so they're inversions ofeach other in that way, and even
maybe Father Chris could talk alittle bit about the word or
the words, hocus pocus.
Fr. Pujol (06:58):
You know, I hear that's one of Jordan's favorite
Halloween movies.
It is, and it really is.
It's a good movie, butultimately that title, Hocus
Pocus, comes from a mockery,because Hocus Pocus is derived
from the words of institution ofChrist at the Eucharist.
So when Mass is celebrated inLatin, the words are Hic est
(07:22):
enim corpus meum, this is mybody.
And so oftentimes theProtestants would say you know,
the priest is just up theremumbling up at the altar, blah,
blah, blah, hocus pocus.
Jordan Whiteko (07:34):
Well, that's one of the lines from the movie too
is the kid is talking to thegirl, who's like believing in
the witchcraft, and he's likeit's all just a bunch of hocus
pocus.
Fr. Pujol (07:43):
So if you say higestetum corpus meum, very
quickly, as if you're rushing,it becomes hocus pocus.
Fr. Hamilton (07:50):
Another thing that we can focus on in general is
say Dracula, right, so Draculais like you think of Halloween
immediately with some of thesehorror stories, dracula is very
much an inversion of Christhimself, right, christ says this
is my body given up for you,this is my blood spilled or
poured for you so that you mighthave eternal life.
What is Dracula's phrase?
(08:11):
Your blood essentially for me,right, right, so taking life
from the other for oneself,whereas Christ is that universal
donor, giver of life to all ofhumanity.
And then there's other thingstoo, like so most of these
things.
Once you see them, you can'treally unsee them with how they
work, with Catholicsacramentality of the inversion
(08:31):
of good to a grotesque nature.
Think of a werewolf.
Right, a man during the day, atnight, in darkness, under a
full moon, becomes this otherbestial creature.
And often even in the midst ofthat transformation, when one
says the Christian name of theindividual for a second, they're
drawn back and maybe theyalmost start to come out of it a
(08:53):
little bit.
And then the light, of course,whenever it shows up, they
transform back into theirregular human nature.
What that shows us is what sindoes to us and giving ourselves
over to the darkness of sin.
It makes us like the beastsrather than contemplating the
beautiful things like the angels.
Jordan Whiteko (09:10):
So would that be the connection you know to
Dracula?
He would always be.
Fr. Pujol (09:14):
In the dark.
Jordan Whiteko (09:15):
But he would like back away if somebody would
hold a cross up up and and evengoing back to Hocus Pocus, what
happens when the sun rises?
Fr. Pujol (09:24):
The witches turn to dust, because, as scripture
tells us, whatever is hidden inthe darkness will come to light,
and when it comes to light,it's changed and it's taken for
God, and so evil cannot standbefore God.
Fr. Hamilton (09:38):
We see kind of a Puritanism maybe in today's
overreacting towards Halloween.
Many Christians will say don'tcome near it whatsoever because
it's completely a cult and soforth.
But it's because they're notdrawing back into the original
roots of Halloween, in whichthat we don't glorify the occult
in any way whatsoever, butactually look at sometimes scary
(09:59):
images to remind us of thingsto stay away from and then be
rather drawn into the goodnessof God and so many things
throughout Halloween.
When you actually look at themthey will be nightmarish.
They're the opposite of thesacraments, opposite of God's
Church, and it tells us what wewould become without God's grace
.
Fr. Pujol (10:19):
And so I think what we're saying, then, is Catholic
best practices of Halloween isto pray, first and foremost, for
everyone that has gone beforeus to not be afraid, because the
Lord never wants us to beafraid, and even in the darkness
of the night, we know that thelight comes again.
Jordan Whiteko (10:40):
Thanks for listening to the Catholic Accent
Podcast.
Don't forget to follow, likeand subscribe to our show.
Fr. Hamilton (10:46):
Better kick it up a notch.
Fr. Pujol (10:48):
Kick it up a notch.
Fr. Hamilton (10:50):
Thank you, Bishop.
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