Is Halloween Pagan? Understanding the Christian Roots of the Spookiest Holiday
Every October, the question resurfaces in churches, Bible studies, and Christian households: Can Christians celebrate Halloween? For many, the costumes, candy, and decorations are harmless fun. For others, Halloween carries connotations of evil, witchcraft, and darkness. What often gets lost in these debates, however, is the true origin of Halloween. Far from being a pagan festival, Halloween is rooted in the Christian calendar as All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day. Understanding this history not only calms unnecessary fears but also empowers Christians to celebrate faithfully, joyfully, and without compromise.
The name Halloween is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Eve,” the vigil night before All Saints’ Day (November 1). This feast was established officially in the 9th century by Pope Gregory IV, though Christians had been commemorating the saints and martyrs for centuries before that. The night before the feast was a vigil of prayer and remembrance, preparing hearts to honor the “hallows” (holy ones) who had gone before.
This means that Halloween’s foundation is thoroughly Christian, not pagan. It was designed as part of Allhallowtide, a three-day period of worship, which included All Saints’ Day (Nov 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov 2). During this season, Christians remembered the faithful departed, prayed for souls, and celebrated the victory of Christ over death.
In many medieval communities, the vigil of All Hallows’ Eve included special services, fasting, and even visiting cemeteries to pray for the departed. It was a time of hope, not horror, marked by remembrance, not revelry.
One of the most common objections Christians raise is that Halloween is just a Christianized version of Samhain, a Celtic harvest festival. According to this popular theory, Samhain was a night when spirits roamed the earth, and Christians simply replaced it with their own observance. But historians have shown that this is an oversimplification, if not outright false.
Samhain was indeed observed in pre-Christian Celtic regions, but the direct connection between Samhain and Halloween is weak. The church did not invent All Saints’ Day to mimic Samhain. In fact, All Saints’ was originally celebrated in May before being moved to November 1. The overlap with Celtic harvest festivals was likely practical and coincidental, not an act of borrowing pagan worship. Think about it from a practical perspective. Why would the Pope, ruling the Christian world in Rome, change a preestablished holiday to placate a small collection of pagans on the far Western side of the empire? They wouldn’t, and they didn’t. It was due to internal Roman and Christian politics that the date was moved in the 9th century, not in order to make it more palatable to a group of pagans who had no political or spiritual influence.
Even where local customs overlapped (such as bonfires or harvest imagery), the Christian meaning dominated. The vigil of All Hallows was never about appeasing spirits but about proclaiming Christ’s victory over death and preparing to honor the saints. To claim that Halloween is inherently pagan erases centuries of Christian history and misunderstands how the church often reoriented cultural practices toward the gospel.
Far from being a night of mischief, Halloween developed as a blend of sacred reflection and cultural tradition. Practices like “souling,” where the poor would go door-to-door offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food, were distinctly Christian acts of charity and remembrance. In some places, children dressed in costumes representing saints, angels, or biblical characters, dramatizing the great cloud of witnesses surrounding the church.
Even elements that seem “spooky” today had Christian meanings. Lighting candles or lanterns symbolized Christ as the light in the darkness. Visiting graves wasn’t about conjuring the dead but about praying for their souls and remembering the hope of resurrection. In other words, much of what we see today in secularized form began as sacred practices of devotion.
When Irish and Scottish immigrants brought their Halloween customs to North America, the traditions mingled with local folklore and eventually became commercialized. Carving turnips (later pumpkins), playing tricks, and dressing in a variety of costumes grew into the trick-or-treating culture we know today. Over time, the Christian meaning of All Hallows’ Eve faded in the public sphere, replaced by the secular celebration of candy, costumes, and horror entertainment.
Yet this cultural shift does not erase the fact that Halloween is, and always has been, part of the Christian liturgical rhythm. Christians today have the opportunity to reclaim its meaning by bringing Christ-centered practices back into the celebration.
The short answer is yes, Christians can celebrate Halloween. We should resist fear-based prohibitions that claim Halloween is “the devil’s holiday,” since its roots are in All Saints’ Eve. At the same time, we should avoid uncritically embracing cultural expressions that glorify violence, occultism, or demonic imagery.
Faithful celebration looks like reclaiming the night for Christ. It might mean lighting a candle for departed loved ones, praying for the faithful departed, or telling stories of Christian heroes and saints. It might mean trick-or-treating joyfully, while ensuring costumes and decorations honor God rather than trivialize evil. It might mean handing out candy or using the opportunity to show neighborly love in a practical way.
Romans 14 reminds us that in “disputable matters” each believer must act according to their conscience. If a Christian feels convicted not to participate, that conviction should be honored. If another Christian participates in a Christ-honoring way, that too can glorify God. What matters most is whether we keep Christ at the center.
Halloween, properly understood, is not a pagan holiday but a Christian one. It is All Hallows’ Eve, the vigil of All Saints’, a time to remember the faithful departed, to honor the saints, and to celebrate Christ’s triumph over death. While modern culture has secularized it, Christians do not need to fear it or abandon it. Instead, we can reclaim it with wisdom, discernment, and joy.
So yes, Christians can celebrate Halloween, not as a night of fear, but as a night of faith. Not as a celebration of evil, but as a reminder that Christ has conquered evil once and for all. In the darkness of October 31, we shine with the light of the risen Christ, proclaiming hope in the midst of shadows.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” — John 1:5