Should Christians celebrate Halloween? 5 reactions

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 31, 2024

Steve Grunow

A man stands amongst tombstones during a visit to the Palma de Mallorca cemetery at the Spanish island of Mallorca on All Saints Day Nov. 1, 2005. Catholics in Spain mark November 1 by visiting cemeteries and gravesides of deceased relatives and friends to remember the dead. (Photo: Reuters/Dani Cardona)

In October 2019, Word on Fire CEO Father Steve Grunow said that the Catholic Church cannot respond with silence to what he described as “an appropriation of the festivities of Halloween by modern pagans.” Grunow, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, drew a distinction between the “violent, macabre imagery” of today’s Halloween and the holiday’s Catholic roots.

“The descent of Halloween into the madness of an annual fright fest is a relatively recent development, but the true substance of Halloween belongs to the Church. Halloween (or ‘All Hallows Eve’) is the festive precursor to the celebration of the Church’s public commemoration of All Saints Day,” Grunow stated.

Modern culture typically focuses on death, violence and horror during Halloween, and Grunow acknowledged this is why some parents choose to boycott the holiday. However, the priest noted that within the context of Catholic Halloween, all of this is intended to represent Christ’s resurrection and victory over the devil by dying for our sins.

“But what is the proper response to a culture of death?” he asked. “To lock the Church behind closed doors or to let her out into the world? I think it is time for Catholics to accept the religious liberties that this culture claims to afford them and go public with their own festivals — and to do so dramatically and with a great deal of public fervor.”

“What is holding us back? What are we afraid will happen? The reticence and fear that characterizes Catholics is costing the Church its unique culture, and it is allowing the culture of death to flourish,” the Word on Fire CEO stated.

Instead of going quiet on Halloween, Grunow urged the Church and Christians to venture into the world and invite others to “prepare for the festival of the saints with all the joy we can muster.”