Allhallowtide: The Autumn Triduum

With the air turning crisper and pumpkins on all the neighborhood porches, the spooky season has officially arrived! Gravestones and ghosts in people's front yards, ads for horror movies on streaming services, and haunted hayrides at the local farm are constant reminders that Halloween is soon upon us. In our secular time, it's easy to forget that Halloween is a Catholic holiday; and actually, it's just the first day of what is sometimes called the autumn triduum -  Allhallowtide. Keep reading for a quick explainer on All Hallows' Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day.

All Hallows' Eve

Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Feast of All Saints had both a vigil and an octave. The vigil Mass, said the night before on All Hallows' Eve (sometimes shortened to 'Hallowe'en'), allowed Catholics to observe the upcoming feast with an air of penitence rather than celebration (which would be reserved for the feast day itself).

You can find the original readings and prayers for the vigil in the 1962 missal.

All Saints Day

All Saints Day, also called the Feast of All Hallows ('hallowed' meaning 'holy'), is a major feast in the Catholic calendar, retained as a holy day of obligation and kicking off a whole month dedicated to praying for the souls of the faithful departed. All Hallows has its origin in the earliest Christian communities, who would commemorate the sacrifice of the martyrs with their own feast day. Eventually, there were so many martyrs under the Roman persecutions that Christians started celebrating a feast for all martyrs. By the end of the 9th century, the Church had declared November 1st the day for commemorating all saints in heaven, not just the martyrs. 

All Saints Day reminds us that our ultimate goal is to become a saint like those already in heaven. Get inspired to follow in their footsteps by reading about their holy lives (kids, too!).

All Souls Day

Masses for the faithful departed were being said by the 7th century. St. Odlio of Cluny established November 2nd, the day after All Saints Day, as the annual day of praying for the souls in purgatory in his monasteries; the practice spread rapidly throughout Europe. 

Need a refresher on the teaching of purgatory? Check out this handy little pocket guide.

Can Catholics Celebrate Halloween?

The short answer is yes! In our secular and materialistic culture, Halloween has become completely detached from its original religious nature. Worse, certain groups have tried to actively tie it to pagan foundations, discouraging its fundamentally Catholic character. Many claim that the Catholics appropriated the day from a Celtic pagan festival, Samhain, but that claim really doesn't have much historical basis.

In reality, the practices of Halloween are steeped in Catholic tradition. Often, churches would process on All Hallows' Eve with relics of the saints, and if a community didn't have any, it was customary for congregants to dress up as saints to honor them instead. Medieval peasant children would visit wealthy homes on All Hallows' Eve, sometimes dressed up, asking for treats in return for praying for the families' dead. Peasants also used All Hallows' Eve as a chance to dress up as the ghosts and skeletons depicted in the Danse Macabre, since Allhallowtide offered similar meditations on mortality. 

Protestants particularly did not like the association of ghosts with All Hallows' Eve. The Catholic Church offers as one explanation for ghosts the possibility that they are the spirits of souls in purgatory, wandering the earth in search of prayers. Because they deny the existence of purgatory and reject the practice of praying for the dead, Protestants instead generally taught that if ghosts existed, they could only be demonic. Therefore, an embrace of ghosts and such during All Hallows' Eve was discouraged among Protestant cultures. In general, the holiday became associated with Catholic superstition and that influence has done as much as the pagan claims to distance the holiday from its Catholic roots. Today, it varies from sect to sect how Protestants should approach Halloween.

Clearly, Halloween is a Catholic holiday, and should be reclaimed as such. Just make sure not to embrace the more sinister and occult aspects of the modern holiday, and choose costumes for yourself and your children that aren't degrading or glorify evil (possibly choose to dress up as a saint - click here some inspiration). Above all, keep the night in its proper religious context - as preparation for All Saints and All Souls Days. 

Memento Mori

Allhallowtide serves not only as a time to honor the saints and pray for the dead, but also as a time for meditation on our own mortality. It is a sober reminder that we, too, will die and face judgement. We must therefore live accordingly, aiming to know God, love God, and serve God in this world so that we may live with Him forever in the next. How fitting that this triduum comes at the end of the Church year, as both the liturgical cycle and fruitful seasons of summer and fall come to a close. The quiet, somber month spent contemplating life and death while the leaves fall from the trees prime us perfectly for the upcoming seasons of Advent and Christmas. For though we are certain to die, we were meant to live, and Christ offers us that chance.

Memento mori - remember your death. And pray for those who have gone before you!