Every year there is no shortage of endless discussions among believers about Halloween. Hence the text "Halloween, Dawn of Eternity. An itinerary of clarification", written in four hands, by Lucia Graziano (historian of the Church and Christian folklore) and Paul Freeman (theologian), edited by "Zammeru Maskil Cultural Association", our Association (pp. 147, € 14,74; august 2025), aims to shed light and clarity on the argument both from a historical point of view and from a theological-pastoral perspective.
The authors offer a gradual and preparatory itinerary by combining their two different and concordant approaches.
On the one hand, the historical approach based on the precise analysis of certain sources and on the other, the rigorous one of biblical exegesis and pastoral theology. An indispensable text for shepherds, because it tends to avoid two dangerous drifts.
On the one hand the "concessionist" drift which leads to tolerating the degraded and unhealthy characteristics of the festival as normal and unhealthily permitted, as unfortunately is sometimes seen in some parishes under the motto of "But what harm there, really?”, and on the other hand the equally unhealthy one of demonizing this day in the light of prejudicial and distorted sources, full of Manichaean approaches, among other things induced by the Anglican Protestant Reformation, which have nothing Catholic about them and which were the incipit of the cultural and cultual distortion of that day.
Two unhealthy attitudes which, between superficial permissiveness and demonization on the other hand, risk bordering on the abuse of consciences. And pastors must be strictly careful about this.
The text is introduced by Father Pietro Messa, ofm, former rector of the Franciscan Studies section of the Antonianum and close friend of the great and highly esteemed shepherd of souls and scholar (also of "border" phenomena) P. Emidio Alessandrini, also a minor friar, returned to the Father's House a few years ago.
Also added in the introduction is a perspective look at the text by both Prof. Cristina Carnevale and Prof. and school administrator Samuele Giombi.
The rigorous and extensive corpus of sources conducted by Lucia Graziano is rich and fascinating and has a fast pace. It does not appear that somewhere in the world bibliography, in Italian or English, one can find such a broad, rigorous and enjoyable historical research text on the topic. This text is therefore an unavoidable unicum for the historical truth of that day.
On the other hand, Paul Freeman offers a biblical approach based on the preparatory dimension of "Remember" (Zakhor) as an imperative and as a "conductus" of all pastoral and liturgical action and which opens up to a healthy preparatory mens necessary to experience every type of holiday and, in our case, the Solemnity of All Saints and the memory with the faithful deceased. And, it must be underlined, and Paul Freeman clearly recalls this with theological abundance, this is what the Church, Mother and Teacher, has always done among the people, valorising, discerning, promoting, purifying, supporting.
Lucia Graziano begins by deconstructing, with the sources in hand, the link of this day with the feast of Samhain, observed by some Celtic populations before the evangelization of these lands. The festival had now fallen into oblivion around the 20th century AD and the transition from the Celtic New Year of Samhain to the celebration of the Saints, as friends of Christ, and to the memory of the faithful deceased has been, in fact, gradual and without forcing. Indeed, the link with the otherworldly dimension, well felt by those populations, had in fact prepared, in a certain way, by sowing verbs (as Paul Freeman later recalled in his part), for the fruitful sowing of the feast of Saints and Holiness. This preparatory dimension was taken up by the Church precisely to establish this liturgical anniversary in that period.
Without wanting to anticipate the very rich part by Lucia Graziano, and deprive the reader of the charm of venturing, hand in hand, into the sources, we can certainly say that this anniversary, All hallows' Eve comes out totally revised and, in a certain way, purified, carrying out an intellectually honest operation of respect, dutiful and due, to the English Catholic faithful who, for hundreds of years, with the support of the clergy, have lived this day of preparation for the Solemnity of All Saints until the advent of Elizabeth I of England.
In fact, Lucia Graziano insists on popular traditions that the Catholic Church has never felt the need to oppose because in those very human desires, even pagan ones, she had seized the opportunity to speak effectively about Christ and Eternity: Never or almost never (with the exception of a few isolated sermons which, in the age of the Counter-Reformation, accused these customs of superstition) did the Catholic Church feel the need to fight popular practices which - despite their evident naivety - did not seem completely worthless, insofar as they stressed the communion between the living and the dead and reminded the former of the need to continue caring for the latter' (end of Chapter III).
Pope Gregory IV in 834 AD probably took the pastoral opportunity to set the date of November 1st to commemorate all the Saints. A choice made to favor the people of the British Isles and also because it was close to the feast of Saint Martin on 11 November. Ronald Hutton, quoted by Graziano, states that: “the entire process took place over the course of a human life". Not only that, but it is significant that "British hagiography does not know of a single case of a religious evangelizer being put to death by pagans who refuse to accept the new religion". It should also be remembered that this anniversary of celebrating the grace of Christ shining in many brothers and sisters had already been felt in the Church for several centuries and with different dates (for example May 13th) and which finds its place at the end of the first millennium on November 1st and subsequently also on November 2nd precisely as a preparatory connection with the autumn season/winter and with the most human sensitivity and the profound yearning for connection with the deceased.
Things changed after the Protestant Reformation precisely due to the soteriological denial of the Saints and Purgatory. "The reformed England, writes Lucia Graziano, ignited a real anti-Catholic crusade against Halloween" (Ch. VIII). Thus the ringing of bells was prohibited as it was considered a popish custom.
Let us remember that it is 1561, and, since then, a series of sentences begins for those who do not respect the ban. The "Catholic resistance" to the Anglican reform therefore takes place with bellows on All Hallows' Eve, as a repeated dimension of clear religious protest and therefore of marked Catholic belonging.
From the point of view of the Protestant Reformation, The "original sin" of All hallows' Eve was precisely this: to be an exquisitely Catholic holiday and so, to eradicate this popular feeling, Elizabeth I of England carried out an operation of ferocious cultural destruction. “The spread of an anti-Roman rhetoric that associated the Catholic religion with the practice of magic” (Chapter IX). Propaganda to discredit the church for an alleged association with magic was heavily used throughout the 16th century. Graziano talks about it at length in Chapter IX.
It is the usual cliché of the "witch hunt" used here to manipulate Catholic sentiment and to attack and make the British people forget the Christian holiday of Halloween, preparatory to the feast of All Saints. A table work of a tactical-political nature intended to strengthen a very clear independence from Rome in the light of a strongly identifying monarchical power.
In any case, in the text you will find much more in detail and, as mentioned above, the Halloween holiday is totally transformed. Recovering this historical memory is decidedly significant as Paul Freeman will later underline in his discussion. In fact, memory, memory and pastoral gradualness are essential to correctly lead to celebrating every feast of Grace.
Freeman's part is smaller in number of pages but incredibly dense, so much so that it is considered, without diminution, as a truly small catechetical compendium on the foundations of liturgy and pastoral theology.
Here too we do not anticipate anything but we invite you to take the text and make it the object of reflection and, why not, of a pastoral program.
Incarnating means grasping the good that is present, even in pagan cults, and this, Paul Freeman specifies, "does not mean lowering our guard towards inhuman and dehumanizing practices of a magical and divinatory nature [...]” (Ch. XVII). Discernment and pastoral care have been lacking in the All Hallows' Eve holiday since the Elizabethan era. “Born as a preparatory and Catholic holiday, it was deliberately polluted, starting with the Elizabethan era and, from that moment on, it was deliberately deformed precisely in its precious link with the friendship of the saints and the memory of the faithful deceased [...]". Substantially the axis has moved from the celestial and purgative Church, and from the beauty of Eternity to the intramundane beauty of the horrifying, tickling the "low" and crooked parts of the human.
A real mugging of the enemy of man which, therefore, must not be reinforced with pastoral care that sees Halloween as carnivalry, nor with demonizations that betray the original meaning of the eve. Both, as we were saying, and as Paul Freeman repeats in detail, are actually the game of the enemy, who is happy to pollute every mystical and very human form of preparation for the luminous feast of Eternity.
Therefore extinguishing the hope and joy that it brings with both hands. Depleting the Sacred as an essential and profound form of the human heart where nostalgia for God resonates, perhaps in veiled forms.
Therefore, relegating this day to its distortions and not living it as a preparation for All Saints' Day and the memory of the faithful departed means distorting its real purpose, as well as missing a pastoral opportunity.
It is not a feast in itself that should be celebrated, but a preparatory ‘conductus’ to the Sun that awaits us and that our Saints, friends of Christ and ours, together with the faithful departed, bring us to the longing for Heaven.
We are made for Eternity, and prayer, praise, charity, solidarity, a visit and a time to listen to someone in need, fasting or the sober sharing of a sweet treat are the authentic ways to live this day of Halloween and drive away all darkness and all clouding of man's deepest desires.
But in the text by Lucia Graziano and Paul Freeman, you will find much, much more.
At the end of the theological-pastoral part the text ends with a wish agreed between Lucia Graziano and Paul Freeman, which is also the ultimate aim of this joint work: to begin a path of Re-Signification and Re-Appropriation of the true feast of All Hallows' eve, later changed, terminologically, to Halloween. To make Halloween what it used to be, a popular festival preparatory (and preparatory) to lead to the Solemnity of all Saints and the memory of the deceased faithful.
There are a number of suggestions.
And it would be a real shame if the Church did not seize, responsibly and fully, this pastoral opportunity, perhaps with the rich creative proposal of the text, paraliturgically recovering what belongs to it and leading the faithful to look with awe and wonder at the eve of all the saints towards the Joy of Heaven.
Salvatore F..
The text can be found here
https://www.amazon.it/Halloween-All-Hallows-Dawn-Beyond/dp/B0FM3RTHPR
Historical analysis
I. Introduction.
II. The ancient festival of Samhain.
III. Assonances with certain peasant traditions of Italy, in the persistence of a universal need
IV. But was it really a night of fear? The false myth of human sacrifices during Samhain
V. From Samhain to All Saints' Day: a gentle transition.
VI. Living and dead in medieval imagery: two age groups, united in the communion of saints
VII. The very Christian Halloween of the English Middle Ages.
VIII. The dreaded Halloween of the Reformation Age.
IX. 'Serveth all witches in their witchery':the Catholic Church and its links with witchcraft in the anti-Roman polemic of the Reformation Age.
X. Who's afraid of ghosts?.
XI. Halloween gets modernised.
XII. The Satanic Panic of the 1980s.
XIII. Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Theological-pastoral analysis and proposal
XIV. The signification of dates and anniversaries resulting from the biblical command of remembrance
XV. The Catholic dimension of the anniversary. Liturgical event and para-liturgical preparation
XVI. The accusation of Catholics of having borrowed pagan rites must be overturned, also because it originated in the protestant-puritan area.
XVII. The seeds of the Word (semina Verbi). The Incarnation is not a bogging down, nor a denial of the present Good, but still a distance from the occult and the mysterious.
XVIII. ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. Save us from the evil one and from evil. A clear statement in the light of the man in the Bible.
XIX. The allure of evil, a terrible reality of simplification and self-obnubilation.
XX. Starting a path of re-signification and re-appropriation.
XXI. All Hallows' Eve, Advent and Lent. A golden thread unites them, and is also Marian.
XXII. All Hallows' Eve, like the aurora.
Bibliography.