Serge,
First of all, the celebration of Halloween, i.e., people dressing up in costumes, going to parties, and "begging" for candy, is not un-Catholic. Halloween falls on October 31st because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on November 1st. The feast in honor of all the Saints used to be celebrated on May 13th, but Pope Gregory III, in 731, moved it to November 1st, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St Peter's in Rome. This feast spread throughout the world.
The Catholics don't exactly follow the Seven Ecumenical Councils. So this point is moot.
Therefore, the Church had a feast of the Saints and those in Purgatory.
Purgatory, pallleeessse. This already shows a falling away from the Christian traditional belief(Orthodoxy-the Right Path).
It was the Irish Catholics who came up with the idea to remember somehow those souls who did not live by the Faith in this life. It became customary for these Irish to bang on pots and pans on All Hallow's Eve to let the damned know that they were not forgotten. In Ireland, then, all the dead came to be remembered
Tell this to St. Patrick.
This practice arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Waaayyy after the Great Schism, hence not valid to the Christian faith.
The two were brought together in the colonies of North America during the 18th century, when Irish and French Catholics began to intermarry. Thus the two celebrations became mingled, and we began dressing up on Halloween. It is, as we can see, a very "American" holiday, but Catholic as well.
Nothing to do with the actual Truth.
The next time someone claims Halloween is a cruel trick to lure our children into devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of Halloween and let them know about its Catholic roots and significance. (By Fr Scott Archer)
The blind leading the blind.
A word of caution, however. The Church has always condemned as sins against the First Commandment, and thus cautioned her children to stay far away from: astrology, charms, divination, fortune-telling, magic, the ouija boards, sorcery, spells, witchcraft, and other occult activities, even if they are treated in a trivial or jesting fashion.
St Thomas Aquinas says that it is not permitted to Christians even to dabble in such things: "Man has not been entrusted with power over the demons to employ them to whatsoever purpose he will. On the contrary, it is appointed that he should wage war against the demons. Hence, in no way is it lawful for man to make use of the demons' help by compacts -- either tacit or express" (II- II, Q96, Art. 3).
If it's all fun and games, then why this drastic warning?
We remember too the enjoinder of the Prayer to St Michael concerning Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo [Satan and the other evil spirits who roam in the world for the ruin of souls]. As in all things, parents must be sure to teach their children the proper balance in such matters, erring neither on the side of defect or excess.
Nice quote, but this whole article has been trying to convince parents that Halloween is only fun and games. So why the scare tactic???
There's alot more to the celebration of Halloween. It is plain as paganism. If you really want to know the truth, then you need to do more research.
Joanna