Originally published on our old site, againstheresies.org on: Oct 29, 2021:

Halloween, like Christmas and Easter, is claimed by some to have originated in pagan celebrations that were adopted by Christians. Thus, it is argued that Halloween celebrations were rooted in with debauchery, witchcraft, and evil. As such,  some argue that Christians should abandon the observance of Halloween and return it to its pagan roots. 

What the Historic Evidence Says about Christianity, Paganism and Halloween:

There are no ancient pagan (Irish or Celtic) text – predating Christianity – describing the observance of Halloween for the dead, as we will show later in this post.  In fact, our earliest Christian text documenting an observance for the dead dates to about 250 A.D:

Finally, also, take note of their days on which they depart, that we may celebrate their commemoration among the memorials of the martyrs –Cyprian, Epistles XXXV and XXXVI: To the Clergy

Christians began commemorating the dates of the martyrdom of Christians in the early days of Christianity. As time progressed, this practice evolved to include the remembrance of all deceased saints, not solely martyrs. Due to the large number of saints, it became necessary to consolidate the observance into a single day. Consequently, as noted in the Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent, the origins of the Christian observance of All Saints Day can be traced back to the 4th century. Although the specific date of November 1 as the chosen day of commemoration was not established during this period, references to it appear in Christian writings from the 7th century, when it gained official recognition, leading to the establishment of All Hallows Eve on October 31.

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (379) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. …… Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. – New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia 1911 Edition

A book by a 14th century Monk,  John Mirk, also shows that All Hallows Eve was kept by Christians as early as the 7th century. -see  Mirk’s festial : a collection of homilies, archive.org

The very word Halloween, which means “All Hallows Eve,” is even Christian:

“Halloween is commonly thought to have pagan origins, even though it’s etymology is Christian” – Nicholas Rogers, research professor of history at York University, Toronto., Google Books, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

Halloween is , quiet literally, the popular derivation of All Hallows Eve, or the Eve of All Saints Day (1 November). Taken together with All Souls Day which falls on 2 November, it is a time assigned in the Christian Calendar for honoring the saints and the newly departed. In past centuries,  it was also the occasion for praying for souls in purgatory. -IBID

What about all the “proof” claiming Halloween is rooted in Samhain? 

To be honest, people who post articles and memes show their ignorance of history. There is no proof that Halloween was linked to Samhain BEFORE Christian’s observed it as All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. Plus, there is very little known about the celebration of Samhain and what it involved. What we hear about it nowadays comes from speculation:

“If Samhain imparted to Halloween a supernatural charge and an intrinsic liminality, it did not offer much in the way of actual ritual practices, save in its fire rites. Most of these developed in conjunction with the medieval holy days of All Souls’ and All Saints’ day.” – Nicholas Rogers, research professor of history at York University, Toronto., Google Books, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

The proof that Christians kept All Saints Day very early on “contradicts the widely held view that the November date was chosen to Christianize the festival of Samhain”  -Nicholas Rogers, Google Books, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

This myth was popular among those who sought to connect Christian observances to paganism, particularly in the 19th century.  Sir John Rhys and later James Frazer are two scholars who attempted show that Christians had adopted the pagan observance of Samhain. However, both men based their research on assumption rather than actual historical data:

At the end of the nineteenth century, two distinguished academics, one at Oxford and one at Cambridge, made enduring contributions to the popular conception of Samhain. The former,  the philologist Sir John Rhys, who suggessted that it had been the Celtic New Year. He had not documented this from early records, but inffered it from contermporary folklore in Wales and Ireland…..he cited Keatings entry about Tlachta, which he believed to fall into the same category and corrected the wording of a passage in Sanas Chormaic to support his view….the flimsy nature of all this evidence should have been apparent from the start. – Ronald Hutton,  Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain 

Rhys theory was futher popularized by the Cambridge Scholar, Sir James Frazer. At times the latter did admit that the evidence of it was inconclusive, but at others he threw this caution overboard and employed it to support an idea of his own : that Samhain had been the pagan Celtic feastl of the dead…. – IBID

In claiming that Samhain was a pre-exisitng pagan feast that had been “Christianized” Frazer: 

“admited that there was in fact, no actual record of such a festival,” -IBID

Hutton (1996, 363) identifies Rhys as a key figure who, along with another Oxbridge academic, James Frazer, romanticised the notion of Samhain and exaggerated its influence on Halloween. Hutton argues that Rhys had no substantiated documentary evidence for claiming that Halloween was the Celtic new year, but inferred it from contemporary folklore in Wales and Ireland. Moreover, he argues that Rhys: “thought that [he] was vindicated when he paid a subsequent visit to the Isle of Man and found its people sometimes called 31 October New Year’s Night (Hog-unnaa) and practised customs which were usually associated with 31 December. In fact the flimsy nature of all this evidence ought to have been apparent from the start. The divinatory and purificatory rituals on 31 October could be explained by a connection to the most eerie of Christian feasts (All Saints) or by the fact that they ushered in the most dreaded of seasons. The many “Hog-unnaa” customs were also widely practised on the conventional New Year’s Eve, and Rhys was uncomfortably aware that they might simply have been transferred, in recent years, from then Hallowe’en, to increase merriment and fundraising on the latter. He got round this problem by asserting that in his opinion (based upon no evidence at all) the transfer had been the other way round.” … Hutton points out that Rhy’s unsubstantiated notions were further popularised by Frazer who used them to support an idea of his own, that Samhain, as well as being the origin of Halloween, had also been a pagan Celtic feast of the dead—a notion used to account for the element of ghosts, witches and other unworldly spirits commonly featured within Halloween. ..Halloween’s preoccupation with the netherworld and with the supernatural owes more to the Christian festival of All Saints or All Souls, rather than vice versa. – Hugh O’Donnell and Malcolm Foley, Treat or Trick? Halloween in a Globalising World. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 91–92. Hugh O’Donnell is Professor of Language and Popular Culture at Glasgow Caledonian University. Malcolm Foley, Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University

Finally, the word Samhain is not even mentioned in ANY text until at least the 10th century A.D (see Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain by Ronald Hutton).  In all text on Samhain (dated to AFTER the 10th century A.D.),  the details about the festival are vague.  

So to summarize, Christians kept the dates of October 31 and November 1st BEFORE it was associated with Samhain. Furthermore, since the word Halloween literally comes from Christianity, it is Christian in origin. 

Finally, lets take a look at the wording used by those who claim that paganism was the original source of Halloween observances. This wording is always loose and tricky to give you the impression that there is some form of evidence to show that Halloween is pagan.  

Wikipedia on Halloween:

One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots; some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow’s Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow’s Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland, in the 19th century, Irish and Scottish migrants brought many Halloween customs to North America, and then through American influence, Halloween spread to many other countries by the 21st century. 

Encyclopedia.com:

HALLOWEEN. Halloween (also Hallowe’en) is thought to have derived from a pre-Christian festival known as Samhain (pronounced “Sah-wen”) celebrated among the Celtic peoples.

Scholars know little about the actual practices and beliefs associated with Samhain. Most accounts were not written down until centuries after the conversion of Ireland to Christianity (c. 300 C.E.), and then by Christian monks recording ancient sagas.

Encyclopeida Britannica:

Halloween may have developed partially from the pre-Christian holiday Samhain, which was celebrated in early medieval Ireland around November 1 as the beginning of a new year. However, it seems to have developed mostly from Christian feasts of the dead from later in the Middle Ages, including All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2. By the 9th century, October 31 was being celebrated as All Hallows’ Eve, later contracted to Halloween, throughout Western Christendom.

As you can see, the words, ” thought to have”, “are believed”, etc are used,  because there is nothing to show that Halloween comes to us from paganism. All these claims are based on speculation with the intent to accuse Christianity and delegitimatize our traditions and observances. 

“Halloween and the Day of the Dead share a common origin in the Christian commemoration of the dead on All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. But both are thought to embody strong pre-Christian beliefs. In the case of Halloween, the Celtic celebration of Samhain is critical to its pagan legacy, a claim that has been foregrounded in recent years by both new-age enthusiasts and the evangelical Right.” – Nicholas Rogers, Google Books, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

Finally, on Halloween practices such as trick or treating, dressing up, etc, these come to us from Medieval Christian Europe. 

Summary:

The bottom line is Halloween is a Christian observance.  Like Christmas and Easter, it has been subjected to false claims of paganism and appropriation by Christians, which cannot be proven.  Many Christians today believe into these narratives and end up abandoning historic Christian traditions. As noted by Collin Garbarino in an artcile entitled, Halloween: A Distinctively Christian Holiday via the Reformation21 site, “It’s ironic that many American churches won’t celebrate Halloween, and instead they replace it with the obviously pagan sounding “fall festival.”.
After years of digging into the supposed ties between Christian and pagan practices, I haven’t found any solid evidence to back these myths. In fact, accusations of this kind are very recent new in history.  Such myths are typically biased, with the intent to attack Christianity, while lacking substantial historical support. Christians need to reclaim their heritage and speak the truth that Christians did not adopt pagan practices to “Christianize” them, but rather pagans adopted Christian practices to slander and “paganize” them. 

For more on Halloween and Paganism:

“The actual origins of Halloween are solely rooted in the Church, not any fictitious religious pagan feast from ancient times….As to the influence of supposed ancient satanic druids, this is not found in any written history.” – Was Halloween originally a Christian festival?

“Our secular Halloween traditions have little to do with paganism–Celtic or Roman–but they have much to do with Christianity…..Too often we Americans forget that Halloween, or “All Hallows’ Evening,” is actually only the prelude to another holiday, All Saints’ Day. This Christian holy day, which has its roots in late antiquity, honors all those who have reached heaven, and originally it was especially concerned with the martyrs…..Pagan Romans avoided the ashes of their forebears, but Christians looked upon the graves of their dead as having spiritual importance. Christian cemeteries were not final resting places; the grave was only temporary. Christians looked forward to the bodily resurrection of their brothers and sisters, and visiting the grave of those who slept in Christ testified to this belief in the resurrection. ….(It’s ironic that many American churches won’t celebrate Halloween, and instead they replace it with the obviously pagan sounding “fall festival.”)….As America moves farther away from its Christian roots, our society starts to resemble the pagans in some ways. We, like the Romans, tend to avoid death. We hide our elderly away in homes to die, and we don’t have funerals, rather we have “celebrations of life.”  – Halloween: A Distinctively Christian Holiday

“if it truly were an ancient Celtic festival, then the historical documents we have from the early Church should show that the initial celebrations of All Hallows Eve/Saint Day originated in Irish and Celtic populated countries. The ancient documents we looked at previously by Cyprian and about Polycarp et al. show us that these practices began in the area of Turkey and Syria….any supposed pagan connection to the original Christian celebration, and remembrance of the martyrs and saints, is either completely fabricated to discredit the Church, or is entirely coincidental.” – Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday? by Luke Wilson