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Being Catholic #390: The Death of Halloween: How Carnival Became Commerce

Catholic Spirit Radio

Bob Johnston reads Justin Lee’s "The Death of Halloween" and explores Halloween’s origins in All Saints and All Souls, its links to Samhain, and how commercialization and social change drained the festival of its play, meaning, and communal purpose. The episode calls Christians to recover a spirit of reverent play and communal memory—reminding listeners why Hallowtide once united the living and the dead and how that sacramental imagination might be restored.