Episode Summary: "Halloween is a Christian Holiday"

Podcast: Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec
Guests: Dr. Taylor Marshall
Date: October 31, 2025

Overview

This Halloween special re-visits a discussion between Jack Posobiec and Dr. Taylor Marshall on the origins of Halloween, challenging the popular narrative that Halloween is rooted in pagan or satanic traditions. Instead, the episode explores the Christian and specifically Catholic roots of Halloween, the significance of All Saints' and All Souls' Days, and the spiritual realities of the demonic, the occult, exorcism, and Christian hope amidst darkness. The tone is conversational, informative, sometimes humorous, and overtly Catholic, with attention to historical accuracy and the reclaiming of Christian traditions from secular and occult re-appropriation.

1. The Historical Origins of Halloween

The "Pagan" Myth Debunked

• [03:02] Jack (A): Poses the recurring internet claim: “Halloween was a pagan holiday that Christians stole.”
• [03:23] Dr. Taylor Marshall (B): Responds that it's more complicated, referencing early church celebrations:

  “St. Ephrem the Syrian, St. John Chrysostom... these are guys in the 300s, 400s, they know of a holy day of All Hallows or all saints celebrating all the martyrs.”

• The term “Halloween” is simply “Hallow Evening,” the vigil before All Hallows (All Saints) Day.
• [04:18] Jack: Clarifies "hallowed" means "holy" or "saint."
• [05:04] Dr. Marshall: Outlines that early Christians celebrated individual martyrs’ feast days; eventually, a collective day was needed due to the calendar being filled.

How and Why the Date Changed

• [07:07] Dr. Marshall: Describes Pope Boniface IV consecrating the Pantheon (originally a pagan temple), filling it with martyr relics, and dedicating it as a church to Mary and all martyrs in 610 AD (originally in May).
• By the 9th century, the date moved to Nov 1st to coincide with the harvest, fitting the biblical motif of Jesus harvesting souls.

All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days — The Hallowtide

• [09:25] Jack: Notes All Hallows (All Saints) Day is followed by All Souls Day, creating a trio called “Hallowtide.”
• [10:48] Dr. Marshall: Explains, “All Saints is everybody in heaven; All Souls is everybody in Purgatory.”
• Tells a story about monks, a cave, and praying souls out of purgatory (the "volcano story" [10:48]), as the origin for All Souls Day on Nov 2nd.

Notable Quote

“Everything that's holy and sacred to God, the devil wants to attack… It's not about running away and abandoning a holy day. It's about reclaiming it.”
— Dr. Taylor Marshall, [12:43]

2. Refuting Secular and Occultist Claims

Critiquing Comparative Religion Theory & Pagan Origins

• [13:25] Jack: References the debunking of the "pagan origins" narrative on secular site HistoryForAtheists.com.
  • Points out how the popular claim that Halloween was simply co-opted from the Irish festival Samhain is historically inaccurate.
  • Notes “part of Ireland was not part of the Roman Empire... The dates don’t match. It’s not like today where they're just, you know, googling, 'Hey, what's a cool pagan holiday we can steal?'”
• Root of the myth comes from the 19th-century book The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer, which pushed a simplistic view: all religions borrow from previous ones.

Real History vs. Bad History

• [17:26] Dr. Marshall:

  “The Pope who eventually made All Saints on November 1st... wasn’t even from Europe… he was from Syria… He’s as far away from Ireland as possible, and he’s the Pope who starts putting this stuff into place.”

Cultural Perceptions Today

• Halloween's “occult” trappings in places like Salem, MA, are modern inventions, not true remnants of ancient paganism.
• [20:17] Dr. Marshall: The modern association of Halloween with Wicca is misguided; “Wicca” itself is invented recently and not rooted in ancient paganism.

Notable Analogy

“If you were an ancient pagan, an ancient occultist, you were definitely not [a Wiccan] because that was made up.”
— Jack Posobiec, [20:45]

3. The Occult, Exorcism, and Christian Responses

Occult Parody of Christianity

• The conversation turns to how occult and satanic practices often invert Christian symbols and feasts (e.g., black mass vs. the Mass, 3am vs. 3pm as a “satanic hour,” etc.)
• [22:21] Jack: Jokes about Catholics getting the day after Halloween off (All Saints Day).

Catholic Practice and Meaning

• Describes the veneration of saints, distinction between dulia (veneration) and latria (worship, due to God alone) [23:48].
  • “You salute the rank, not the man.” — [24:51] Paralleling honoring saints vs. worshiping God.

Reality of Demons and Spiritual Warfare

• [25:33] Jack: Asks, “Are demons real?”
• [26:25] Dr. Marshall:

  “They're most certainly real. If you read the Bible, Old and New Testament, there are fallen angels, and that's what a demon is… Satan said, ‘Non serviam. I will not serve.’... a third of the angels fell.”

Demonic Possession and Exorcism

• Dr. Marshall relays insight from real exorcists:
  • Most possessions occur because people invite the demonic through occult practices.
  • [29:41] “The main way people get possessed is they go looking for it… witchcraft, seances, Ouija boards, dark arts, pagan rituals, criminal activity…”
  • [31:36] Jack: Points out, “It’s not like the company’s making a satanic instrument. It’s what you’re doing with it that becomes Satanic.”
• Exorcism is a serious, lengthy process, only conducted by specially appointed priests [35:02].

• “[Even a] priest who's not an exorcist… can get retribution and have demons come into his life. So you have to be properly… appointed, certified in order to do it.”
  — Dr. Marshall, [35:46]

Occult in Pop Culture

• The original Dracula novel is fundamentally a Christian allegory—a satanic inversion of Eucharist, the hope of eternal life corrupted [39:16–40:59].

4. The Theological Meaning of Hallowtide

All Saints’ Day and the Book of Revelation

• The readings for All Saints’ focus on Revelation (the Apocalypse), highlighting Christ’s harvest of souls, the ultimate victory over evil [42:53]:

  “On All Saints Day, traditionally we read from the book of the Apocalypse… the reading From Revelation chapter 7… the angel comes and it marks on the forehead with the sign of the Tao, which is a cross on all the faithful on earth… they are to be harvested for Jesus Christ.”

Importance of Tradition and Family

• Eastern Europe: huge focus on visiting and honoring ancestors on All Saints’ and All Souls’ [22:46].
• Honoring the dead is not idolatry but obedience to the commandment to honor one’s parents and ancestors.

Sainthood as Hope and Challenge

• Saints are exemplars and motivators for Christian life; “they did it—you can, too.” [47:27]
• The reality beyond death matters most; life is a test.

Final Reflections

• [48:44] Dr. Marshall:

  “Everything creepy—the book of Revelation has a lot of creepy, scary, unusual stuff in it… All of those things are there just like the demonic, just like death… As we get close to Halloween, all of that there is to inspire us to have hope and confidence that Christ conquered death. He conquered the demons… And that's the message of all saints. Be a saint.”

• [49:12] Jack:

  “Memento mori.” — Remember your death; live for eternity.

5. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Halloween is literally short for hallow evening, the evening before Hallow's day."
  — Dr. Taylor Marshall, [03:23]

• "The dates don't match. It's not like today where they're just, you know, googling, 'Hey, what's a cool pagan holiday we can steal,' right?"
  — Jack Posobiec, [14:40]

• "Wicca... is completely made up, by the way."
  — Dr. Taylor Marshall, [20:43]

• "Are demons real? ... They're most certainly real. If you read the Bible, Old and New Testament, there are fallen angels, and that's what a demon is."
  — Dr. Taylor Marshall, [26:25]

• “If someone says, hey, let’s do a seance, or hey, let’s get the Ouija board out… just run as far as you can from that. Because if you want demons, that’s how you get demons.”
  — Dr. Taylor Marshall, [31:22]

• "Dracula is the little dragon, the little Satan... he’s using all… Christian theology… inverted and perverted by Dracula."
  — Dr. Taylor Marshall, [39:29]

• "If you're going to celebrate Halloween... don't just celebrate Halloween, but also celebrate All Saints, all souls. So now you're completing what's called the Hallow Tide."
  — Jack Posobiec, [41:50]

6. Key Timestamps

• 00:02 – Show opening and episode intent
• 03:02 – The history and etymology of Halloween and All Hallows
• 07:07 – The Pantheon, May vs. November dates, transition to harvest theme
• 10:48 – All Souls’ Day origin & the volcano legend
• 13:25 – Secular scholarship and debunking pagan origin myths
• 20:17 – Wicca and modern occult practices
• 25:33 – The reality of spiritual warfare and demonic possession
• 31:22 – Ouija boards, the occult, and the dangers of engaging
• 39:16 – Dracula as a perversion of Christianity and Christian motifs in pop culture
• 42:53 – All Saints' Day readings from the Book of Revelation and the harvest theme
• 47:18 – Sainthood as practical hope for Christians
• 48:44 – Closing thoughts: Hope, victory over evil, and call to sainthood

7. Tone and Takeaways

• Conversational, direct, and unapologetically Catholic
• Dismantles the "pagan origin" myth with history and primary sources
• Invites listeners to celebrate the full meaning of Hallowtide
• Warns against trivializing spiritual reality, the occult, or Halloween's Christian meaning
• Ends with a call to Christian hope: "Be a saint. Memento mori."

Summary prepared for listeners wanting a detailed but lively walk-through of the episode's content, logic, and spirit.