Roman Catholic priests in France have denounced Halloween as "devoted to Satan, ugliness and absolute evil".

In the Riviera resort of St Raphael, priests organized a protest, saying the festival amounted to an attack on French culture.

"It's a commercial idea directly imported from the United States," Father Louis-Marie said. "We should have something else to offer children besides a cold, dark macabre festival."

Halloween has caused particular offence in France, where 70 per cent of people visit the graves of loved ones on All Saints Day, November 1.

The celebration of the festival has also caused offence in Italy. Milan Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini said: "Halloween is a type of holiday that is foreign to our traditions, which have tremendous value and must endure."

Protests have also taken place in America, where schools in California have banned Halloween parties because the pagan festival might offend other religions and the ghoulish costumes promote violence.

Also in the US, children celebrating Halloween have swapped devil's horns for a pair of Harry Potter-like broken spectacles, prompting some critics to claim the craze for the fictional boy wizard proves that Satan is among us.

Campaigns against the best-selling tales of fantastical adventures gained momentum as Potter fans wielded their magic wands to mark Tuesday's festival.

"The Harry Potter Books are ... recruiting tools for witchcraft and the occult," American Christian group Freedom Village USA said on its website.

The group also drew parallels with the books, which are being made into a movie, and the number 666, the mark of the anti-Christ depicted in the Bible's final book, Revelation.

It cites a six-page episode beginning on page 66, where the evil enemy emblazons Harry's forehead with a lightning bolt scar that the group says is the sign of the devil. But anti-Potter sentiment is not confined to fundamentalist Christians in American.

Earlier this year Harry Potter books vanished from the shelves of one British primary school, St Mary's Island Church of England school in Kent, because staff felt that the tales went against the Bible's teachings.

But Potter fans in the US are fighting back, forming a campaign group called Muggles for Potters. Muggles, in Potter terms, are non-magical people.

The organization, which is sponsored by the Association of American Publishers and the National Coalition against Censorship, among other groups, said schools in at least 13 US states had objected to the books.