A Czech priest has apologised for stomping on pumpkins for the “satanic feast” of Halloween after he realised they were made by local children.

Father Jaromir Smejkal destroyed the seasonal squashes on two successive days in the southern village of Kurdejov after they were placed opposite the parsonage.

But in an apology issued on the village’s Facebook page, the priest said that he would have acted differently if he had known they had been carved by children.

“Leaving the rectory on Sunday evening, I saw numerous symbols of the satanic feast of ‘Halloween’ placed in front of our sacred grounds,” he wrote in an open letter to the mayor in the agricultural region of South Moravia.

The priest said that he had “acted according to my faith and duty to be a father and protector of children entrusted to him”, but later realised that none of the villagers who placed “symbols of evil spirits” had intended to “express contempt for what is holy to us Catholics”.

He added that the children involved had “acted in ignorance”, before denouncing Halloween as a paganised replacement for the traditional Roman Catholic festival of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day, when believers offer prayers for the saints and departed faithful.

Nearly two dozen pumpkins had been carved as part of the village’s pumpkin and lantern parade.

The event was organised by local mothers, who were distraught when they found the colourful fruit brutally squashed.

Parents in the village, which has a population of 500, were left in shock, raging at the “disgusting” attack on Facebook, the Breclavsky Denik newspaper reported.

After being alerted to the incident, a resident of a nearby village bought 20 new pumpkins so that the children could carve Jack-o’-lanterns again, but their spooky creations were once again stomped on and scattered, according to the newspaper.

Children were reported to have been in tears when they were told that their creations had been destroyed for a second time.

In his letter of apology, Father Smejkal said that it had not been his intention to harm anyone, particularly not children.

“But try to remember that my duty as a figure of authority and a priest is to protect children and families from hidden evil,” he added.

The priest reportedly received threats and insults online after his confession.

The apology was also criticised as insufficient by his superior, Pavel Kafka of the diocese of Brno, who described Father Smejkal’s behaviour as inadequate and defended Halloween as a “foreign folk tradition”.

The Czech Republic is one of the least religious countries in the world, with just 21 per cent of the population declared believers.

The widespread lack of faith is often seen as a legacy of the communist regime that ruled the country for decades, during which time atheism was institutionalised.

However, some traditional religious holidays – including All Souls’ Day – remain popular across the country and are observed by both believers and atheists.