The history of Halloween followed by Halloween memories!
holyoffice made an interesting post
today about the history of Halloween, or rather the mis-history of it.
It was so interesting to me that I thought that I would throw out a few
blurbs from it that show the conflicting accounts of the origins of a
holiday about which very little is known for sure.
Anyway, I thought that I would use this as a springboard to remind everyone that, whether or not Halloween/All Saints' Day existed in some pre-Christian, pagan form somewhere at some time (very possible, likewise with Christmas), it is an official Catholic holiday (a holy day of obligation in fact). Its origins are more clear than those of the various traditions that now surround Halloween.
From the very beginning, Christians celebrated the death-days of marytrs. Eventually this extended also to include other saintly people. The proliferation of such days eventually led to days being offered as commemorations of a great number of saints, or all of them. In the West, Pope Boniface IV on May 13, 609 consecrated the Roman Pantheon to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all saints, ordering that the anniversary of this event be celebrated every year in Rome (many saints' feast days began as anniversaries of the dedication of a basilica in their honor). This seems like a particularly fitting way of "baptizing" paganism insofar as the Pantheon was dedicated to all the Roman gods (pan = all, theon = gods).
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St Peter (where the Pope lives) to all saints on Nov 1, thus moving the day from May 13. In the ninth century, Pope Gregory IV declared that all churches in the West should now keep this day in honor of all saints, and not just those in and around Rome. The day has stayed the same ever since. (Source: Catholic Encyclopedia entry "All Saints' Day")
So why Halloween the night before? Well, that's easy and I hope that you already know: because "Halloween" means "All Hallows' Eve", where "hallow" means "saint." And an "eve" of course is the night before a holiday, like Christmas Eve. Christians have long begun the celebration of holidays the night before because, hey, you just get to party more that way. Anyway, at some point, the Eve celebration got mixed up with a variety of fun folk practices involving goblins, ghosts, pumpkins, candy, costumes, etc. Regardless of how that happened, they're fun and Jesus is nothing if not fun!
In conclusion, I think that those religious groups that won't celebrate Halloween because it's "pagan" or "Satanic" are offbase, historically and theologically. The holiday is properly a Christian holiday as much as Christmas is and if they don't like the various pagan-like folk traditions associated with Halloween, they should really just celebrate Halloween without those practices rather than abandoning the holiday altogether. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater! Actually, I know that some religious groups concerned about the "dark" aspects of Halloween do try to do this by, for example, having children dress up as heroes from the Bible instead of goblins, ghosts, etc. That seems like a good idea. Of course, most of the groups that are anti-Halloween are also anti-Catholic, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that they wouldn't want to have too much to do with a holiday invented by Popes for the purpose of honoring the people in heaven, all of which they consider to be superstitious, pagan, Romish, idolaterous popery (not to be confused with potpourri).
Also, remember that time three years ago when I dressed up as a priest for Halloween? And I didn't like the cassock look so instead tried to tuck the cassock into my pants? And at first it made my waist look really, really fat becuase of all the fabric stuffed in my pants? And then smudgealot laughed so hard that she threw up? That was awesome.
And as long as I'm giving Halloween memories, there was also this one time when Rob and I (and probably others) cut a hole in the bottom of a big candy bowl and he sat on their porch dressed so that he looked like a dummy, with his hand in the bowl, and then grabbed people's hands when they went to reach into the bowl! It was hilarious, but it scared people so badly that I think that Rob's mom made us stop. Good times.
Share your Halloween memories! Or don't. Either way. The ball's in your court...
- Halloween is the continuation of the pre-Christian pagan holiday of Samhein, which was celebrated on Nov 1 (a day that didn't exist because they didn't have our modern calendar).
- This pagan holiday was "baptized" by Pope Gregory III.
- This pagan holiday was "baptized" by Pope Boniface IV.
- This pagan holiday was "baptized" by Pope Boniface VI.
- Trick-or-treating began as food offerings to to evil spirits on Samhein.
- Trick-or-treating began as door-to-door gatherings of firewood.
- Trick-or-treating began as poor people begging for food on All Saints' Day (Nov 1).
- Ancient Celts wore masks to frighten off evil spirits.
- Ancient Druids wore masks to frighten off evil spirits.
- Ancient Celts left food to frighten off evil spirits.
- Ancient Druids left food to frighten off evil spirits.
Anyway, I thought that I would use this as a springboard to remind everyone that, whether or not Halloween/All Saints' Day existed in some pre-Christian, pagan form somewhere at some time (very possible, likewise with Christmas), it is an official Catholic holiday (a holy day of obligation in fact). Its origins are more clear than those of the various traditions that now surround Halloween.
From the very beginning, Christians celebrated the death-days of marytrs. Eventually this extended also to include other saintly people. The proliferation of such days eventually led to days being offered as commemorations of a great number of saints, or all of them. In the West, Pope Boniface IV on May 13, 609 consecrated the Roman Pantheon to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all saints, ordering that the anniversary of this event be celebrated every year in Rome (many saints' feast days began as anniversaries of the dedication of a basilica in their honor). This seems like a particularly fitting way of "baptizing" paganism insofar as the Pantheon was dedicated to all the Roman gods (pan = all, theon = gods).
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St Peter (where the Pope lives) to all saints on Nov 1, thus moving the day from May 13. In the ninth century, Pope Gregory IV declared that all churches in the West should now keep this day in honor of all saints, and not just those in and around Rome. The day has stayed the same ever since. (Source: Catholic Encyclopedia entry "All Saints' Day")
So why Halloween the night before? Well, that's easy and I hope that you already know: because "Halloween" means "All Hallows' Eve", where "hallow" means "saint." And an "eve" of course is the night before a holiday, like Christmas Eve. Christians have long begun the celebration of holidays the night before because, hey, you just get to party more that way. Anyway, at some point, the Eve celebration got mixed up with a variety of fun folk practices involving goblins, ghosts, pumpkins, candy, costumes, etc. Regardless of how that happened, they're fun and Jesus is nothing if not fun!
In conclusion, I think that those religious groups that won't celebrate Halloween because it's "pagan" or "Satanic" are offbase, historically and theologically. The holiday is properly a Christian holiday as much as Christmas is and if they don't like the various pagan-like folk traditions associated with Halloween, they should really just celebrate Halloween without those practices rather than abandoning the holiday altogether. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater! Actually, I know that some religious groups concerned about the "dark" aspects of Halloween do try to do this by, for example, having children dress up as heroes from the Bible instead of goblins, ghosts, etc. That seems like a good idea. Of course, most of the groups that are anti-Halloween are also anti-Catholic, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that they wouldn't want to have too much to do with a holiday invented by Popes for the purpose of honoring the people in heaven, all of which they consider to be superstitious, pagan, Romish, idolaterous popery (not to be confused with potpourri).
Also, remember that time three years ago when I dressed up as a priest for Halloween? And I didn't like the cassock look so instead tried to tuck the cassock into my pants? And at first it made my waist look really, really fat becuase of all the fabric stuffed in my pants? And then smudgealot laughed so hard that she threw up? That was awesome.
And as long as I'm giving Halloween memories, there was also this one time when Rob and I (and probably others) cut a hole in the bottom of a big candy bowl and he sat on their porch dressed so that he looked like a dummy, with his hand in the bowl, and then grabbed people's hands when they went to reach into the bowl! It was hilarious, but it scared people so badly that I think that Rob's mom made us stop. Good times.
Share your Halloween memories! Or don't. Either way. The ball's in your court...