One of my granddogs, appropriately dressed all in black for Halloween<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve just entered the month of October \u2014 the month of Halloween, during which, in America at least, tiny vampires, ballerinas, ghouls, superheroes, goblins, ninjas, and witches typically descend upon us, demanding candy. (One of my granddaughters has announced that she will be a dragon-squirrel, and we\u2019re all eager to find out exactly what a \u201cdragon-squirrel\u201d might be<\/em>.)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, of course, things will be rather different.\u00a0 Health officials are recommending that children not go from door to door.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Whatever happens in 2020, though, Halloween launches the holiday season, and children everywhere eagerly anticipate it. Some adults, however, regard the holiday as a glorification of darkness and evil.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The word Halloween<\/em>, or Hallowe\u2019en<\/em>, dates to about 1745. It\u2019s a contraction of All Hallows\u2019 Eve<\/em>, and it denotes the evening before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows\u2019 Day (i.e., \u201cAll Saints\u2019 Day\u201d) \u2014 a time, in the Catholic calendar, for remembering the dead, particularly saints, martyrs, and departed Christian believers. (It\u2019s akin to the Jewish \u201cYizkor\u201d prayer and the Hindu period of \u201cPitru Paksha.\u201d)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many Halloween customs may have originated as ways of mocking the power of death. (\u201cO death,\u201d taunted the apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 15:55, \u201cwhere is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?\u201d) By dressing up as fearsome creatures who prove, in fact, to be completely harmless, Christians could mock the devil, who had been defeated by Jesus Christ\u2019s Atonement and Resurrection.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
All Saints\u2019 Day became a Christian holiday in A.D. 609, but it was originally celebrated on May 13. By the end of the 12th century, all of Europe observed it. Churches rang their bells, and criers dressed in black paraded in the streets, summoning others to pray for the deliverance of the souls in Purgatory. (Act 2, Scene 1 of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwo Gentlemen of Verona\u201d recalls the sound of \u201ca beggar at Hallowmas.\u201d) Skulls and skeletons were commonly depicted as reminders of death and the transience of human life. \u201cSoul cakes\u201d were baked and distributed in memory of all christened but departed souls, which suggests one possible origin for the treats given out at Halloween.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 835, though, Pope Gregory IV changed the date of All Saints or All Hallows to the first day of November. Some will be familiar, in this connection, with the common Hispanic observance of the \u201cDia de Muertos\u201d or \u201cDay of the Dead.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For that reason and others, many scholars connect Halloween with the ancient Celtic late-autumn festival of \u201cSamhain\u201d (pronounced \u201cSAH-win\u201d), which was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November. The most important of the four \u201cquarter days\u201d of the medieval Gaelic calendar, Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the bringing of cattle \u2014 the main form of wealth in ancient Gaelic society \u2014 down from their summer pastures, and the coming of winter, the \u201cdarker half\u201d of the year. Samhain was a time when fairies and spirits were particularly active, and when, the doorway to the other world having been opened, they could most easily enter ours. The souls of the dead revisited their homes at Samhain.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 16th century, costumed or disguised people celebrating Samhain went house-to-house, often reciting verses or singing songs in exchange for food. In Scotland, youths went from door to door on 31 October, sometimes threatening mischief if they weren\u2019t properly received. (Think of the Halloween greeting \u201cTrick or treat!\u201d) They may have represented malevolent spirits, perhaps the spirits of approaching winter, and they seem to have carried hollowed-out turnips as lanterns.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Massive Irish and Scottish immigration to the United States during the 19th century brought Halloween customs to America, and, relatively soon, having generally been stripped of their religious elements, they became popular across all regions and faiths. American pumpkins were larger and easier to carve than turnips, so celebrants of Halloween adapted. Today\u2019s costumes are likely to come from Hollywood depictions of Dracula, the Mummy, and Frankenstein\u2019s monster \u2014 as well as from Disney films and the Star Wars movies.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the English Reformation, when many Protestants began to abandon and attack the Catholic concept of Purgatory, All Hallows\u2019 Eve, too, came under assault. If there were no souls in transition from this world through Purgatory to the next, they reasoned, then any ghosts who returned on Halloween must actually be evil spirits, posing a supernatural threat. But neither Samhain nor Halloween was originally connected with evil or the devil.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Curiously, Martin Luther is said to have nailed his famous \u201c95 Theses\u201d to the door of All Saints\u2019 Church in Wittenberg \u2014 and, thus, to have launched the Protestant Reformation \u2014 on 31 October because he knew that the church would be packed with worshippers on All Hallows\u2019 (or All Saints\u2019) Day the following morning. Hence, 31 October is also celebrated as \u201cReformation Day.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 We\u2019ve just entered the month of October \u2014 the month of Halloween, during which, in America at least, tiny vampires, ballerinas, ghouls, superheroes, goblins, ninjas, and witches typically descend upon us, demanding candy. (One of my granddaughters has announced that she will be a dragon-squirrel, and we\u2019re all eager to find out exactly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17216,17219,17222,1104,9035,8622,11422,17210,5,2193,9041,9632,17213,9038],"class_list":["post-88445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-all-hallows-eve","tag-all-saints-day","tag-dark","tag-death","tag-devil","tag-evil","tag-good","tag-halloween","tag-history","tag-light","tag-lucifer","tag-origin","tag-samhain","tag-satan"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>