In the article below, Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. explains the origins of Halloween and reasons why it isn't a pagan holiday but rather in fact quite Christian.
We’ve all heard the allegations: Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that escaped church suppression. Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety.
It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on October 31--as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints, or "All Hallows," falls on November 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to November 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland.
The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, "All Hallows Even," or "Hallowe’en." In those days Halloween didn’t have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in southern France, added a celebration on November 2. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.
So now the Church had feasts for all those in heaven and all those in purgatory. What about those in the other place? It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the unfortunate souls in hell. After all, if the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven and purgatory, they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble. So it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered--even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the church calendar.
CONTINUED
7 comments:
This is fascinating. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
Elizabeth,
Thank you for stopping by, commenting, and your follow. God Bless!
Teresa,
Your arguement fall apart in the 2nd paragraph,,
"Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety"
This is not about God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost.
It is all pagan and will remain so .
Christopher,
Proof?
Don't the Mexican people have a similar feast-day, called "el dia de los muertos", "the day of the dead" and have skeletons (fake ones) dressed in clothing and they call them "la santa muerte", "the holy dead"...but I'm not sure if it is accepted by the Church officially. They do visit cemetaries and bring flowers, food, candles and remember and pray for their deceased loved ones and ancestors. Thought I might share that. Peace be to you, RosaMaria..
I am sorry to mislead anyone, I "googled" la santa muerte, and it has been officially condemned by the Catholic Church as a cultish and satanical worship. It seems to be a "mixture" of their pre-Christian beliefs and pagan religions with the Roman Catholic Faith. , RosaMaria..
RosaMaria,
Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Thank you for googling "la santa muerte"and relaying the information that the Catholic Church condemns it as satanical worship. God Bless.
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