HALLOWEEN AND ALL SAINTS' DAY

The celebration of Halloween has two origins. The first is in a pre-Christian Celtic Feast associated with their new year feast which was on November 1. The second is in the Christian celebration of All Saints’ Day.  Christians had been celebrating the feast days of saints and martyrs since the 2^nd century.  Every community had its own saints and its own saints’ days.  In the 8^th century, Pope Gregory II established the date of All Saints’ Day as November 1.  In part, this day was chosen to offer a substitution for the popular celebration of the Celtic new year. In England, All Saints’ Day was called All Hallows’ Day, and the night before became known as All Hallows’ Eve.

The Celtic Feast

The ancient Celtic peoples who inhabited England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland celebrated their New Year's Day on what would be November 1st on modern calendars. On the last night of the year, they believed that the souls of the dead were allowed to return to their homes and roamed the earth. Souls that had died in sin were imprisoned in the bodies of animals- especially black cats. It was also thought that these imprisoned souls, evil spirits, demons, ghosts, and witches were free to roam around this night.  Ancient villagers believed that the evil spirits would leave you alone if you dressed like them and if provided food for them.  They also built bonfires and lit candles to scare off the evil spirits.

Jack-O-Lanterns

In Ire­land chil­dren carved out pota­toes or turnips as “Jack-O-Lanterns” and lighted them from the inside with candles. The prac­tice ori­gin­ated from an Irish myth about a man nick­named “Stingy Jack” who invited the Devil to have a drink with him and then didn’t want to pay for his drink. It’s a long story, but the bot­tom line is that Jack tricked the Devil into climb­ing up a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the devil was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the he could not come down until he prom­ised not to bother Jack for ten more years. Soon there­after, Jack died and God would not allow such an unsa­vory fig­ure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keep­ing his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. So Jack was con­demned to wander the earth between heaven and hell with only a burn­ing piece of coal in a carved out turnip to light his way.

 The Irish immigrants brought this story with them to America in the mid 19thc.  But here in the US, turnips were expensive, but pumpkins were abundant and cheap.  So people started carving pumpkins and lighting the with candles as part of their Halloween celebrations.

 All Saints’ Day

On All Saints’ Day, the Church honors all the saints’, known and unknown.  While there is information about many famous saints, there are countless men and women who have lived lives of faith, but never been honored or remembered.  On All Saints’ Day, we celebrate all these holy men and women. The concept of All Saints’ Day is tied in with the concept of the communion of saints. This is the belief that all of God's people, those in heaven and those on earth, are connected in one community.  In the eyes of God, all believers, those in the past, present and future, are part of an eternal fellowship.  In the Episcopal Church, All Saints’ Day is a major feast.  It is a day to celebrate baptisms in the church.  It is the only feast day that can be transferred and many churches will celebrate All Saints’ Sunday on the Sunday after Nov. 1.  

All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween is the evening before All Saints Day,  While there are many versions of the origins and old customs of Halloween, some remain consistent by all accounts. Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same. Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead. Samhain signifies "summers end" or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one. Many of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition. The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next year’s crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating.