Halloween is Really a Christian Holy Day

Some people falsely say Halloween is the Devil's holiday. Others say it is a Pagan celebration. But the truth is that Halloween originated as part of a Christian feast day. "Halloween" means, literally, eve of All Saints day (All Hallows, in old-fashioned English).

In the Jewish tradition that Christianity came from, a day officially began at sundown, and so that is why the eve of a holy day is also part of the holy day. That's why there are Christmas Eve church services, and why modern Catholics have church services on Saturday evenings that 'count' as Sunday church attendance.

Why the confusion? Well, in the Victorian era folks were keen on collecting folklore, looking into old history going back to the pre-Christian era, and making various connections that were not always true. One thing was connecting various old folk celebrations of Christian feast days with vaguely similar Pagan events that were either in the historical record, or surmised.

All Saints and All Saints Eve celebration got mixed up with folklore from Celtic harvest traditions. The 'death' theme of the Celtic stuff came from the fact that cattle were butchered at this time for purely seasonal reasons--- grazing had come to an end so cattle could only be feed by preserved fodder such as hay, and cool weather meant that meat was easier to preserve.

All Saints had its origin in the concept of the Communion of Saints as mentioned in the Bible, and the customs connected with remembering the martyrs in the Early Church. The term 'saints' often refers in the Bible to all people who have received salvation through Christ, but since people could and did fall away from Christianity in times of persecution it was those who had passed away still loyal to the faith that were most particularly saints. Those who had died a martyr's death or who had lived exceptionally holy lives (by the grace of God) were even more likely to be called saints and in time the Church developed the custom of canonizing a worthy person as a saint.

Today the feast of All Saints is celebrated by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians and other denominations as an official part of the church year like Christmas and Easter. In other denominations it may be celebrated unofficially. Some, though, deem it 'too Catholic', and since these groups often condemn Catholic practices (even those shared by Lutherans, etc.) as 'Pagan', there is another source of the 'Halloween is Pagan' myth.

Since Halloween is as much a Christian feast as any other, such as Christmas, it is within our rights to insist that the 'true meaning' of Halloween be honored. It's about remembering people like St. Stephen and Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), not about devils, Dracula and Hannibal Lector. Encouraging kids to dress up as saints is a good idea. And if one of the kids insists on dressing as the devil, you might persuade his brother to go as Saint Michael and together they can represent the common image in Christian art of Saint Michael fighting the devil. (Remind your dear little 'devil' that Saint Michael wins.)

Our culture has been encroached upon by a lot of stuff we find to be wrong, from polygamy TV shows to smutty dance routines to drug peddlers on street corners. I think we would do well to reclaim popular things, like Halloween, that have been misinterpreted for too long a time.

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