Some prudent observations from Scott Richert:
The Christian Origins of Halloween:
"Halloween"
is a name that means nothing by itself. It is a contraction of "All
Hallows Eve," and it designates the vigil of All Hallows Day, more
commonly known today as All Saints Day.
("Hallow," as a noun, is an old English word for saint. As a verb, it
means to make something holy or to honor it as holy.) All Saints Day,
November 1, is a Holy Day of Obligation,
and both the feast and the vigil have been celebrated since the early
eighth century, when they were instituted by Pope Gregory III in Rome.
(A century later, they were extended to the Church at large by Pope
Gregory IV.)
The Pagan Origins of Halloween:
Despite
concerns among some Catholics and other Christians in recent years
about the "pagan origins" of Halloween, there really are none. The first
attempts to show some connection between the vigil of All Saints and
the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain came over a thousand years after
All Saints Day became a universal feast, and there's no evidence
whatsoever that Gregory III or Gregory IV was even aware of Samhain.
In Celtic peasant culture, however, elements of the harvest festival
survived, even among Christians, just as the Christmas tree owes its
origins to pre-Christian Germanic traditions without being a pagan
ritual. (Read more.)
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1 comment:
Thanks for this. Many need clarification. People can be over scrupulous about this sort of thing.
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