Fall. The Autumnal Equinox. The second of the two days of the year when the time of light equals the time of darkness. One of my favorite times of year.
It's my second favorite as toward weather. Spring is my first - I love watching the snow melt away and the days warm while various colorful flora push up through the topsoil.
Fall is the perfect contrast. The yearly miracle of the leaves changing golden always leaves me in awe. When I get to see it. It never lasts long enough. One day, they are green and the next finds them crunching underfoot beneath the bare skeletal trees that bore them.
On the other hand, the air grows crisp and carries distant memories of marching bands and band competitions. Sure it brings football - I went to every game in high school because I was in the band. Fall brings us together for a Halloween parade or cuddled under a blanket on a cool night with a movie.
Contrariwise, Fall becomes my first favorite season when it comes to holidays. Spring is nice, but doesn't bring big celebrations. We don't have children to enjoy a good Easter egg hunt. I don't drink anymore, so St. Patrick's day is only good for wearing green. Mother's Day warrants a call to Mom and a day with my husband, the mother of the house. That's the largest celebration I can come up with.
Fall is the beginning of a season of holidays! October ends with Halloween, encouraging a whole month of horror movies and candy culminating with disguised munchkins begging at the door. November ends with Thanksgiving and family gathering with friends. It also begins the largest shopping season of the year with the coming of Christmas. I'm not crazy about the coming snows, but Autumn signals the coming of the red and green.
It's a season of fun, love and excitement. So why does society start going to war with each other???
I've seen it start already. Some local stores are carrying Halloween candy and costumes side by side with Christmas decorations and trees. The holidays themselves are so filled with love that the infighting and grumbling throughout the season is uncalledfor and unwarranted.
This is partially due to the fact that our holidays are being turned into what I call Hallmark Holidays. It becomes more important to spend money on the candy, the costumes, the decorations and the gifts than the actual celebration of the holidays involved. The stress becomes so unbearable that the loved ones involved are loathed. In my own case, twenty years of retail work soured my mood so much that I started preferring the parody carols to those proclaiming the true holiday spirit. It's not so now, but for a very long time, Christmas and Thanksgiving were just two guaranteed days off that I happened to be able to spend with family.
We have forgotten where our holidays have gone and why they bring us such happiness. We get so lost in spending our money that our joy is spent instead.
Tonight, I'll talk about where Halloween comes from. I think it is important because I've seen the following posting as well as others like it in the past. I also understand that there are those who drop similar pamphlets into children's Trick or Treat bags instead of candy!
Before even getting to the holiday, I should remind people that cartoons, TV and movies and Harry Potter are all fiction. Fantasy. Products to exercise our imagination. Essentially, this person is saying that we need to occult our children from their imaginations with the Gospel instead understanding the true meaning of the holiday as it pertains to them and their beliefs.
In addition, people need to realize that while the occult pertains to "supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena",which is by no means Satanic unless put to use for that intended purpose. That is where occult education should be focused - in the belief of good verses evil.
As for our holiday in question...
Our current customs are thought to have come from the Celtic-speaking countries. Some of the customs are pagan (again, not to be confused with Satanic) and Celtic Christianity. Some historians have been able to track the origins of Halloween back to the celebration of the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or the feast of the dead called Parentalia.
Most commonly, the origins are thought to come from the Celtic festival of Samhain. This was an important celebratory day in the medieval Gaelic calendar usually celebrated around October 31 - November 1. Samhain and the Brittonic Celt celebration of Calan Gaeaf are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween today.
These holidays symbolize the end of the harvest season and the coming of the dark season of winter. Many believed that the old gods would come to visit, even after the introduction of God and Christianity. Offerings of food, drink and crop portions would be left out to appease them. Many also believed that the souls of the dead would visit their homes from their living years. Families would set a place at the dining table for their ancestors to join them and be honored.
Nuts and apples were often used in rituals. Many times, bonfires would be lit mimicking the sun holding back the death and decay of the coming dark times and to scare away evil spirits.
Going back as far as the 1500's, people would disguise themselves and go house to house singing and reciting verse in exchange for food. In Scotland, children would paint their faces mimicking the old gods and returned dead souls and would threaten mischief if they weren't welcomed. Many similar practices have appeared throughout Europe.
In the 19th century, pranksters would carry around hollowed out turnips with candles as lanterns. This practice spread to England in the 20th century with pumpkins, now known as Jack o' Lanterns.
Does any of this sound familiar?
And now back to our misinformed Christian...
In the Christian liturgical calendar, All Hallow's Day, also known as All Saint's Day, was introduced in the year 609 AD and was celebrated on May 13 as part of a triumverate of holidays called Allhallowstide. This celebration includes All Hallows Eve (Halloween), All Hallow's Day and All Souls' Day. It wasn't until 835 AD that All Saint's was moved to November 1, making the celebration of Allhallowstide coincide with Samhain. It has been suggested that the reason for the move was for the safety of the the pilgrims visiting Rome for the celebration. Summer in Rome at that time was rampant with disease that would kill many of the visiting celebrants.
The celebration of Allhallowstide included displaying relics of the saints. Those that could not afford such relics or mementos would instead dress as the saints. Again, it was believed that the souls of the dead would wander the earth until All Hallow's Day. All Hallow's Eve was their last chance to exact revenge on their enemies.
Some Christian cultures would light bonfires to guide spirits away from haunting "honest Christian folk". Others in Austria, England and Ireland would light candles called "soul lights" in the windows of their houses to guide souls back to visit their earthly home. Many Continental Europeans believed that the dead of the churchyards would rise once a year for gastly party known as the danse macabre. This was reenacted by children as far back as the 16th century which could be considered the predecessor to modern day costume parties. Again, similar practices and rituals have been practiced in different cultures to this day.
Anglican colonists in the South and Catholic colonists in Maryland began recognizing All Hallow's Eve in North America. Puritans in the North refused to recognize it as they did with other celebrations of the Catholic church, such as Christmas. The celebration of Halloween was spread mainly by the Irish and Scottish immigrants and is now recognized across North America to this day.
And what about our trick-or-treaters who need to be informed of the Gospel and the power of God? In Christian tradition, All Hallow's Eve, a.k.a Halloween, "focuses on the theme of using humor and ridicule to confront the power of death".
So, dressing as saints, imitating the old gods, honoring the spirits of our ancestors, ridiculing death, lighting bonfires to mislead evil spirits, lighting candles (and putting them in Jack o' Lanterns) to guide spirits home. That's Samhain celebrated by Celtic cultures. That's also the Christian holiday that was moved to overlap Samhain. That's on the liturgical calendar also. This is the history of Halloween. This is celebrated in numerous countries across the world with similar traditions from differing backgrounds.
To those that believe that Halloween cannot be celebrated because of the witchcraft and wizardry, the fantasy and the fiction: It's time to refresh yourself in your own liturgical beliefs and remember the true meaning of All Hallow's Eve.
I know it is still early. There's still a month between. The shops and stores are selling it now, so
Happy Halloween!
*Information taken from Wikipedia, photos from Google Search. "Misinformed Christian" photo originally posted on Facebook by Joules Duncan
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