what is all hallows eve really about?

Question

can someone explain it's origin, im at work and only have yahoo, so i cant search, can someone copy and paste some info for me to read, i heard it's really a scary thing, about how halloween came about...

Answer 1

The 31st of October and 1st and 2nd November are called, colloquially (not officially), "Hallowtide" or the "Days of the Dead" because on these days we pray for or remember those who've left this world.

Whatever the "roots" of this religious observance, or the history behind it, the fact remains that praying for the dead to reach Heaven is a great act of charity.

And remembering those who are in Heaven (on All Saints) is a worthy practice and very inspiring to those on Earth who are still involved in spiritual warfare.

Answer 2

Pagans don't "hallow" evenings, so that should clue you in that this is a Christian celebration. When early church persecution began to subside, the then church inherited the pagan temple in Rome called the Pantheon. It was rededicated in honor of the fallen saints of the persecution. Since it was a required feast day and a lot of fun, there wasn't enought food to go around for this festival in May, so the church moved Halloween/All Saints Day to October/November (harvest time) with the second benefit of stamping out Samhain (pronounced So-un), a pagan festival during that later time. Anyway, there was more food for the festival at harvest, and so there it has forever remained.

Today, a lot of the pagan seasonal emphases, along with hollywood horror movies have attached or re-attached themselves to this celebration so that it hardly looks like a church event anymore. So Christians really have to be deliberate in focusing people's attention to the reality behind the mask. By the way, Martin Luther chose Halloween in 1517 to spark the Protestant Reformation because of the tremendous number of people around celebrating who would be able to see and read his posted 95 Theses.

Answer 3

All Hallow's Eve is not scary or spooky. Pagan influences have attached such horrors to what is a Holy Feast.

All Hallow's Eve is a day for remembering those who have died and praying that they will reach Heaven (if they haven't already).

People took an observance relating to the dead and turned it into something twisted and morose.

Answer 4

For a Catholic, Halloween is simply the night before All Saints Day. Just like Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas.

It is a contraction using an Old English word for Holy (Hallows) which is also used for "saint": Hence, Halloween = Hallows Eve = Saints Eve.

Read this Encyclopedia entry for more info:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm

Answer 5

The modern holiday of Halloween has it's origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain. The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The Ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

Answer 6

"scary thing"... all us pagans just love it when you refer to our new year and dia de los muertos like that...

Answer 7

Listen to the esteemed teacher Bow Wow Wow discuss this subject at a level of metaphysical depth that is beyond mere cultural interpretations.

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Hallows_Eve

Answer 9

research it on religioustolerance.org

Basically its about honoring the dead.

Answer 10

WITCHES and ghosts, pumpkins and bonfires, trick or treat. The outward trappings of Halloween are easy to identify. But what lies behind this and similar celebrations? Halloween has also been called All Hallows’ Eve, the eve of All Saints’ Day. This supposedly Christian name, however, hides origins that are far from hallowed. In fact, scholars say that Halloween’s roots go back to a time long before Christianity—the era when the ancient Celts inhabited Britain and Ireland. Using a lunar calendar, the Celts divided the year into two seasons—the dark winter months and the light summer months. On the full moon nearest November 1, the Celts celebrated the festival of Samhain, meaning “Summer’s End.”

This festival, which marked the beginning of the Celtic new year, came at the end of summer, when the harvest had been gathered and the flocks and herds had been brought down from pasture into shelter. The Celts believed that as the days shortened, it was necessary to reinvigorate the sun through various rites and sacrifices. In symbolism of the dying old year, all fires were put out, and the new year was inaugurated with sacred bonfires from which all members of the community rekindled their hearths. These bonfires—an echo of which can be found today in Britain on Guy Fawkes Night and in Brazil in the June festivals—were also thought to frighten away evil spirits.

It was believed that on the festival of Samhain, the veil between the human and the supernatural worlds was parted and spirits, both good and evil, roamed the earth. The souls of the dead were thought to return to their homes, and families would put out food and drink for their ghostly visitors in hopes of appeasing them and warding off misfortune. Thus, today when children dressed as ghosts or witches go from house to house demanding a Halloween treat or threatening a mischievous trick, they unwittingly perpetuate the ancient rituals of Samhain. Jean Markale comments in his book Halloween, histoire et traditions (Halloween—History and Traditions): “In receiving something in their hands, they establish, on a symbolic level that they do not understand, a brotherly exchange between the visible and the invisible worlds. That is why the Halloween masquerades . . . are in fact sacred ceremonies.”

Since people believed that the barriers between the physical and supernatural realms were down, they thought that humans were able to cross over into the spirit world with ease. Samhain was therefore a particularly auspicious time to unlock the secrets of the future. Apples or hazelnuts, both viewed as products of sacred trees, were used to divine information concerning marriage, sickness, and death. For example, apples with identifying marks were placed in a tub of water. By seizing an apple using only the mouth, a young man or woman was supposed to be able to identify his or her future spouse. This divination practice survives today in the Halloween game of bobbing for apples.

Samhain was also characterized by drunken revelry and a casting aside of inhibitions. “Traditional values, if not flouted, were reversed,” states Markale. “What was forbidden was allowed, and what was allowed was forbidden.” Halloween still reflects this spirit today, which no doubt accounts to a great extent for its increasing popularity. Commenting on this, The Encyclopedia of Religion describes Halloween nowadays as “a time when adults can also cross cultural boundaries and shed their identities by indulging in an uninhibited evening of frivolity. Thus, the basic Celtic quality of the festival as an evening of annual escape from normal realities and expectations has remained into the twentieth century.”


Following the potato famine in the 19th century, Irish immigrants took Halloween and its customs to the United States. From there it has returned to Europe in the past few years. The growing popularity of Halloween, though, is not viewed favorably by all. As notes the newspaper Le Monde, “Halloween, which coincides with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (November 1 and 2) and could even replace them, is making shopkeepers happy and panicking churchmen.”

Church representatives in France have expressed concern over the decline of these traditional Catholic holidays in favor of Halloween, seeing it as a sign of the “paganization of society.” For Stanislas Lalanne, spokesman for France’s Conference of Catholic Bishops, Halloween ‘distorts the meaning of life and death.’ The bishop of Nice, Jean Bonfils, stated that “this festival and its rituals have nothing to do with our Mediterranean and Christian culture,” and he warned Catholics against “the most important festival of Satanists the world over.”

Commenting on the French abandonment of Catholic traditions for such pagan festivals, Hippolyte Simon, bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, notes: “It is as if French society were looking for a kind of civil religion capable of replacing Christian symbolism.” He writes: “At Halloween the dead are imitated and their ‘ghosts’ come back to frighten us and threaten us with death. On All Saints’ Day, in contrast, we affirm that the departed are alive and that we are promised to rejoin them in the City of God.”—Vers une France païenne? (Toward a Pagan France?)

In a similar vein, Carlo Maria Martini, cardinal of Milan, Italy, urged Italians not to abandon Catholic holidays, declaring that Halloween is “alien to our tradition, which has immense value and must be continued. All Souls’ Day is a celebration that belongs to our history. It is the moment in which hope for eternal life unfolds, a moment in which the Lord makes us understand that there is more to life than that on earth.” Many sincere Catholics no doubt feel the same way. Yet, is the distinction between Halloween and All Souls’ Day as clear-cut as these comments would lead us to believe? What does a close examination of the roots of these Catholic holidays reveal?


The Catholic Encyclopedia defines All Saints’ Day as a feast to “honour all the saints, known and unknown.” At the end of the second century, so-called Christians began to honor those who had been martyred for their faith and, believing that they were already with Christ in heaven, prayed to them to intercede on their behalf. A regular commemoration began when on May 13, 609 or 610 C.E., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon—the Roman temple of all the gods—to Mary and all the martyrs. Markale comments: “The Roman gods left their place to the saints of the triumphant religion.”

The change of date to November came under Pope Gregory III (731-741 C.E.), who dedicated a chapel in Rome to all the saints and ordered that they be honored on November 1. Exactly why he did this is unknown. But it may have been because such a holiday was already being celebrated on this date in England. The Encyclopedia of Religion points out: “Samhain remained a popular festival among the Celtic people throughout the christianization of Great Britain. The British church attempted to divert this interest in pagan customs by adding a Christian celebration to the calendar on the same date as Samhain. . . . The medieval British commemoration of All Saints’ Day may have prompted the universal celebration of this feast throughout the Christian church.”

Markale points out the increasing influence of Irish monks throughout Europe at this time. The New Catholic Encyclopedia also observes: “The Irish often assigned the first of the month to important feasts, and since November 1 was also the beginning of the Celtic winter, it would have been a likely date for a feast of all the saints.” Finally, in 835 C.E., Pope Gregory IV made this festival universal.

As for All Souls’ Day, on which prayers are recited in order to help souls in purgatory attain heavenly bliss, this holiday was fixed on November 2 during the 11th century by the monks of Cluny, France. While All Souls’ Day is ostensibly a Catholic holiday, it is clear that confusion existed in the minds of ordinary folk. The New Catholic Encyclopedia notes that “throughout the Middle Ages it was popular belief that the souls in purgatory could appear on this day as will-o’-the-wisps, witches, toads, etc.”

Unable to uproot pagan beliefs from the hearts of its flock, the church simply hid them behind a “Christian” mask. Highlighting this fact, The Encyclopedia of Religion says: “The Christian festival, the Feast of All Saints, commemorates the known and unknown saints of the Christian religion just as Samhain had acknowledged and paid tribute to the Celtic deities.”