All Hallows Eve

    With our recent candy fest in mind, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the origins of Hallowe'en.  The name is an abbreviation of All Hallows Eve.  Like New Year's Eve, All Hallows Eve is just the lead up to the big event, All Saints Day.   And, like New Year's, the "eve" in some respects, has eclipsed the "day."
   Ironically, some Christians object to Hallowe'en as a celebration of a pagan rite, while some secularists object to its Christian overtones.  Like many of our holidays, (holy days) the truth is a blend of both.  The Celts of early Britain organized their lives and their celebrations around the seasons.  The end of October, meant the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, a time of darkness, fallow ground and death.  They also believed that this was "an in between" time, when the souls of the dead could revisit their homes.  Samhain, for whom the feast was named, was the Celtic lord of death.   Dressing in grotesque costumes, making loud noises or placing a jack o'lantern in the window was considered a way to keep the spectres at bay.    Hallowe'en in the Druid sect wasn't a happy festival!

     As Christianity spread throughout the world, the church often adapted existing festivals to Christian principles.  Thus, Pope Gregory IV, decreed that All Saints Day, a day to honour the saints and martyrs of the church, should fall on Nov.1, thus setting aside the end of summer as a day to remember all the saints (hallows) and martyrs of the faith. What had been a night of fear, became the eve of a sacred time.  A time to honour the great company of believers, and to remember that, through Christ, death has been swallowed up in victory. 1 Cor. 15: 54-56 
    The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, consider saints to be particular persons whose lives and good works have been recognized by the church, and who have been elevated by the church to the level of sainthood.
      As a "reformed" church, the Presbyterian denomination follows Luther's definition of "saints" in its New Testament interpretation.  For us saints are the whole community of  believers, past, present and future.  Therefore, All Saints Day is a day to celebrate the unity of the entire church and to give thanks for the saints who have taught and preached to the world, who have nurtured and protected the church throughout the ages and whose work continues to this day.
     For followers of Jesus, ghosts and goblins are just costumes, no more fearsome than ballerinas or cowboys.  We hand out candy for fun, not as a means to placate demons. 

  We may get a kick out of funny costumes and practical jokes, but the real joy in this weekend comes from the knowledge that we walk with Christ and are joined with the great company of believers.  As the hymn puts it, 
                   "O blest communion, fellowship divine!  
                    We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; 
                    Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.  
                    Alleluia.