Cornerstone No. 182, page 6
HALLOWEEN – A MYSTERIOUS FESTIVAL
On 3lst October almost anything can happen which on any other day would be regarded as extraordinary – groups of heavily disguised children threatening neighbours with the words‘ trick or treat’, meeting a witch in the street or on your doorstep, scary lanterns made out of turnips etc. etc. Why? Because it is Halloween – but that still is no answer – Why? Nowadays Halloween is an important date in the retail calendar because it gives trade a much needed boost during the long quiet period between the summer and Christmas. However when I was growing up in the London area Halloween was largely ignored because we were busy commemorating events of 400 years earlier – Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot which took place on 5th November 1605 – and it seemed that a choice had to be made between the two. However, the roots of Halloween are much much older than Guy Fawkes and even of the name Halloween itself. It is generally considered to have its origins in the Celtic end of year celebrations which culminated in their Festival of the Dead when people took the opportunity to have a last fling before the onset of winter and the dark period of the year and all the hardship that involved. The belief was that the dead were in contact with the living for a few hours on the last day of the Celtic year and also that evil spirits were on the rampage. The celebrations were apparently wild and extreme in an effort to ward off this evil. At this time the Church had its own commemorations for the dead. These were in the early part of the year, usually the first Sunday after Pentecost, until Pope Gregory III( 731-741) decreed that the Western Church should transfer its Festival of All Hallows( All Saints) to coincide with the Celtic New Year. This was presumably in an effort to Christianize this pagan celebration just as had been done earlier with Christmas and Easter. So the situation now is that the western Church celebrates All Saints Day on lst November and the day before,( All Hallows Eve) Halloween, is marked by the remnants of the pagan Celtic Festival of Samhain and as a result children in 2016 dress as witches and ghosts and try to scare us all!
Pam Kirby