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I like candy. And dressing up. And it's the one time of the year when women can dress up like whores and not be condemned heh heh! I don't mean that to be sexist - just a little observation.
No matter what the origins - it has transformed into a nice little holiday for the kids to dress up, have fun, and get candy. And that's all that should matter to most people.
I think most people enjoy the festivities of Halloween, most people don't view it as holy although if they do, great!
It is known as Samhain (Sowen) in the pagan tradition and marks the beginning of the new year (The begining of the wheel of sabbats). It's a pretty important sabbat as it is known to be a day where the layer between the worlds is at it's thinnest.
While I appreciated the history provided in the link above, I just want to take the time to point out clearly that Halloween is in NO way considered to be a "holy day" to members of the Roman Catholic faith. However it started, it is now a commercialized vehicle for candy companies to allow all of us to over indulge. It's a day for the kids to dress up in costumes and go door to door looking for candy. In the neighborhoods I've lived in, it's been kids of all faiths.
As has been pointed out on the article linked in this thread (and on another thread on this subject within this forum), tomorrow (November 1st) IS a mandatory Holy Day of Obligation for Roman Catholics. It is the Feast of All Saints. Sunday mass schedules apply. As was mentioned in the linked article above, this "feast day" has been celebrated by Catholics since 373. The feast was moved to November 1st during the reign of Pope Gregory (731-741). As mentioned by someone else on this forum, as children at Catholic School, it was kind of a big day for us since we all got to dress up as our "named Saint" (most of us being named after one of them!) and parade into the school auditorium belting out "When the Saints Come Marching In". This little ditty being held AFTER mass had been celebrated, naturally!
Further, November 2nd (this Wednesday) is the Feast of All Souls Day. Any of you with a Catholic Cemetery nearby may notice additional traffic owing to a mass being said on the grounds. Although this is NOT considered a Holy Day of Obligation, many practicing Catholics (myself included) will mark the day with attending mass (normal weekday schedule) and a visit to our loved one's burial plot.
And just to leave the door fully open for potential scoffing, it should be noted that while the Feast of All Saints celebrates the lives of those in Heaven, the Feast of All Souls focuses on the souls of those who have passed who are in purgatory (yes, we're still big believers in that!). There are two indulgences (yes, we believe in those too!) offered on the Feast of All Souls: (1) For visiting a church; (2) For visiting a cemetery.
Thanks for the opportunity to clear this up for those that are interested. It's kind of like the Easter Bunny hop, hop, hopping along on Easter Sunday - or Fat Tuesday becoming a HUGE celebration in New Orleans. It may have a loose/frayed string that once attached itself to an actual Catholic holiday - but to practicing Catholics, it has nothing to do with why we are attending mass.
Halloween is a great day to dig out my Monster Mash album. It is screamingly hilarious (pun intended). The is a cut on it entitled The Sinister Stomp that makes me smile every time I think of it. All hail Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers!
Not one kid came to our door last night. Not one! What's happening to the world? Maybe it's the candy on offer - in my day, a rat on a stick was the pinnacle of trick-or-treating accomplishment!
We can blame the Victorians for making Halloween dark and spooky. Before that most people actually believed in evil spirits and made conscious effort to keep them away. Halloween was part of the "keeping bad stuff away" process and did not have such dark undertones.
The Victorians, however lived in the Age of Reason, and realized they couldn't call or attract evil spirits by otherwise mundane activity. Still, they got lonely for spookiness and grew an unhealthy fascination with the subject; they ate up scary stories like Dracula and Frankenstein, put on seances where they tried to call the dead, ect ect.
There is a reason we equate old Victorian houses, graveyards, ect with Halloween; those people had a true fascination with the macabre that we still carry in our culture today.
u could be right but it feels creepy. i dont like it.
it has become bigger than christmas here.
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Maybe it's the candy on offer - in my day, a rat on a stick was the pinnacle of trick-or-treating accomplishment!
