theophiles.org - Halloween is...

Halloween is...

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a legitimate part of the Christian calendar.
720	99.3%
better with candy corn.
4	0.6%
time to pick up that Wezlo the Impaler costume from the cleaners.
1	0.1%
a powerful weapon in Old Nick's arsenal.
0	0%

Number of Voters	: 725
First Vote	: Monday, 31 October 2011 07:20
Last Vote	: Wednesday, 21 December 2011 13:17

Comments

emperorbma

|2011-11-03 09:34:16

First answer... but: also coopted by capitalism.

Rationale: Eve of All Hallows.

Technically, it originated in a "festival of the dead" but it had been embraced into the medieval Church as a festival of remembrance for the saints who walked in Christ before us. Conveniently, it is also Reformation Day for us Lutherans, which I think is also a quite useful remembrance.

SteveGus

|2011-11-06 13:11:11

People who claim that "Halloween is pagan" are being misled by late nineteenth century folklorists. They were paganizing, and hot on the trail of "pagan survivals", so naturally by creative re-interpretation they found them all over. The ancient Celts may have observed something on Samhain, but it wasn't a big deal, not like Beltane/May Day, and we haven't the slightest notion what they did then.

All Saints and All Souls day are entirely Christian inventions. It makes a good deal of sense to have a feast commemorating the holy dead marking the end of autumn.

We're also very lucky to have the customs we do. It used to be that various festivals of ritual food distribution to the poor were common throughout the countryside on the British Isles. They fell on several dates, and some places had several a year. Often they were called "souling", and the food distributed was "soul cake".

These customs survived the Reformation; what killed them was industrialism, and the move from rural to urban. All popular customs that gave opportunities for the lower classes to gather or that sent them knocking on the doors of the rich came under severe pressure from the people who wrote the rules.

They almost killed Christmas, too, for the same reason. In 1820 it was moribund. We can blame Charles Dickens for the months-long depressing mess we've no choice but to observe.

emperorbma

|2011-11-06 15:05:07

Well, to start out with, we Lutherans also celebrate All Souls/All Saints. I thoroughly agree that the content of "All Saints/All Souls" is quite Christian and my goal is not to impugn All Saints/All Souls day. The concept itself, as it is used by the Church, is indeed consistent with Christian faith.

I do, however, believe that the Reformation Day, as a principle, being connected with these two festivals serves to emphasize them and to illustrate the importance of keeping our context straight. First, it illustrates our need not to put the saints in place of Christ. Second, it also illustrates that there is a need to remember our brothers and sisters who have walked in Christ before so that we can learn from their examples. Both of these are implicit in the Reformation day concept and further bolster the All Saints/All Souls day festival.

Now, I'm not convinced that the idea didn't have some pagan influence despite having Christian content. I'll grant that the precursory festivals probably wasn't as central or vital as the modern Wiccans and neo-pagans would like to imagine, but it's pretty clear that the idea for a "festival of the dead" was something that was pretty popular around the Autumn months. It's fair enough to say that the Christians saw no harm in making a Christian festival to reign in the popular sentiment and redirect it toward Christian goals. Unlike a fundagelical, I don't see contact with pagan cultures as an "incorrigible evul," even if I do believe we should be careful about it and aware of it. (I mean, I basically take the same approach with philosophy as you've seen elsewhere...)

What I'm more concerned with is the commercialization of the festival into a "dress up like Dracula and get candy" bonanza. That's not really a Christian message and it clearly detracts from the remembrance. I've half a mind to put up a door with a scroll nailed to it and pass out little candies shaped like Reformation related things just to counteract the commercialization...

laika - re:

|2011-11-09 11:26:35

emperorbma wrote:

What I'm more concerned with is the commercialization of the festival into a "dress up like Dracula and get candy" bonanza. That's not really a Christian message and it clearly detracts from the remembrance. I've half a mind to put up a door with a scroll nailed to it and pass out little candies shaped like Reformation related things just to counteract the commercialization...

But is it entirely removed from remembrance? Indirectly, and much like All Souls/All Saints, even the commercial Halloween serves as a reminder that we are mortal.

Commercial Halloween may not be directly Christian, but it seems useful on some level as a kind of huge momento mori in a culture that worships and aspires to eternal youth. Becoming a ghost or a zombie or a skeleton for a few hours is at least a round about way of attempting to deal with mortality.

emperorbma

|2011-11-14 12:24:50

Memento mori isn't the only item on the All Hallows itinerary, though. It's also the exempli gratia for those who walked in Christ before us.

If you divorce the latter from the former it's just another festival for "Saint Death," the syncretized and absorbed pagan festivals from pre-Christian times. One must remember not only death but the promise of life in Christ and the saints who walked according to His promise before we did. In the light of the Communion of Saints, the festival must always have the Resurrection and the Life, not the grave and its sting, as the center.

laika

|2011-11-03 12:37:20

emperorbma wrote:

First answer... but: also coopted by capitalism.

But in a playful way, IMH, a way that involves candy corn.

It is a shame, though, that we've lost the sense of the day after. Locally, we were able to reclaim it to a degree by participating in Dia de los Muertos celebrations with our neighbors from the Further South, but state government is currently undertaking an ethnic cleansing which may dampen the spirit of cultural interactions of the kind.

I was unaware of your Reformation Day falling on the same day.

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