Halloween And Christianity :: essays research papers

Halloween and Christianity     It is often said that Halloween is non the "harmless" holiday it isthought to be, instead it is believed to be a gentile ritual which dates back tothe ancient Celtic Druids. According to the article "Should Our Kids take noteHalloween?" in Catholic Digest Halloweens origin is very much Christian andAmerican.     Although the ancient Celts celebrated a minor festival on the thirty-first ofOctober, it fell on that day because the Feast of all told Saints or " all told Hallows"falls on November 1st. During the 840s Pope Gregory IV gad All Saints twenty-four hours to becelebrated everywhere. The day before the feast became known as "All HallowsEven" or "Halloween". At the time, that day did not switch any real significance.In the year of 998, the abbot of the monastery of Cluny in grey France, St.Odilo added a jubilancy on November 2nd called All Souls Day. The newceleb ration was a feast whose purpose was to recognize those in heaven and inpurgatory.     The tradition of dressing up in costumes on Halloween is derived fromthe Feast of All Souls Day in France. During the 14th and 15th centuries whenEurope was hit by outbreaks of the bubonic plague, about half of its populationwas wiped out. Since life spans were greatly pint-size because of the plague,Catholics began to focus on the after life. The number of Masses help more often than notincreased and people of all social classes gathered to dress in differentgarments and lead lost spirits to the tomb in a daisy chain which became knownas the "Dance of Death".     Dressing up did not become part of Halloween until the creation of theBritish colonies in northern America. During that period of time, Catholics had nolegal rights in England. At times face Catholics attempted to resist. Onesuch occasion was a plot to revoke King James I and his Parli ament withgunpowder. The plan was ill-conceived and intimately foiled when the guard of thepowder, Guy Fawkes, was found and hung on November 5, 1605. The date became widely celebrated in England. Bands of revelers began to wear masks on that date