CityView Magazine

14 | September/October 2017 F A I T H I IS HALLOWEEN A PAGAN FESTIVAL with roots in the Celtic celebration of Samhain? If so, the answer to the article title would be a simple no, a Christian should not celebrate Halloween. Yet, what if this backstory is an oversimplification or even a misrepresentation? What is the meaning of Halloween? And what is its history? e name Halloween is a contracted form of the words All Hallows' Eve (evening). at is the night before All Saints' Day, just as Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas. "Hallows" is synonymous with "saints" or "holy ones." Christians will recognize the word from the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be y name," or "Make/show Your name holy." So, what is All Saints' Day? In the first three centuries of the Church there were many martyrs. e genuineness of their faith was proven on crosses and flaming stakes, in coliseums with wild beasts, and in Roman dungeons where their bodies wasted away. While their persecutors understood their deaths as weakness, the faithful considered martyrdom the ultimate witness to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Because they drew strength and courage from the martyrs, early Christians commemorated their sacrifices by celebrating the days on which they sealed their testimonies with their blood. As the years passed, the number of martyrs grew due to persecution. Instead of trying to observe the anniversary of every martyr's death, many began to celebrate their martyrdoms on a fixed day each year. For many, this day was May 1. In AD 607 Emperor Phocas presented Pope Boniface IV with the Pantheon Temple in Rome. is temple was originally erected in honor of Octavian's victory over Marc Antony in 27 BC, and had been dedicated to Jupiter and other Roman deities. e Pope cleansed the Pantheon by removing the statues of the gods. en he dedicated it to "all saints" who were martyred in the first three centuries of the Church's history. In May of AD 609 a festive procession accompanied the bones of many martyrs collected from various cemeteries into the church. is commemoration of the martyrs' faithfulness was a declaration of the victory of the risen and exalted Jesus Christ over all powers physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal. What was once a Pagan temple, built for the veneration of Roman gods, was now a memorial to saints who overcame because they "loved not their lives even unto death" (Revelation 12:11). Meanwhile, the gospel of Jesus Christ was advancing among Barbarian tribes from France to Britain. One of these tribes, the Celts, had a day on which they remembered their dead, November 1. eir day of remembrance was, however, one of dread. ey divided the year into two parts: summer and winter. ey believed that the spirits of the dead would pass over in the realm of the dead on Samhain, or the first day of winter. As summer passed to winter, so the living, they surmised, passed into death. ey feared these spirits as evil menaces. So, to escape the malignity of the spirits they sought to appease them with treats and to hide from them by disguising themselves as ghouls and goblins so as not to be recognized as someone to be harassed. e Church recognized this fear of death and evil, and responded by turning that same day into a day of hope. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day to November 1, to point to Christ as the One who "having disarmed all principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross" (Colossians 2:15). is was no longer to be a day of dread, but a day to remember how God made the saints victorious through the death and resurrection of Jesus. No longer were treats to be offered to evil spirits to appease them, but to the poor in exchange for prayers. People no longer dressed to hide from evil spirits. Instead, they dressed to mock the evil spirits as defeated foes. Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? BY JOSHUA D. OWEN, PHD

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