Oh, yeaaaaaaaah! The inimitable Satchmo has just described the meaning of Halloween. Since, Halloween is next week, I thought you might be interested in what it means and where it came from.
Halloween is a conjunction of two archaic English terms, "hallow" and "e'en". Hallow means "holy" and "e'en is the contraction for "evening". Together they mean "holy eve" or the "eve of the Holies or Saints." That's why I embedded the song, "When the Saints come marching in" above.
Halloween began as the Catholic holy day of obligation known as All Saints Day. It is, in fact, the "eve" of the same day. You know how we celebrate "Christmas Eve"? And you know how we celebrate Sunday Mass beginning with the evening Mass on Saturday? Its the same principal.
October 31 is the Eve of All Saints Day and you can go to Mass on that Evening which will count for the obligation of going to Mass on November 1st.
Halloween is the day that Catholics celebrate the Communion of Saints. We celebrate the fact that God has surrounded us with a cloud of witnesses who pray for us and intercede for us in heaven.
Originally, on Halloween, one group of people would dress as Saints. Another as demons. And when the Saints came marching in, the demons would flee.
Somewhere along the line, non-Catholics got that confused and they seem to celebrate the existence of the demons, exclusively, now.
But if you're Catholic, you can still celebrate an authentic Halloween, by attending the Mass and praying for the their intercession on that day.
And remember to visit a cemetery and pray for "All Souls" on the next day. Nov 2nd.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for contributing.