Photo creation from Blake Lasater
It seems many Christians are afraid of Halloween celebrations. Our local Methodist minister, Blake Lasater, wrote an explanation of this. I feel compelled to share it with you. Happy Halloween!
“All Hallows’ Eve
Traditions are established all the time, they maybe ancient or they maybe new, but they are simply ways for us to sanctify the rhythms of time. Halloween is a particular favorite of mine, probably my inner child speaking. It gets its name from the old English word for saint — hallowed.
The early church set aside days to honor those who had been martyred for their faith, but very quickly the calendar filled with saintly feast days. May 13th was the original date of All Saints, or the Feast of Martyrs, but then the Pope took possession of the ancient Roman Pantheon (pan = all, theos = gods, hence all the gods) and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary and “all the saints” in 615. By 840 the day was known as “All Saints’ Day”, and in old English, “All Hallows”, and then Pope Sixtus IV in 1484 moved it to the first day of November and gave it a ‘vigil’, where people could stay up the night before and keep watch while praying, hence our favorite holiday of mischief and candy, “All Hallows’ Eve” or “Halloween”. Many folks would go door-to-door asking for little baked goods called “Soul Cakes” in exchange they promised to pray for that family’s dead loved ones.
The move to November 1st coincided with the first harvest, and the Pope wanted to make sure there would be plenty of food for those who made pilgrimages to their home churches. It is a great time to bring canned food to give to local food pantries on All Saints.
Halloween got mixed up with a lot of non-christian traditions and sacred days. Samhain is a Celtic festival during this same time, to mark the end of harvest season and the beginning of the “darker” half of the year. Interestingly, it is the halfway point between the Equinox and the Solstice, both of which are vitally important times for neolithic cultures. Many considered this time to be a moment when the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest, and the spirits could come and go freely between the realms — hence ghosts and goblins.
Werewolves go back to ancient Sumerian mythology, and perhaps were ways of explaining the existence and motivations of ancient serial killers (they are indeed monsters). Vampires were folks suffering from light sensitivities, and often that condition struck the nobility the hardest — hence the moniker, “Count Dracula”. Mummies would eventually make an appearance as early archeologists uncovered ancient Egypt, and then quickly came the apocryphal Mummy’s Curse (Howard Carter was not cursed for opening Tut’s tomb). Devils and demons would emerge from the imaginations of Medieval Christians, and somehow God’s most beautiful angel would become a fallen dude with red skin, horns, and a tail. The idea of Hell would be fleshed out as Satan’s abode, and a place where sinners were punished. That’s not quite a biblical idea, but one that emerged gradually culminating in Dante’s vivid imagination. Today Christians talk more about Hell and Satan than they do about Heaven and Jesus — an odd transformation of a religion based on grace and love and eternal life.
But Halloween was never a separate, pagan holiday corrupting good Christians everywhere. All cultures have in their sacred beliefs times set aside to remember the ancestors, and to be reminded that death is nothing to fear. The darkness may descend — as it always does — but the light and life will go on. For me Halloween is that time of sacred mischief that whispers we have nothing to fear from the dark. The Light has come into the world and conquered the darkness. Ghouls, goblins, and demons have no hold over us, and our Halloween revelries are simply a time to remember that good news.
Don’t let the religious zealots frighten into believing it is an evil day.”
“The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the ‘devil.’ It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. Look at your life and see what the devil has made. But realize that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a lie. Your creation by God is the only Foundation that cannot be shaken, because the light is in it. Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict. You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. There is no death, but there is a belief in death.”
A Course in Miracles T-3.VII.5:1-11
“We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and real to us as Truth, and while we make a personal devil and an anthropomorphic God our starting-points, — especially if we consider Satan as a being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 351:16-21
