Resanctifying Halloween

Etymology

The word, "Halloween," comes from "All Hallows Evening." Through the wonders of linguistic evolution, "Evening" got turned into "E'en" and then floated over and became attached to "Hallows," knocking the "s" off in the process.

"Hallows" in an archaic word for "saints." We use that old word in the Our Father when we pray, "hallowed be Thy Name"--"may Your Name be kept holy." The same verb also was used by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address: "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground."

God is the one Who hallows humans, Who sanctifies them and makes them saints.

Today, "All Hallows Day" is known as "All Saints Day." It is celebrated on November 1^st, of course--the day after All Hallows E'en.

All Saints (Hallows) Day

The 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia traces the development of the feast, which was "instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year."

I do not know of any documentary evidence for the frequently-repeated claim that the Church moved the date to November 1 in order to compete with pagan traditions. The origins of the feast long predate the spread of Christianity to Celtic territory. The assignment of the feast to November 1, followed by All Souls Day on November 2, seems to have taken place in Rome, not in Ireland.

Sanctifying the Evening

• Ask your children to dress as apostles, saints, or martyrs from the New Testament or any age in Church History. The Old Testament is filled with men and women who could be honored: the patriarchs and their wives, prophets, kings, queens, judges, fathers, and mothers. Your children could also dress as angels, named or unnamed.
• Give your children something to give to the houses they visit--a little holy card, a promise of prayer, maybe a note about the original idea of honoring God's marvelous deeds in the lives of the saints.
• Pray with the children before taking them around the neighborhood and pray with them again before they start eating the candy.

Links

• "Halloween in Our Catholic Home."