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by: RichmondParkChurch
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Word Count: 591

Six hundred years before Jesus and before the Roman occupation, Celtic culture dominated the British Isles. The Celtic priests, the Druids, oversaw the "Summer's End" (in Gaelic, "Samhain") festival on the evening of the 31st of October, an ancient type of harvest festival mixed with spiritual elements as this was the one night a year when the dead and evil spirits were thought to have access to the world of the living.

To protect themselves from being attacked by ghouls and witches during this period, the Celts would dress up in disguise and pretend to be a ghoul or a witch themselves. Menacing faces were carved into pumpkins lit by candlelight to frighten off the evil spirits, and gifts or food offerings, like sweet cakes, were put out to try to placate those from the other world. After their invasion of Britain in 43AD, the traditions of the Roman "Pomona" festival (held at the same time of year) were added to the festivities, including bobbing for apples.

Meanwhile, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in 30AD, the "new" controversial religion, Christianity, spread to Asia Minor, Greece and to Rome, and so through the Roman Empire, largely as a result of persecuted Christians having to flee Jerusalem. As Christians were killed for preaching about Jesus and standing up for their beliefs, those surviving chose to commemorate the death of these martyrs or saints by celebrating "martyrs days" or "saints days".

Most Saints Days were local affairs, with only the martyrdom of some of the apostles being more widely celebrated. To try to tidy up the church calendar, Pope Gregory III (Pope from 731 - 741AD) instigated a single festival to commemorate all martyrs or saints, known as the "Feast of All Saints" or "All Saints' Day" or "All Hallows' Day" (hallow is old English for saint or holy person). This was always to be on the 1st of November.

The aim was to encroach on, and take over from, the 31st of October festivities of Samhain, and All Hallows Day borrowed from this pagan festival by copying some of the traditions, namely dressing up -in this case as a saint, an angel or a devil- and having a parade. But Samhain was deeply ingrained in the culture and not so easily replaced. To step-up the competition, the church made the evening of the 31st of October itself another special day called "All Hallows Even" (evening). This is the origin of the name "Halloween", as the names All Hallows Even and Samhain (pronounced "sow-in" in Ireland , or "sow-een" in Wales) became merged together.

Because of it's Celtic history, Halloween spread to countries where the Celts emigrated to, such as the Irish going to the USA, and the Scots to Canada. More recently some other countries have started to observe Halloween as they have been influenced by American popular culture.

Other than the name change from Samhain to Halloween, All Hallows Day/All Hallows Even does not seem to have made any significant impact on changing the traditions or focus of this festival, and evangelical Christians feel that Halloween, even in the guise of All Hallows Even, has little or no genuine Christian content. This is because evangelicals don't believe the church has the right to declare some people "saints" and therefore don't celebrate any saints' days.

Although evangelical Christians understand Halloween is not -as some horror movies make out- about satanic worship, neither do they tolerate it as a "harmless bit of fun." This is because Halloween revolves around actively promoting fear and occult practises such as divination.

About the Author

Richmond Park Church for International Students, Parents and Toddlers, Christian dance and drama

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