Saints and Souls

“The Forerunners of Christ With Saints and Martyrs,” by Fra Angelico, 15th century

Trick or treat? That is the question posed annually on this 31st of October. Children and their parents call it Halloween. And though most of them wouldn’t be able to explain where that word came from, we erudites know (or can look it up) that the word is a compound, composed of the elements “Hallows” (saints) and “evening,”  shortened to “een.”

There seems to be a need for wild exuberant celebration in countries of the Northern Hemisphere as the days approach their shortest and the nights their longest. This was true for the ancient Celts, who began their new year on November 1 and celebrated it with fires and costumes, as well as for their successors, the Romans, who didn’t put their new year’s day in November but nevertheless took the growing darkness as a time for celebration.

Their English successors, a millennium later, took the occasion of a foiled terrorist plot in 1605 as cause for celebration. Ever since then, they have celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on November 5. It is also called Bonfire Day, because — well, they light bonfires, to commemorate the awful fire that wasn’t.

But though costumes and trick-or-treating give little appearance of religious devotion, our modern Halloween is based on Christian (especially Roman Catholic) observance. It goes back to the establishment of All Saints’ Day, possibly by Pope Boniface IV, in the year 609. A century or so later, Pope Gregory III settled on November 1 for the observance.

So, for well over a millennium now, we have had the solemn celebration of All Saints’ Day on November 1, followed by the solemn celebration of All Souls’ Day — that’s everyone who has died in the faith, not just the saints — on November 2. Meanwhile, it’s no accident that the opposite of a solemn religious celebration takes place on the eve of All Saints’ Day, October 31.

How do I know all this? It has been revealed to me by the almighty internet. Happy Halloween, everyone!