All Hallows Eve

Halloween is an amalgam of pagan and Catholic traditions. The Celtic festival Samhain acknowledged October 31 as the day that the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved. This coincides with the harvest and the change of seasons. Celts would dress in ghoulish regalia to placate the spirits so the harvest would be successful and the dead would not remain with the living.

All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day (10/31, 11/1, 11/2) commemorate those who have been anointed and those awaiting purification. The original date of All Saints Day was May 13, Pope Gregory III and Pope Gregory IV shifted the celebration to November around the 700s.

I hope everyone finds more Mary Janes and 3 Musketeers in their candy bags than apples and raisins.