All Saints Day
Tiz that time of the year again when many folks will gang up on - really - those who let their kids dress up silly on 31 October. We will be bombarded with bad history and bad social science and bad theology. I won’t even bother to link to the most common Christian “proof sheet” that takes the Irish name of the holiday and makes it into a god’s name - a god to whom human sacrifices were offered. Nor will I bother to link to sources produced by Modern Neopagans who get their history all wrong, too. After ten-plus years as a pagan and twenty plus years as a Christian I’m just annoyed by all the politically-biased claims out there.
A good deal of our modern complaints about Halloween are just badly disguised ultra-Protestant Anti-Roman Catholicism. Other sects often succumb to such uber-frummery, too. Until recently my only reply was “it’s not my holiday” but, of course, considering the Western Rite celebrates All Saints day with the Christian West, thus, some Orthodox do celebrate All Hallows’ Eve. As do Roman Catholics, Anglicans and some (most?) Lutherans. In other words a majority of Christians around the world have this day on their calendar.
Maybe some totally non-caustic and totally non-National Enquirer-worthy research and experience can add a little leaven to the discussion (doubt it).
There are four strands to note: the Eastern Christian, the Western Christian and the Non-Christian, the fourth strand is Bad Victorian Scholarship.
In the east, St John Chrysostom (4th Century) set a celebration in memory of all the “other” saints on the Sunday after Pentecost. Since he did not (nor does his successor) have universal jurisdiction, this holiday would have, of course, only applied to those dioceses and parishes under his patriarchate. Since it was a good idea, however, the tradition spread among the other Orthodox. Additionally, in some places the second Sunday after Pentecost is observed as All local Saints. Thus in the Russian Churches, this is All Saints of Russia. In the Orthodox Church in America, that Sunday is “All Saints of America” but it is not so named among the various non-Autocephalous groups in the US.
This celebration was not commanded to those churches under the Patriarchate of Rome although the tradition began spreading there, as well.
In AD 609 or 610, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the ancient Roman Pantheon as a Christian Church. (This really was a co-opting of something previously Pagan.) The new name was St Mary and All Martyrs and the anniversary of the consecration, 13 May, was a feast celebrated in all the western Church. This was the beginning of All Saints’ Day in the West. It’s important to note two things: (a) this happens after the coming of St Augustine to Canterbury; and (b) it doesn’t happen on 1 November. These are important because of the claim (sometimes offered in error on these pages as well) that Augustine merely baptised a pagan feast day he found in England and that it came back to Rome. Nope. Sorry.
About 100 years later, another Pope, Gregory III, dedicated another All Saints’ chapel - this one in St Peter’s - on 1 November and began to commemorate the feast on that day. The next Pope Gregory made that feast (on 1 November) of universal practice.
All of these Christian dates are very important because these dates mean the festival of All Saints (and thus the Vigil the night before) is a feast of the pre-Schism Patriarchate of Rome. 31 October/1 November is not a Pagan festival.
The real Pagan strand is harder to trace. There was a festival in ancient Ireland as the Sun reach halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. The bards report this feast was celebrated on the Hill of Tara with the Ard Rí - the High King. Should one visit Tara today one will see a “passage grave” on the hill. In the back of the grave are small spirals carved into the wall. Once a year - around November 7th - as the sun passes the half-way point between the Equinox and the Solstice, a shaft of light penetrates the cave and strikes the spirals. Does this indicated the feast of Tara? Don’t know. But it does show that the astronomical point - not a calendar date, per se - was marked at Tara. To be certain the Pagans in the only part of Europe *not* conquered by Rome didn’t use the Roman Calendar - and so wouldn’t have known what 31 October was. The passage on Tara shoes that (in modern terms) it was the Sun at 15 Degrees of Scorpio that was celebrated - not a specific day.
Bonfires were lit and then we know no more.
Costumes? Trick or Treat? Pumpkins? Mostly bad Victorian-era Scholarship - and that mostly American. Like us moderns, the Victorians had a penchant for things that “feel ancient” and, like us, they tended to make stuff up when they didn’t know the answer. They just call it “ancient tradition”. (Americans need to be reminded sometimes that most countries have indoor plumbing older than our culture.)
Everything else we claim to know about the holiday is from this final strand of Bad Victorian Scholarship. So we like to blame wearing masks on the ancient Celts. We claim the sweets should be offered to the Ghosts. The Jack O’Lantern is a candle lit to show the dead how to get back to their homes. All of this is without proof of course - positive or negative. The ancient religions were not literate. They didn’t write it down in guidebooks on How to Be a Druid. Almost all of these later inventions have to do with *Protestant* ideas of the all the departed commemorated on 1 November. Romans say they are saints - but Protestants know there are no Catholics in heaven so all their “saints” must really be spectres and ghouls. Having made a pretty fun holiday up (admit it!) it caught on!
Modern Neopagans take up this theme - using Christian customs! - when they say “Christians stole our holiday”. In fact, 1 November was never their holiday - it was, however, the closest Christian party to their own historical party at 15 Degrees Scorpio. So they moved their gew-gaws and froo-froo a week over or so and stopped counting days by small spirals carved on walls and tried this new Roman invention - the Fixed Calendar. They did this so as not to be continually persecuted by the Christians - they wanted to blend in. I’m clear on that.
BUT we don’t know what those traditions were as we have no record of them. Certainly the idea of All the Saints being stolen from the Celtic “day of the dead” is not at all historic. And certainly since the ancient religions did not write stuff down, we have no way of knowing from Pagan sources if the Festival of Tara was anything to do specifically with the dead. Like other pagan festivals some of this stuff may have carried over: the “bonfire holidays” in England are mostly pagan festivals that were transferred to Christian days. This is especially clear on St John’s day in the Summer when they light the midsummer bonfires. This tradition of moving traditions to the biggest party continued through history: now the Mid-Autumn bonfires are not lit on Halloween, but rather on Guy Fawkes Night (Nov 5) which is coincidentally much closer to 15 Degrees Scorpio.
Now does any of this mean that the modern, Non-Christian silliness that goes on in Schools is Christian or Anti-Christian? No. No more than singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” is an act of Christian piety although I know some who would file a law suit nonetheless.
Should the kids be allowed to have that fun? Well, that’s up to the parents. But leave the accusations of Satanism and Pagaism out of it.
Peter Gardner says:
Excellent writing; very interesting; thank you.
14 October 2007 - 3 חשון 5768 at 6:59 pm
Fr. Ernesto says:
The Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated widely in Latin America. Many articles relate it to a Mesoamerican religious festival celebrated in August that was moved to November 1 by the Spanish. We get to make sugar skulls and eat them (EEWWW). Some dress in skeletal costumes and dance. Altars are built to dead relatives with their photographs and candles and crosses, etc. So, there you go, more Satanism moved to 1 November! (<== That was irony.)
14 October 2007 - 3 חשון 5768 at 7:05 pm
Huw says:
I like Día de los Muertos, to be honest. It’s a bit more flavoured by the Christianity than the other things… b/c it is *Catholic* instead of reaction.
I like Sugar Skulls :)
In California, it is the traditions of Día de los Muertos that gets used by the Neo-Pagan (et al) community.
http://www.thealtarshow.org/
14 October 2007 - 3 חשון 5768 at 7:10 pm
Fr. Gregory Christakos says:
Well said. I am going to print this out and distribute to my youth group kids this week.
14 October 2007 - 3 חשון 5768 at 11:49 pm
peter says:
That’s very helpful, Huw. Someone from the Greek Metropolis asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for a podcast on the subject. It’s not something I’ve ever cared enough about to research, so I’ll be quoting you.
16 October 2007 - 5 חשון 5768 at 5:49 pm
peter says:
Although Huw has his facts straight, others reading this article may want to check out the Catholic Encyclopedia article on All Saint’s Day. That is the 1907 edition, and (no offense, Huw!) sounds more authoritative to quote from than “some guy with a blog.”
23 October 2007 - 12 חשון 5768 at 12:19 pm