From the Vicar

The shop windows get more decorative and the advertising gets more elaborate every year. No - not Christmas but Halloween. The fun that it brings to children is not in doubt with the dressing up and ghostly stories. The unfortunate side of Halloween however, is a concern, namely the imported "trick and treat" from America. It's a concern because of the potential harm to the children themselves whilst knocking on unknown front doors and it's a worry because it can create fear for the home-owners. One positive attribute to this secular festival is that it has managed to delay the onset of Christmas decorations in shops! What is Halloween then and where does it come from?

Strangely Halloween did begin its life as a Christian festival. In very early Christian times a feast day was set aside to commemorate the unknown or unnamed saints of the Church. The popular and well known saints were allotted a day so such people as Peter, Paul, Mary and George were assigned an annual remembrance, usually on the day of their martyrdom or death. There still remained a long list of saints, the histories and stories of which were unknown, so in the fourth century these were brought together on All Saints' Day. Originally this day was held in the spring, then moved in 610AD to May 13th, but less than a century later it eventually settled on the present November 1st. In order to keep principal feast days on Sundays, one of the suggestions brought about by Common Worship, this year the feast is actually being commemorated on October 31st.

When All Saints' Day was first introduced in this country it was widely known as All Hallows Day, hence the previous evening being All Hallows Eve. From the time of Christ, major Christian festivals were deemed to begin at sunset on the previous evening, thus following the Jewish custom known to Christ and the early Church. This is still clearly demonstrated in our own time by Christmas Eve and Easter Eve - the evenings before great festivals. Halloween then is simply the ancient name for the evening before All Saints' Day and the ghostly overtones associated with the feast come from the prayers to the Saints that all the dead should rest in peace. Many stories have been told of graves being disturbed on All Hallows Eve, but those are probably more associated with Roald Dahl than with the Gospel of Christ.

MIKE SHEFFIELD

PARISH PRIEST