Halloween & All Saints Day

All Saints' Day is a universal Christian feast honoring all Christian saints – known and unknown. The feast is celebrated by the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches.
“Halloween,” celebrated in the United States, England, Ireland and France on the eve of the Day of All Saints, got its name from “All Hallow’s Eve” or the vigil of All Saints' Day.
The Celtic people who lived in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and northern France before the Christian era believed that their god of death (Samhain) would allow the souls of the dead to return to their homes for a festal visit on this day. People also believed that ghosts, witches, goblins and elves came to harm the people, particularly those who had inflicted harm on them in this life. The Druid priests built a huge bonfire of sacred oak branches and offered animal and even human sacrifice to protect people from marauding evil spirits on the eve of Samhain feast. This belief led to the ritual practice of wandering about in the dark dressed in costumes indicating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons. But some historians believe that the pumpkin-carving and trick-or-treating are recent customs, reminiscent of Irish harvest festivals, brought to the United States by Catholic immigrants from Ireland and England.

Historical note:
A common commemoration of the saints, especially the martyrs, appeared in various areas throughout the Church after the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313. The primary reason for establishing a common feast day was the desire to honor the great number of Christians martyred during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). In the East, the city of Edessa celebrated this feast on May 13; the Syrians, on the Friday after Easter; and the city of Antioch, on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Both St. Ephrem (d. 373) and St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) attest to this feast day in their preaching. In the West, a commemoration for all the saints also was celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. St. Bede (d. 735) recorded the celebration of All Saints Day on Nov. 1 in England, and such a celebration also existed in Salzburg, Austria. It was Pope Gregory IV who in 835 ordered the Feast of All Saints to be observed universally on Nov. 1.

The feast and its objectives:

 

All baptized Christians who have died and are now with God in glory are considered saints. All Saints Day is a day on which we thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in His holiness and heavenly glory as a reward for their faith. In addition, the feast is observed to teach us to honor the saints, both by imitating their lives and by seeking their intercession for us before Christ, the only mediator between God and man (I Tim. 2/5). Today the Church reminds us that God's call for holiness is universal, that all of us are called to live in His love and to make His love real in the lives of those around us. Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. We show holiness when we live lives of integrity and truth, that is, wholesome and integrated lives in which we are close to others while being close to          God.
Reasons why we honor the saints

1- The saints put their trust in Christ and lived heroic lives of faith.
St. Paul asks us to serve and honor such noble souls. In his epistles to the Corinthians, to Philip and to Timothy, he advises Christians to welcome, serve and honor those who have put their trust in Jesus. The saints enjoy heavenly bliss as a reward for their faith in Jesus. Hence they deserve our           
veneration.

2- The saints are our role models.
They teach us by their lives that Christ’s holy life of love, mercy, and unconditional forgiveness can be lived by ordinary people, of all walks of life and at all times.

3- The saints are our heavenly mediators who intercede for us before Jesus, the only mediator between God and us. (James: 5/16-18, Exodus: 32/13, Jer. 15:1, Revel. 8:3-4,)

4- The saints are the instruments that God uses to work miracles at present, just as He used the rod of Moses (Exodus), the bones of the dead (II Kings 13/21), the towel of Paul (Acts: 19/12) and the shadow of Peter (Acts 5/15) to work miracles.

For Catholics, the Orthodox, and to some extent, the Anglicans, “All Saints Day” is a day, not only to remember the saints and to thank God for them, but also to pray for their help.  It is also a day to glorify Jesus Christ, who by his holy life and death has made the saints holy. This feast offers a challenge to each one of us: anybody can become a saint, regardless of his or her age, life style or living conditions. St. Augustine accepted this challenge when he asked the question: "If others can become saints, why can't I?"
 
Why is there a special day for all saints?

In fact, we celebrate the feast of each canonized saint on a particular day of the year. But there are countless other saints and martyrs, men, women and children united with God in the heavenly glory, whose feasts we do not celebrate. Among these would be our own parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters who were heroic women and men of faith. All Saints' Day is intended to honor their memory. Hence today's feast can be called the feast of the Unknown Saint, in line with the tradition of the “Unknown Soldier.” According to Pope Urban IV, All Saints' Day is also intended to supply any deficiencies in our celebration of saints' feasts during the year. As Christians, we know that a person's life story is not limited to what happens to him or her between birth and death. Our story starts before we are born, at our conception, and goes beyond the day we die, to all eternity. That is why we do not simply forget people after they die and why the Church sets apart two days to remember them, honor them and pray for their special intercession on our behalf: All Saints' Day and All Souls'   Day.

Today’s readings:
The first reading from the Book of Revelation speaks of John’s vision of saints in their heavenly glory: "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands" (Rev 7:9). All Saints' Day reminds us that we are called to be a part of that vast multitude of holy ones whose numbers are so great they cannot be counted. Offering us the Beatitudes in today’s gospel, the Church reminds us that all the saints whose feasts we celebrate today walked the hard and narrow path of the Beatitudes to arrive at their heavenly bliss. The Beatitudes are God’s commandments expressed in positive terms. They go far beyond what is required by the Ten Commandments, and they are a true and reliable recipe for sainthood. As the second reading suggests, saints are people who have responded generously to the love God has showered on them.

Message:
On the feast of All Saints the church invites us and challenges us to walk the walk of the saints and not just talk the talk: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). The feast gives us an occasion to thank God for having invited so many of our ancestors to join the company of saints. May our reflection on the heroic lives of the saints and the imitation of their lifestyle enable us to hear from our Lord the words of grand welcome to eternal bliss: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of your master" (Matthew 25:21). Today is also a day for us to pray to the saints, both the canonized and the uncanonized, asking them to pray on our behalf that we may live our lives in faithfulness like theirs, and so receive the same reward.