Parties, then devotions – Why we celebrate Halloween and pray for All Saints’ Day

Home-carved pumpkins announce the eerie night of lost souls, the Celtic god of death Samhain and the witches’ Sabbath in front of many homes in Austria long before October 31.

Children have adopted the habit of going from house to house in costume. Using the German equivalent of ‘Trick or Treat’, they jokingly extort candy with threats, usually ‘Trick or Treat’. Yet it remains largely harmless. The legends surrounding Halloween are not.

Dark legends of bloodthirsty Celts
A Roman poet wrote about the change of month from October to November: “… This night is terrible! The Celts drink the blood of children. They then indulge in disgusting sexual practices. They spare neither children nor mothers, people of all ages and sexes…”

The oldest roots can be found among the Scottish and Irish Celtic druids: it was the day of the harvest and the night when the earth was closest to the world of spirits and where the lost souls wandered. They had to be satisfied with a feast.

The children have taken on the role of ghosts today. They parade through the streets in the robes of ghosts, witches, gnomes, dwarves, demons, devils, skeletons, bats, owls and other mythical creatures.

There is still one classic ingredient missing for a successful Halloween party: the pumpkin: it also includes a fairy tale. It concerns the Irish village blacksmith Jack O’Lantern, who was said to have been so stingy and greedy that he was even denied access to hell. He was destined to walk around with a lantern forever. All he saw was a piece of glowing coal in a hollowed-out, wrinkled sugar beet. The story of Halloween came to America via Irish emigrants – and there the turnip became a pumpkin.

The name Halloween has to do with November 1, All Saints’ Day. This is called “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows” in English, so the night before is called “All Hallows Eve” – shortened to Halloween. This would also be very suitable for fortune telling. Prophecies about wealth and personal happiness are popular.

According to his statement, All Saints’ Day refers to Easter. The festival is characterized by the belief that many people have achieved their life’s purpose with God after their death and can therefore be called saints. On this day the Church commemorates the many unknown saints who are not included in any calendar.

The roots of the festival lie in the East, where a commemoration of all martyrs was celebrated as early as the fourth century. The dating differed in the various special churches. The Friday after Easter, May 13 and the Sunday after Pentecost have been handed down as days of remembrance.

The spread of the festival may be related to the consecration of the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honor of the Mother of God and all the holy martyrs by Pope Boniface IV in 610. November 1 was introduced in France by Louis the Pious in the ninth century and has been celebrated throughout the church ever since.

A large part of the population takes advantage of the holidays to visit the cemetery. On this day, the Catholic Church traditionally blesses the graves.

All Souls’ Day – not a holiday – has its origins in the prayer for the dead, which has been passed down among Christians since the second century. The actual ‘year of birth’ of All Souls’ Day is 998. This year, Odilo, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Cluny, decreed for all monasteries under his control that all the deceased would be commemorated the following day through prayer and mass. All Saints Day. This custom quickly spread throughout France, England and Germany.