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With last night being Halloween, that makes today All Saints’ Day, a too often not recognized day on the church calendar. The Roman Catholic Church set November 1 as All Saints Day back in the 800’s AD, moving it from a date in May. The suspected reason was that of trying to Christianize a Celtic festival that celebrated the end of the harvest and the beginning of Winter, or the dark season. The Celts called it Samhain, but I don’t know how to pronounce it. The Celts believed it to be a day when the veil between the living and the dead was thinner so that the dead would try to come back to their homes. People would light a candle to help them and set a place at the table for them. They also believed that some of those spirits would come seeking vengeance so trying to find a way to scare them off developed into the tradition of wearing scary costumes and scary Jack-O-Lanterns. The history of Halloween is a very interesting read (Wikipedia) and I am admittedly being way too simplistic here for history of Halloween fanatics.
As far as All Saints Day itself, back in Roman days throughout the empire people used to celebrate a day of remembrance of the dead by going and having a meal on the grave of a loved one. That was in the Spring close to when Easter occurs. The Church built on to that day making it a time to celebrate a mass to remember saints and martyrs. At some point they started to celebrate All Souls Day the immediately following date to remember all the faithful deceased. In later Roman Catholicism, All Saints Day mass was/is held to remember saints martyrs, and the faithful dead in heaven and All Souls was to be a mass to pray for loved ones in Purgatory. In the Reformation, Protestant and Reformed Churches did away with Purgatory and mushed the two days together. We celebrate All Saints Day for all the faithful are saints in our interpretation of what a saint is.
All Souls Day had a neat tradition called “Souling”. Children and poor people would go door to door offering to pray for your deceased loved ones in exchange for a “Soul Cake”, which was basically a spice and fruit laden piece of shortbread. As you may have surmised, therein lay the roots of Trick-or-Treating. After the church moved All Saints and All Souls Days from the Spring to the beginning of November the custom of wearing costumes and carrying a hollowed-out turnip with a candle in it to scare away the dead found its way into Halloween customs.
I really am touched with the idea of “Souling”. Imagine a child coming to your door and offering to pray for you in your grief. Since the demise of the Doctrine of Purgatory, we don’t pray for the dead anymore; that God would release them from Purgatory and welcome them into Heaven for Eternity. We Presbyterians, being of the Reformed Tradition, since we have gotten over people being Predestined either to Heaven or to Hell, we believe the faithful deceased go to be with Christ where he is in Heaven until the Resurrection when Creation is made new and we get a new body like he has…and we have to remember that Jesus’ arms open wider in welcome than do our own. But anyway, keeping these ancient practises in mind, just imagine if we took a day out of the year to go as families to have a picnic at the grave of our dearly departed and that the night before that picnic children came to our door and asked, “Who are you sad for and can I pray for you?” and you give them a cookie. I think the world would be a better place.
Anyway, about Halloween today and how it is celebrated; I am troubled that an event that has for the longest of time been a part of how people grieve their dead and how the Christianized version of it was so much thought of Heaven in it, I am troubled that Halloween has been morphed into a commercialized celebration of Hell and the demonic. Long ago scary costumes were meant to scare evil spirits away. Now they seem to invite an embodiment of evil spirits. And yes, I realize that’s the extreme. Most kids are going door to door dressed in an innocent costume and it is good for them to be complimented. It’s also good for neighbours and strangers to cordially interact outside the doors of our homes. The little bit of spooky is fun. The celebration of Halloween can genuinely foster a good sense of neighbourhood…until the teenagers start pranking. Versions of toilet papering a house have been around centuries longer than you would think.
Looking a few hours past Halloween to today, All Saints Day, this is a day to remember all those who have gone on before us. Gathered for worship is a good place to be. It has long been a teaching of the Church that when we are gathered for worship this is a time when the veil between the heavenlies and earth is thinner. Here now in the bond of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship or communion of the Holy we are participants in the heavenly worship that John saw around God’s powerful throne of grace. Angels are here. The Creation, the Four Living Creatures, is here. Saints and martyrs are here. Loved ones are here. All Creation shouts, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!” Everything is singing the song of praise, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!” Now is the time to have our tears of grief wiped away. I wish to share with you a prayer I found. Please pray with me.
That one that I loved, O God, is now with you. I can say that, not knowing “how” or “where,” but say it because it makes no sense that so rich and full a life would come to an abrupt end…except for memories. Still, I am bereft for she is not with me. I listen to all the clichés of my friends, spoken to console me: “He is better off.” “She is past her pain and suffering.” “He is in heaven,” whatever that means. I listen and am not consoled. My grief is selfish. I want to feel her touch and hear his voice and see her smile. I am confident he is with you, and I am just as confident, O Lord, you understand how it is with me. I cannot help recalling times I might have been gentler, softer, more thoughtful. I wish I could live some hours over. I wish I could say “I love you” just one more time. These failures I must accept. “Time heals all things,” they say. I do not believe Time does anything. You, O God, are Healer and Helper. You can heal me in time, help me through the lonely days and long nights. You can give me renewed zest for going on and entering into life once more. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I believe that. But right now, I grieve; I hurt; I am bereft. Thanks be to God who understands through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Kenneth G. Phifer, A Book of Uncommon Prayer, Upper Room Books, 1981, pp. 106-107)
