I remember years ago Halloween being a great time of fun and giving to UNICEF. What happen to those days? Today we get kids who love to egg things and move/take things from your Porches/yards. Even those who love to smash the Jack-o-lanterns. What has this young society become?
In the 90's we stopped participating in this days activities. I read a book about the origin of the day. How and why the Jack-0-lanterns were put out and the beliefs of the Dead roaming the earth, looking for a way to get to the other side. Some even believe that this is a day of power for the witches and evil side.
This All Hallows Eve has been around for centuries, dating back to Medieval times. The belief that this day was when the two worlds, heaven and hell, could communicate. Opening up a void between the two places. Causing all kinds of strange happens on this earth.
Now, according to the Bible this could not happen. For you see the great void between Heaven and Hell is permanent. Allowing no crossing over from one side to the other. According to Biblical Scriptures Luke 16:26. So how did this Halloween belief evolve into such a wide spread thing?
For a better knowledge I turn you to this quote by Rachael Bellerby:
"In 601AD, Pope Gregory made an important directive. He announced that Christian missionaries were to take a new tack when attempting to convert pagans to the Christian religion. Christian missionaries he said, where possible, should incorporate the beliefs, festivals and sacred sites of pagan beliefs into the Christian religion. This directive meant that the important Celtic festival of Samhain had to be marked in a Christian manner.
In the year 609AD, All Saints Day was officially designated a Church feast, which was celebrated in May and was later moved to November by Pope Gregory in 835AD. The Christian Church may have intended that people would spend their time praying for the souls of the dead on an important holy day. However, the fact that this was a day off from work gave many people even more of an excuse to celebrate Halloween with more excitement and excess than ever.
In the eleventh century, a further festival was added to the church calendar; All Souls Day on 2 November. The three festivals of All-Hallows Eve, All Saints and All Souls were together known as Hallowmas"
I think it is a better explanation of How the Festival came to be. Making this Holiday of Halloween we celebrate, a day created by a earthy man, trying to lead folks to Christ. By taking some ancient mythologies and tales and turning them into a step to Christianity. Now that's surely gives another meaning to the phrase; All things work for the glory of God!(I believe taken from Romans 8:28, although not a literal translation.)
I remember years ago Halloween being a great time of fun and giving to UNICEF. What happen to those days? Today we get kids who love to egg things and move/take things from your Porches/yards. Even those who love to smash the Jack-o-lanterns. What has this young society become?
Perhaps the children are reacting to the fact that there is so much danger in the world. We have to accompany them while they are trick-or-treating so someone won't snatch them, take indecent liberties with them, or try to steal their candy. Then they can't eat any of their candy until their parents go through it to make sure there is nothing there that will harm them. Our world has become such a violent place and I believe that children react to that in the same ways that adults are also reacting. All we can do is try to keep fun and safety in our piece of the world and if enough of us do it, perhaps the vandalism will stop.
ReplyDeleteInteresting information on Halloween! I don't care for this holiday at all mainly because it scares my furbabies so much. I'm also not into scary things.
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