On Tuesday, many Christians will celebrate All Saints’ Day. The day before, Oct. 31, most Americans, in one fashion or another, will observe Halloween. The two events spring from the same history.
Since the 600’s Christians have set aside a specific day to thank God for the lives of martyrs — those killed because of their love for Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, Christians settled on Nov. 1 as the date to celebrate this holy day, sometimes referred to as “All Hallows Day.” Why that day? No one knows for sure, but a very plausible explanation is that Christians linked it to an Irish Celtic harvest festival, celebrated at the beginning of November. Originally, “All Hallows Eve” or “Halloween” (a Scottish variation of All Hallows Eve) simply marked the evening before the holy day of All Saints’ Day.
Times have certainly changed. One need not be a practicing Christian to wonder about the deleterious effects of our contemporary Halloween practices. Many of us are concerned that the fascination with macabre behavior and violence — in full bloom on Halloween — denigrates life’s beauty and goodness.
All Saints’ Day is a luminous antidote to the darkness that so often takes center stage on Halloween.
I first celebrated All Saints’ Day when living in Sweden many years ago. During my stay there, I happened to visit my great Uncle Axel on that holy day. Several months earlier his wife and soul mate of over 50 years, my great aunt Ida, had passed away. As the pastor in their small Swedish church lit a candle for her and spoke of her simple faith in Jesus, dear Uncle Axel quietly wept. After he regained his composure, he turned to me, smiled, and reassured me that he would one day be with Ida again. Truer words have never been spoken. Because Jesus rose from the grave All Saints’ Day is not simple sentimentality or a quaint old world tradition. It is a powerful and joyous affirmation that the “communion of saints”, as Christians speak of it in the Apostles’ Creed, will one day unite all who trust Christ.
It may seem strange that people could light a candle for a deceased person and feel joy and hope. But Christians — as the Apostle Paul sang out — are not people without hope, for “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep … for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (I Cor 15: 20, 22)
I invite you to remember the reality behind Halloween and All Saints’ Day – the deep, life-affirming Christian conviction that the saints, which include all who trust in Christ, will one day be reunited in a perfect world of beauty and goodness. That’s a Halloween message to celebrate.
• Rev. Douglas M. Dye is the pastor at the Chapel by the Lake Presbyterian Church.
