Posts
Hallowe'en is an ancient Catholic tradition but now just an excuse to make money and for American cultural imperialism. But whatever you think of it, it has an apostrophe in it, people.
This is what I wrote last year about Hallowe'en in Romania.
This, on the subject of real-life vampires, of whom I have known two or three in Romania, might also be of interest.
Catholics celebrate the unknown saints in heaven on All Saints' Day, November 1. The Secklers in Harghita and Covasna, who are Catholics, on this day dress the tombs of their family members and gather at them with candles - it is a very big occasion. On the eve of All Saints - Hallowe'en - the souls of the dead who are in Purgatory are said by tradition to haunt the earth.
This explains Hallowe'en's Catholic origins and why Protestants don't like it.
This is what I wrote last year about Hallowe'en in Romania.
This, on the subject of real-life vampires, of whom I have known two or three in Romania, might also be of interest.
Catholics celebrate the unknown saints in heaven on All Saints' Day, November 1. The Secklers in Harghita and Covasna, who are Catholics, on this day dress the tombs of their family members and gather at them with candles - it is a very big occasion. On the eve of All Saints - Hallowe'en - the souls of the dead who are in Purgatory are said by tradition to haunt the earth.
This explains Hallowe'en's Catholic origins and why Protestants don't like it.
THANK YOU! But that apostrophe is how you distinguish the fake from the real. Pamela Higginbotham
ReplyDeleteCatholic tradition, Paul? Well, the feast is originally, but apparently it incorporates Celtic autumn/harvest rituals (Beltane, bonfires etc) and Roman worship of the apple goddess Pomona (hence all that apple bobbing). But surely the most potent influence on modern Hallowe'en rituals is Puritanism, and particularly the Calvinist obsession with the Devil and all his works - hence the fact that, until a couple of decades ago, the only people who 'celebrated' it were the Scots and the Americans, both of whom have been saturated with Calvinist devil-obsession. Martin Robb
ReplyDelete