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Charlie Traffas
Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com.
Religion
2008-10-01 15:56:00
Wrong to celebrate Halloween?
Question: Is it wrong for a Christian to celebrate Halloween?
Answer: The word Halloween is a contraction of the words “All Hallows Eve,” which means: All Saints Evening. The Christian festival in honor of All the Saints, who do not have their own proper feastday in the course of the year, includes also these latter saints, and other saints who have been canonized by the Church, as well as all good persons, who died in the state-of-grace (i.e. in a situation of friendship with God) and are not-yet canonized. The Saints are those persons whom, after their death and sometimes even during their lifetime, the Church has recognized as special friends of God already enjoying the presence of God in Heaven. The Church honors these real persons, now deceased, as having influence where it counts, and are able to intervene with God on our behalf. This festival is celebrated on November 1, the anniversary of the dedication of an important church in Rome. The 2000-years old Pantheon was originally erected by the pagan Roman emperors in honor of all their gods, who might have been overlooked in having their own proper temple in or near Rome. This famous building is generally considered by having been built by Marcus Agrippa around the year 27 A.D., during the lifetime of Jesus. The entrance porch was added about ninety years later by the Emperor Hadrian. After the Christian community was granted the official right to exist by the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great in 311, Christians increased greatly in numbers, and built churches and hospices, and gradually became a majority in the old Roman Empire. In the year 604 this building, the Pantheon, was cleansed of pagan impurities, and given by the Christian Roman Emperor Phocas to Pope Boniface IV, who converted it into a church and dedicated it in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Christian Martyrs. During the times of the barbarian invasions of Rome, the bodies of the martyrs and other saints were dug-up from the cemeteries and catacombs located outside the city of Rome, and were re-buried under the floor of the Pantheon. Thus this church became a special place where the Saints are honored. During the Middle Ages and later throughout Europe and still-later in the Americas, there arose the custom of Christians anticipating this feast on the preceding evening by holding processions around their parish churches and cemeteries, while singing the Litany (a processional chant, in which various Saints are invoked by the cantors and the people respond: “pray for us”). During these processions the children are dressed in different costumes, each of which represents an individual Saint. Thus, the boy who represents St. Patrick, is dressed like a bishop and carries a three-leafed clover and a bishop’s staff. And the girl, who represents St. Catherine of Sienna, is dressed in a kind of Dominican habit (long white dress & veil with a black coat and carries a large rosary. This custom of an All Saints Procession has been revived in recent times in many parishes. As it occurs on the evening of All Saints Day, i.e. All Hallows evening, that day (October 31) is called Halloween. It originated as a religious observance. The word “hallow” is an old-English word, meaning: to reverence, to make holy, e.g. as in the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed by Thy Name.” In North America, where the majority of inhabitants were Protestants, this observance was adapted to secular meanings derived from the procession through the cemetery and its recalling dead persons (the Saints). Thus was introduced the various ghosts, goblins, witches, skeletons, and pumpkins, in which are carved some human facial features; and all these without any reference to the Saints. Originally that was supposed to be a kind of mockery of Catholic practice. But in more-civilized times Catholics and Protestants join together in a holiday spirit, and sometimes even recall together recently-deceased persons worthy-of-recognition, and join in praying for their souls. The more recent practice of “Trick or Treat” has no relationship whatever to All Hallows Eve, but probably derives from the Dutch observance of St. Nicholas Day (December 6), on which neighbors bring presents to poor persons and their children, and to other persons whom they wish to express gratitude and friendship. Fortunately, the custom of “Trick or Treat” is fading away fast, for which I am glad. Probably this fading is due to the fact that in some places evil persons have given children candies laced with poison or drugs, broken glass and nails, and even doggy-poop in a candy-wrapper. Parents ought to be very careful to examine what their children receive on Halloween. To answer the original question: It is right and proper for Christians and all people to celebrate Halloween - provided they are careful about the “treats” they receive.
 
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