All Saints' and All Souls' Day

The Christian Origins of Halloween

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The word Halloween stems from two words in Middle English, the first "halwe" meaning holy person or saint (1), and the word "even" which refers to evening more generally or, more specifically the day or evening before a holy day or festival (2). 

The feast of all saints was first established in the year 615 AD by Pope Boniface IV. It was first established as a way to honor the Martyrs of the Church as well as mark the day the Pantheon ("Pan" meaning all and "theon" meaning gods), a pagan temple, was consecrated as a Church of All Saints. By the year 840 the feast grew beyond just the martyrs and began to encompass all the saints in heaven. 

While we associate this feast with the beginning of November the date for All Saints Day was originally May 13th. It was moved to November 1 by Pope Gregory IV in the year 844 AD. This was to better coincide the feast with the harvest in order to better feed the pilgrims who would make there way to Rome for this feast (3). November 1st was chosen because, 60 years previously, Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to All Saints on this day. 

There are alternative theories which claim that the move to November 1st was to capitalize of subvert the popularity of certain Pagan feast like the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Which on the surface seems to make sense, especially now as halloween has taken on an occult and pagan color. However this is not the case. As historian Ronald Hutton explains, in his book Stations of the Sun, "The medieval records furnish no evidence that 1 November was a major pan-Celtic festival, and none of religious ceremonies, even where it was observed." (4) 

In the year 1484 Pope Sixtus IV raised the Feast of All Saints to that of a holy day of obligation, which requires the faithful to attend mass on this day. He also gave the feast a vigil where in we get halloween, which is celebrated on October 31 the day before Halloween (5).