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Page 1: Surprise!  Halloween is not a pagan festival after all

Halloween

Surprise !Halloween’s not a pagan festival

after all!

Page 2: Surprise!  Halloween is not a pagan festival after all

We’ve all heard the allegations!

Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival.

Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival.

If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods.

Page 3: Surprise!  Halloween is not a pagan festival after all

The Truth is….

The origins of Halloween are very Christian and rather American.

"I believe...in the communion of saints," we say every Sunday in the Creed. How many of us know what this doctrine really means?

Halloween falls on October 31st because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic holiness.

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The Reason for Halloween

Honoring the saints - whose nearly forgotten feast day (All Saints Day) is the reason for Halloween

Hallow is the same word for "holy" that we find in the Lord's Prayer, and e'en is a contraction of "evening."

The word Halloween itself is a shortened form of "All Hallows Eve," the day before All Saints Day.

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Halloween - a secular Holiday in USA

For those who don't value devotion to the saints, the Eve of All Saints Day has become "hollow" instead of "hallow." The purpose behind it has been lost like celebrating New Year's Eve without a New Year's Day.

Take away the saints and our beliefs about the dignity and destiny of human beings, and the only thing left is pre-Christian superstition regarding the dead.

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Facts

It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on October 31. Note - they celebrated on the last day of most months of the year.

However, Halloween falls on the last day of October, because the Feast of All Saints, or "All Hallows," falls on November 1st.

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Halloween

All Saints

Day

All Soul

s Day

Halloween Day

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Moving the date to October 31st was a Bold Evangelistic Move designed to demonstrate that only the power of the resurrected Christ could protect men and women from the destructive ploys of Satan and his minions.

This was a time in which the Catholic Church boldly proclaimed the marvelous fact of the resurrection and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Halloween: Oppression or Opportunity?

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All Saints Day

The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13th, during the season of joy, after the Resurrection; but Pope Gregory III (d. 741), moved it to November 1st , the dedication day of the All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome.

St Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and remains one of

the largest churches in the world!

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Later, In the 840s, Pope Gregory IV, commanded that “All Saints Day” be observed everywhere. So, the holy day spread to Ireland.

The day before was the evening vigil of the feast, "All Hallows Evening," or "Halloween.”

All Saints Day Celebrations Spread

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All Souls Day For the first 1,000 years of

Christianity there was no memorial for All Souls.

In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot

of the powerful monastery of Cluny, in southern France, added a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the rest of Europe.

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All Saints Day and All Souls Day

So now the Church had Feast Days for those in heaven and for the faithful departed (those souls in purgatory). Purgatory is a place or state

where those who died in God’s friendship are made perfect so they can enter heaven, of which St. John writes:▪ “Nothing unclean will

enter it.” Revelation 21:27

▪ If you were to meet the President, or state Governor, you would first get cleaned and dressed up, right? Well, God gave us purgatory to get spiritually cleaned and ready to see Him.

The name, Purgatory, is not in the Bible. It remains a controversial topic. However, today's Christians sometimes forget that by the time of Christ, many Jews, especially the Pharisees, had a well-developed belief in the resurrection of the dead, which included trust that the prayer of the living could benefit the dead. It was with this understanding that, 160 years before Jesus was born, Judah, the Maccabee, prayed and offered sacrifice for dead comrades who had sinned: "For if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death" (2 Maccabees 12:44).

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Purgatory

Some say that St. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8 : To be away from the body, is to be at home with the Lord. So, they believe Christians go straight to the Lord after death, and that there is no purgatory.

The verse actually reads “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 NIV

All good Christians would “prefer to be” with Jesus than in this troubled world. Just because we would “prefer to be,” doesn’t’ mean we instantly will be.

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Is Purgatory a Second Chance?

NO, PURGATORY IS ONLY FOR THE SAVED.

The faithful departed still have imperfections that must be purged away before seeing God.

“But if a man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:15 Notice that the verse says the

person “will be saved,” but that his works will be burned up. The works are sinful works.

PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

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What about those in the other place?

It seems Irish Catholic peasants wondered about the unfortunate souls in hell.

If the souls in hell are left out when we celebrate those in heaven (All Saints) and purgatory (All Souls), they might be unhappy enough to cause trouble.

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In the Middle Ages, there was a

superstition that those who had died the previous year

without being reconciled to you

might rise to haunt you, appearing as will-o'-the-wisps or

ghosts. The apparition jarred you so you would release them by

prayer and forgiveness.

Trick or Treat?What About

You might also appease them with "soul cakes” “cookies,” “fried cakes,” "treats” so they wouldn't do you any mischief with their "tricks." Soon those who were living began to usethe occasion for reconciliation. To wipe the slate clean for thecoming year, they came,masked and unrecognizable, and boldly bargained fortreats.  

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Remembering the Dead

So, it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Evening to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered.

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Why do Catholics Pray to Dead People?

The saints in heaven are not dead!

Jesus said: “Have you not read, ‘I am the God

of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:31-32

Those who die in Christ, are now alive in Christ in Heaven!

Related verses: mar: 9:4, Luke 23:43, Rev. 6:9-11, 1 cor. 12:12-27, Heb. 12:1, 12:22-24

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What Evidence is there for Life after Death?

Everyone would agree that there is a big difference between a dead body and a living body.

The difference is the soul, the spiritual aspect of creatures, which in man, is immortal. The soul “animates” – gives life – to the body.

We believe in Life after death!Lk: 24:34-43, Acts 1:21-22, 1 Cor. 13-3-8, CCC 639-645,

655-65

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I am not I

I am this onewalking beside me whom I do not see,whom at times I manage to visit,and whom at other times I forget;the one who remains silent while I talk,the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,the one who takes a walk when I am indoors,the one who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramon Jimenez

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The Afterlife

Other Ref: Lk. 24-34-43, Acts 1:21-22, 1 Cor. 13:3-8, CCC 639-645, 622-65

All humans feel hungry when they need food, which points to the existence of food. All human cultures have naturally believed in a life after death, which points to the existence of an afterlife.

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The Afterlife

Why should I want to go to Heaven? Sitting around on a cloud forever sounds pretty boring to me.

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“These are only a shadow of what is to come.” Colossians 2:17

If Heaven were just “sitting around on a cloud,” you’re right – it would be boring! But Heaven will be beyond our wildest imagination – a place of eternal joy, peace, and fulfillment with God!

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Heaven Imagine the best day you have ever had in

your life, or the most exciting thing that has ever happened to you. Heaven will be like that, -- only unimaginably greater, and lasting forever!

Everything good on earth is only a foreshadow of what awaits us in Heaven.

Let’s pray for one another, and for all the departed! They are alive in Christ!

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An InvitationDuring this week, I invite you to look

at the many holy men and women in the Church’s history (that great cloud of witnesses, we call Saints) and find out about their amazing stories. They’re not stories of quiet, boring people kneeling in a chapel with a halo. The saints are from all walks of life, and they vibrantly lived out humility, grace, fortitude, and courage. They’re bold, radiant, and filled with grace! You can be too!

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Acknowledgements

The Tale of Jack O'Lantern - A Read-aloud Story Jack, the Irish say, grew up in a simple village where he earned a reputation for cleverness as

well as laziness. He applied his fine intelligence to wiggling out of any work that was asked of him, preferring to lie under a solitary oak endlessly whittling. In order to earn money to spend at the local pub, he looked for an "easy shilling" from gambling, a pastime at which he excelled. In his whole life he never made a single enemy, never made a single friend and never performed a selfless act for anyone.

One Halloween, as it happened, the time came for him to die. When the devil arrived to take his soul, Jack was lazily drinking at the pub and asked permission to finish his ale. The devil agreed, and Jack thought fast. "If you really have any power," he said slyly, "you could transform yourself into a shilling."

The devil snorted at such child's play and instantly changed himself into a shilling. Jack grabbed the coin. He held it tight in his hand, which bore a cross-shaped scar. The power of the cross kept the devil imprisoned there, for everyone knows the devil is powerless when faced with the cross. Jack would not let the devil free until he granted him another year of life. Jack figured that would be plenty of time to repent. The devil left Jack at the pub. The year rolled around to the next Halloween, but Jack never got around to repenting. Again the devil appeared to claim his soul, and again Jack bargained, this time challenging him to a game of dice, an offer Satan could never resist, but a game that Jack excelled at. The devil threw snake eyes 'two ones‘ and was about to haul him off, but Jack used a pair of dice he himself had whittled. When they landed as two threes, forming the T-shape of a cross, once again the devil was powerless. Jack bargained for more time to repent.

He kept thinking he'd get around to repentance later, at the last possible minute. But the agreed-upon day arrived and death took him by surprise. The devil hadn't showed up and Jack soon found out why not. Before he knew it Jack was in front of the pearly gates. St. Peter shook his head sadly and could not admit him, because in his whole life Jack had never performed a single selfless act. Then Jack presented himself before the gates of hell, but the devil was still seething. Satan refused to have anything to do with him. "Where can I go?" cried Jack. "How can I see in the darkness?" The devil tossed a burning coal into a hollow pumpkin and ordered him to wander forever with only the pumpkin to light his path. From that day to this he has been called "Jack o' the Lantern." Sometimes he appears on Halloween!

Prepared by M. Denise Campbell

Microsoft ® Power Point presentation, Halloween, prepared by M. Denise Campbell for Life Night

October 28, 2012. Theme: Holy-Ween

Sources: Surprise: Halloween's Not a Pagan Festival After All, by Rev. Augustine Thompson, O.P., is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia.

How Halloween Can Be Redeemed,by Page McKean Zyromski

Catholicism


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