Secular and religious

Yesterday, October 31, 2010, our Village held another celebration of Halloween. This festival has been observed in the Village every October 31 for several years now and it seems to be getting grander each year as more and more guests and non-village people come and join the celebration after words regarding their cheerful and joyous experience spread around.

Initially, it was meant solely for children to have fun in a celebration obviously patterned after western countries’ Halloween game of “tricks or treats”. Here kids in costumes and masks go from house to house knocking at doors of residents solely for purposes of getting some treats consisting of candies and other sweets.

But lately, even teens and adults have joined the fun by making the rounds of the Village houses decorated with spooky ornaments like ghosts, skeletons, witches, black cats, spider webs, and pumpkins cut out to reflect the face of a dead man. The eerier the decorations the more fun everyone has.

And it seems that as years pass, the celebration becomes merrier and more joyful because it is getting to be not only a game of “tricks or treats” for children but an occasion for Village residents to spread cheers among the less fortunate in the surrounding areas by sharing their blessings in the form of “giveaways” that are slightly better than candies and sweet treats.

Obviously this kind of celebration is not a Filipino tradition. Indeed, it even runs counter to the accepted Filipino concept of this occasion as “undas” or “araw ng mga patay” that usually calls for a somber and serious mood rather than merriment and fun. Really, when we remember or think about our dearly departed ones, it seems more common and natural for us humans to feel sad and melancholic.

Apparently also, this modern Halloween celebration is more of a secular than a religious festival. As I watched the affair last night, curiosity prodded me to consult the old reliable Encyclopedia Britannica about its origin. It says there that “the popular customs of Halloween exhibit traces of the Roman harvest festival of Pomona and of Druidism”. The occasion however shows clearer connection with the religion of the Druids in pre-Christian Ireland and Scotland where the year ended on October 31, the eve of “Samhain” which was “both the end of summer and festival of the dead”.

It was a period when “the spirits of the departed were believed to visit their kinsmen in search of warmth and good cheer as winter approached … for threshing and food preparation for the winter season. It was also an occasion when fairies, witches and goblins terrified the populace by allegedly stealing infants, destroying crops and killing farm animals. On the eve of “Samhain” bonfires were lighted on hilltops “to guide the spirit of the dead to the homes of their kinsmen or to kill or ward off witches” This ceremony persisted as late as the 19th century particularly in Scotland.

Immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland took the secular Halloween customs to the U.S. But it did not become popular there until the latter part of the 18th century when a large number of people from Ireland where it had long been popular, immigrated to the U.S. It was only about 1840 when the traditional Halloween and folk practices like the figures of the witch, the black cat, the pumpkin, candles, bobbing from apples, “trick or treat” custom, mask, parties and pranks appeared in the U.S. Apparently these are the customs evolving into the present Halloween celebration we observe in the Village.

Actually however, Halloween is also celebrated as a religious occasion for Roman Catholics. The word is derived from “hallow” meaning to make holy or to consecrate. Hence October 31 is the vigil of the Hallowmas or the eve of the feast of all “holy” people or of all saints which is November 1, observed in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. According to the encyclopedia, Pope Gregory III (731-741) assigned this date for celebrating the feast when he consecrated a chapel in St. Peter’s basilica to all the saints. Gregory the IV extended the feast to the entire Church in 1834. The vigil or eve of All Saints day which constitutes Halloween in the church calendar is therefore as old as the feast on November 1.

The Catechism for Filipino Catholics (CFC) says that “All Saints day” is the feast of all the people who died and who are now in heaven. They are the unknown saints in the sense that they have not been canonized by the Church, who are the known saints venerated and emulated by all the faithful and honored during their feast days which usually coincide with their death or the beginning of their eternal life in heaven. They are the “holy people who are already in glory contemplating in the light of God” (Section 1429).

But there are also “holy people” who are still being purified and awaiting the day when they will join the company of the saints. We, who are still “pilgrims on earth”, commemorate their feast on November 2 through our prayers and offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus the Church is also the communion of holy people who are already in the glory of God, still being purified and still pilgrims on earth (CFC, 1429).

Since Halloween is the vigil of All Saints day which is the feast of unknown saints now in heaven, it is also a joyous occasion. So the seemingly secular festival of Halloween joyously celebrated in our Village may after all, be proper. In fact it has some religious tone as it is evolving into an occasion for charitable sharing of blessings with the less fortunate in the surrounding areas.