Stay in prayer Oct 31, light a blessed candle

The Celts held a festival called Samhain held at the end of summer; then they thought the barrier between our world and the world of ghosts and spirits got really thin and that weird creatures with strange powers could wander about on Earth. The event was about scaring away the ghosts and spirits.

In the year 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honour of all Christian martyrs, and declared a celebration day On May 13. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1; coinciding with the time Samhain was held. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed. Participants in the new version of the holiday celebrated it much the same manner as their Celtic forebears had - with bonfires and costumes that reflected otherworldly. The day before it was thus known as All-hallows’ Eve. By the end of the Middle Ages, the secular and the sacred days had merged. The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants

Celebration of Halloween was forbidden among early Americans, in the 1800s there developed festivals that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When large numbers of migrants, including the Irish, migrated to the United States in the 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays.

All-hallows’ Eve evolved into Halloween, becoming more popular in secular culture than All Saints’ Day.
Earlier on the Roman empire expansion had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. Two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the Celtic celebration of Samhain.
Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second a day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple.

 

Violence can happen anywhere now.

 

My nephew (now 38 years old!!) once Trick or Treated himself five pounds of candy.

I don't decorate nearly as much as I used to; now I'm content to only place our cute "Boo To You" ghost with three flashing lights in it, in the doorway. The kids LOVE that thing.

 

Yes me too. I have very fond memories of this day as a child, but I remember feeling more than uncomfortable with how the celebrations morphed as I became a teen. At parties, many came dressed as zombies, ghost, walking dead and one year, a friend came disguised as death itself with a scythe and red eyes and sat in a corner remaining silent all evening. How and why we went from innocent fun to this creepiness I don't know. When my kids were small, I did activities with other parents trying to keep it sweet, but invariably someone's child showed up with blood on his face and one year, one of my kids spent the whole evening hiding at my feet from a few ghoulish children who ran around scaring the young ones. I was never able to find the same innocent culture so I told them years ago that we were wrong to participate in the first place and would no longer take part because of the evil twist the day had taken. From then on, I organized something else that day - a restaurant night, or movie night. One year, we even did a Rosary in our living room and someone violently shook our gate - coincidence?

This year, I'm thinking it would be a good day to put candles everywhere and consecrate our home again.

 

I will pray intensely and light a blessed candle tomorrow. My daughter will dress as an angel and just visit neighbors nearby. Our teenager is going to a friends house with only close friends, and her friend’s mother will be there. My son is wearing a biker outfit. The biker jacket has engraved angel wings inside. Interesting the connection between bikers and angels. We usually carve pumpkins, and kids look forward to this every year. Hopefully no time to do the carvings this year.

 

I think I will try carving pumpkins for Thanksgiving instead, and have blessings and fall theme.