WhiteEagle’s Aerie and Blog

What Halloween used to mean.

With Halloween on Friday this year, I thought I would remind everyone of what Halloween used to mean before everyone goes trick-or-treating. I hope no one minds if I mix a bit of religion into this post, but the fact is that this holiday used to have a very religious aspect.

This holiday started back in the Middle Ages (Ad 1300’s). People back then were scared of spirits and ghosts, even with the Church being a deep part of their lives. When I said “Church”, I didn’t mean any church, but the Roman Catholic Church. You see November 1st was declared All Saints Day (it still is), and people were scared the previous night. Why? They believed that those who had died came back the previous night (October 31st) to haunt those whom they recognized. So they put disguises on that day to confuse the ghosts and spirits, hoping that the ghosts and spirits whould think they were someone else. This day came to be known as All Hallow’s Eve, which got shorten to the modern day Halloween. This is where the practice of wearing a costume on October 31st, Halloween, came to be. So, in a way, it’s is not wrong or immoral to wear a costume on Halloween. In fact, it’s honoring a very old tradition.

Also some religions believe that October 31st is a very powerful day for magic and dark practices. These religions are not any ordinary person would recognize though, because they are Druids and other ancient religions from before the time of Christ and the rise of Christianity and Islam. They usually practice what they consider to be sacred rites on this night. It is also why animal shelters usually refuse to allow the adoption of black cats and other certain animals during this month, because these religions would want to use the animals in their rites.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!