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THE HISTORY OF HALLOWMAS
 The earliest mention of an unfolding attitude
toward the death of martyrs in the New Testament, is typified in the
death of John the Baptist in Matthew 14:1-12. After John is unceremoniously
beheaded in Herod’s dungeon, we are told that his disciples daringly stepped
forward and claimed his body, which was given to them. They then went and
respectfully gave it a proper burial. This kind of respectful treatment of a
martyred Christian is repeated almost verbatim in Acts 7. This time it was one
of the seven deacons appointed in Acts chapter 6. Whose name was Stephen. After
Stephen's fearless, eloquent defense of the Christian faith, he was stoned to
death by a Jewish mob. Afterward, in chapter 8:2 we are told that Godly men
buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
 The earliest official mention of a developing
Christian tradition concerning post-mortem honoring of the dead was made by
Ephraim the Syrian who mentioned it in passing in one of his sermons. John
Chrisostom in 407 A.D. mentioned it in his 74th sermon. So it seems that
Christians in the first centuries after our Lord's Ascension were becoming
accustomed to solemnizing the anniversaries of the day of a particular local
martyrs death. This was also true of particular sites where martyrs spilled
their blood. Churches were built on these supposed sites, or as near to them as
possible. This process continued as the early church continued to add more and
more martyrs to the list, and was in full swing by the time regular
canonization was established. This process will be explained as this article
continues.
By the fourth century, churches began to
exchange feast days, and the celebration of the martyrdom of a particular saint
became less and less localized to one parish. Soon relics of martyrs were also
divided and shared between parishes, and joint feasts brought multiple
congregations together in one place to honor either a single hero or whole
groups of martyrs who were killed for their faith on the same day. From this
development the stage was set for larger and broader participation in the
commemoration of a particular martyrs feast day. Even though a local martyr may
have once been only celebrated by his/her home parish, it came to pass that
more and more often, especially in the case of a popular or sensational martyrs
death, celebrations grew less localized as other congregations sought to
identify with the popular martyrs feast day.
Because of the increased persecution of
Christians it became difficult to assign each martyr their own feast day. In
the reign of Diocletian alone, so many Christians were put to death for their
faith that there were no more days left in the year to be assigned them.
The Church however, felt strongly that each martyr should be venerated (shown
reverential respect). The Roman Catholic Church solved this problem by
appointing one special day in the year for all those martyrs who were not
assigned their own day of veneration.
So the natural development of an official
feast day for the entire Christian church slowly and naturally
evolved. Around 609-610 A.D., the Roman Emperor Phocas presented the infamous
Roman Pantheon, once the temple that housed the many gods of Rome, as a gift to
Pope Boniface. The Pope accepted the gift and dedicated it as a Christian
church in honor of the Virgin Mary and all Christian martyrs to be celebrated
annually on May 13th. He called it The Feast of All Martyrs.
In 741 A.D. Pope Gregory III seized the
opportunity as he was consecrating a chapel at St. Peters church to expand the
focus of the festival instituted by Boniface to include not only those who died
a martyrs death, but all those who died in the Christian faith. He renamed the
feast All Saints Day.
In 844 Pope Gregory IV, in an attempt to
supplant and replace the Pagan winter solstice festival of Samhain (Day of the
Dead) moved the feast of All Saints Day to November 1st and extended the
celebration to the entire Roman Catholic Church. In 998 A.D. a local church in
Cluny, France, added All Souls Day on November the 2nd. This soon became a
popular addition to All Saints Day, and widely celebrated by all Christians. By
1484 A.D. Pope Sixtus IV established November 1st as the feast of All Saints as
a holiday of obligation for all Roman Catholic Christians, requiring them to
not do any secular labor for the duration of the festival. He officially
assigned to it it’s own vigil, to be observed on October 31st, and called it
All Hallows. Following the feast on November 1st, was the November 2nd All
Souls Day. From November 1st the Pope instituted an octave, or eight day
celebration. The entire period of time from October 31st to November 8th was
called Hallowmas.
In 1955 the octave was no longer required to
be celebrated. Hallowmas was reduced to the vigil (All Hallows), followed by
All Saints Day (Nov. 1st), followed by All Souls Day on November the 2nd. The
term Halloween is an adaptation of All Hallowed Eve, or All Hallows
evening. It’s correct spelling and pronunciation is Hallow E’en, and served in
the same capacity as Christmas “Eve”. Hallows was an old English way of saying
“Saints.”
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