By now, many of us have had our Halloween Decorations looking so-so scary. We decorated our houses and community centers so spooky that we need to change the game for next year in Halloween 2018. Which we have to do before we vote in the Midterms. And yes, we had to put up our costumes on wax to think again about next year as well. Plus I had a costume that I had to sample from my father’s work wear to pay tribute to him.
BUT………I have to address my black Kings and Queens in regarding this thing of Halloween, Christians, Ebony Magazine, and certain thing about “Pagan Holidays”. Let me go in on my people. Even though I love my blackness, honor my ancestors and also fly the red, black and green in the heart like the red white and blue. I’m reading the article online from Ebony Magazine (via Facebook) the latest one that had an article with Meagan Good dressed like Catwoman. Oh, by now that everyone knows, she married a pastor earlier this year per se and many questioned about her choice celebrating All Hallow’s Eve in a FREAKING COSTUME! Really?!
Then I went to this BallersAlert Instagram Page. And when I was view the page in term of Meagan Good doing her, all these comments mainly coming from those whom are considered “Christian” and being black and proud had this remorse of shaming her just because she’s a Christian celebrating this “so-called” scary evil holiday known as Halloween.
For all of my black readers whom think they know everything about Halloween or having this negative stat of pagan holidays: SPELL IT! Spell Pagan. Let me school you on this: Do you know what Halloween really means? It really means Comes from the adage of All Hallow’s Eve in which leads into a holiday called All Saint’s Day. Heard of All Saint’s Day? You should! If you called out a name, or remembered a person that recently passed, that is part of it! If you go to church, you have should have heard the thought about All Saints Day, PERIOD! But what does that have to do with Halloween? Part of that is another meaning that you probably never got the knowledge of: Holy Evening. THAT IS WHAT HALLOWEEN REALLY MEANS! It’s a HOLY EVENING.
According to Wikipedia: As you should know –
The word Halloween or Hallowe’en dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin. The word “Hallowe’en” means “hallowed evening” or “holy evening”. It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows’ Eve (the evening before All Hallows’ Day). In Scots, the word “eve” is even, and this is contracted to e’en or een. Over time, (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en evolved into Hallowe’en. Although the phrase “All Hallows'” is found in Old English “All Hallows’ Eve” is itself not seen until 1556.
Oh wait, there’s more for you Christians:
Christian influence (via Wikipedia)
Today’s Halloween customs are also thought to have been influenced by Christian dogma and practices derived from it. Halloween is the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (also known as All Saints’ or Hallowmas) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November, thus giving the holiday on 31 October the full name of All Hallows’ Eve (meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day).[69] Since the time of the early Church,[70] major feasts in Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows’.[71] These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime.[72] In 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to “St Mary and all martyrs” on 13 May. This was the same date as Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead, and the same date as the commemoration of all saints in Edessa in the time of Ephrem.[73]
The feast of All Hallows’, on its current date in the Western Church, may be traced to Pope Gregory III’s (731–741) founding of an oratory in St Peter’s for the relics “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors”.[74][75] In 835, All Hallows’ Day was officially switched to 1 November, the same date as Samhain, at the behest of Pope Gregory IV.[76] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,[76] although it is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter.[77] They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of ‘dying’ in nature.[76][77] It is also suggested that the change was made on the “practical grounds that Rome in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it”, and perhaps because of public health considerations regarding Roman Fever – a disease that claimed a number of lives during the sultry summers of the region.[78]By the end of the 12th century they had become holy days of obligation across Europe and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for the souls in purgatory. In addition, “it was customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls.”[80] “Souling”, the custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls,[81] has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.[82] The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century[83] and was found in parts of England, Flanders, Germany and Austria.[53] Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers’ friends and relatives.[83][84][85] Soul cakes would also be offered for the souls themselves to eat,[53] or the ‘soulers’ would act as their representatives.[86] As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, Allhallowtide soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as alms.[87] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).[88] On the custom of wearing costumes, Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh wrote: “It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities”.[89]It is claimed that in the Middle Ages, churches that were too poor to display the relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead.[90][91] Some Christians continue to observe this custom at Halloween today.[92] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.[93] While souling, Christians would carry with them “lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips”.[94] It has been suggested that the carved jack-o’-lantern, a popular symbol of Halloween, originally represented the souls of the dead.[95] On Halloween, in medieval Europe, fires served a dual purpose, being lit to guide returning souls to the homes of their families, as well as to deflect demons from haunting sincere Christian folk.[96][97] Households in Austria, England and Ireland often had “candles burning in every room to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes”. These were known as “soul lights”.[98][99][100] Many Christians in mainland Europe, especially in France, believed “that once a year, on Hallowe’en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous carnival” known as the danse macabre, which has often been depicted in church decoration.[101]Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in The New Cambridge Medieval History that “Christians were moved by the sight of the Infant Jesus playing on his mother’s knee; their hearts were touched by the Pietà; and patron saints reassured them by their presence. But, all the while, the danse macabre urged them not to forget the end of all earthly things.”[102] This danse macabre was enacted at village pageants and at court masques, with people “dressing up as corpses from various strata of society”, and may have been the origin of modern-day Halloween costume parties.[94][103][91][104]
In parts of Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation as some Protestants berated purgatory as a “popish” doctrine incompatible with their notion of predestination. Thus, for some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All Hallows’ Eve was redefined; without the doctrine of purgatory, “the returning souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert. Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil spirits. As such they are threatening.”[99] Other Protestants maintained belief in an intermediate state, known as Hades (Bosom of Abraham),[105] and continued to observe the original customs, especially souling, candlelit processions and the ringing of church bells in memory of the dead.[69][106]Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval archæology, and historian Daniel Diehl, with regard to the evil spirits, on Halloween, write that “barns and homes were blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the earth.”[107] In the 19th century, in some rural parts of England, families gathered on hills on the night of All Hallows’ Eve. One held a bunch of burning straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him in a circle, praying for the souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known as teen’lay.[108] The rising popularity of Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) from 1605 onward, saw many Halloween traditions appropriated by that holiday instead, and Halloween’s popularity waned in Britain, with the noteworthy exception of Scotland.[109] There and in Ireland, they had been celebrating Samhain and Halloween since at least the early Middle Ages, and the Scottish kirk took a more pragmatic approach to Halloween, seeing it as important to the life cycle and rites of passage of communities and thus ensuring its survival in the country.[109]In France, some Christian families, on the night of All Hallows’ Eve, prayed beside the graves of their loved ones, setting down dishes full of milk for them.[98] On Halloween, in Italy, some families left a large meal out for ghosts of their passed relatives, before they departed for church services.[110] In Spain, on this night, special pastries are baked, known as “bones of the holy” (Spanish: Huesos de Santo) and put them on the graves of the churchyard, a practice that continues to this day.[111]
Makes sense now? Keywords: HOLY EVENING!
Now from my understanding that the Holy Evening Holiday may have some pagan roots. Halloween has some pagan connections but it’s not entirely EVIL! When folk think of “Pagan Holidays” they think it’s something that is demonic or trickery. REALLY? Not all holidays are “Pagan Holidays.” If your wedding or a loved ones funeral is considered a “Pagan Holiday” filled with evil or demonic implications, then I guess you haven’t been to one. Or you don’t know enough! That is the problem today, why do many feel (espcially in the black community) that pagan holidays are evil, knowing that there are some “Pagan Holidays” are good? You got Christmas coming up in celebrating the Birth of Jesus, and many folks are calling that being a “Pagan Holiday”: Many of you got it all twisted. Not all Pagan Holidays are evil .
CALLOUT: Is Juneteenth Day a Pagan Holiday?
Is many of our holidays that we started (KWANZAA) is considered a Pagan Holiday?
Is waving the Red Black and Green on Marcus Garvey’s Birthday or any BLACK HOLIDAY is considered a Pagan Holiday? Oh, you don’t hear me.
Why I am saying this? Why I am calling out the gossiperes to this manner? Real simple, LACK OF KNOWLEDGE! That is what this is. All that so called opinons that man of you spilled on Social Media makes no sense at all. And I’m assuming that BallerAlert wanted your reaction. They really don’t care about it. Just to make money and hurt your feelings.
Despite what Meagan Good does in her spare time should not be a concern on anyone. Even Black Christians! Now I’m a Black Christian myself and I do celebrate and decorate the Holy Evening thing of Halloween on my house. And don’t come at me with all that “pagan holiday opinionized mess” that black christians shouldn’t be celebrating this holiday. That goes double for the non-church folk! If any christian celebrates Halloween without any harm or concern, it shouldn’t be a problem! Many of us need to reread the Lord’s Prayer featuring the words: Hallowed be thy name. The Keyword is Hallowed. That word again.
Learn it.
Black Folks, it’s just Halloween. Chill out!