Why is Halloween the eve of All Saints?

It should be made clear that All Hallows Eve or Hallowe'en predates Christianity so it has nothing to do with it. In fact, the event that occurs between the living and the dead is back by an astronomical phenomenon. The pre-Christian Celts were very connected to the earth and sky before Christianity, which was true for all people of this world. Now we're mostly connected to one spirit and material things, a practice with roots in the Christian book of Genesis, and our perspective of the earth and sky is one of manipulation and subjugation rather than praise and respect.

Wait. The video says there is no connection, then goes into other matters (how & why there are saints, different views of their role, etc.).

It doesn't take an eight-minute video to say "Why is Halloween the eve of All Saints? Just a coincidence." That's basically Fr. Martin's answer, and it glosses over the fact that All Saints' Day was moved to Nov. 1 in order co-opt a Celtic new year's festival.

Here's a better answer: http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&mini_id=1076

eh, sorta kinda but not really - All Saints Day (or Hallows Day) was laid over the pre-existing and still very important Celtic holiday of Samhain. Both were celebrated on Nov 1st, however the Celts marked days not from sunrise to sunrise but sunset to sunset, and this tradition was still in place for their holidays even after the Christian church was well established. So, Samhain always had a jump on Hallows Day, which made it all the harder for the church to break the Celt raised locals of their annoying pagan habits - so it started putting significance on the Eves of their days...and voila, the pagan holiday of Samhain was firmly surrounded by Christian holy days, until it eventually became called Halloween and was leeched of its non-Christian religious history. This was not unique to Celtic holidays - this method of overlaying local pagan religious dates with newly created Christian holy days was a key one in the church's spread and growing dominance, and it was usually paired with the creation of new saints which just so happened to bear striking resemblances with local pagan folk heroes or gods. Eventually the church would clean up its liturgical calendar so it wasn't cluttered with so many holy days (the removal of saints took a lot longer and was harder fought, but also eventually occurred). What's fascinating about all of this is that for anyone interested in learning about pre-Christian European religious expression and tradition today, the institution that has taken most care to save & document that history is the Catholic church - that which destroyed it then, archives it now within its saints and saint day information!

WHO REALLY CARES????

I care!

Thanks for the thoughtful and interesting posts. I find this subject fascinating; otherwise I simply would not read it (hint, hint to daizy).

Kayla,
Paganism is/was pantheism, that is,that the sky etc. IS God, whereas in Judaism and Christianity, creation REFLECTs the glory of God. That is why modern science developed in the West, not so much elsewhere, because to a certain extent, creation is there for humans to manipulate for their good.

However, the Hebrew scriptures, as adopted by Christianity, also make humans the stewards of creation, to be cared for and cultivated, used but not abused. To the extent that creation has been a-bused, to that extent it is anti Jewish and anti Christian.

On a more pop level, i am distressed by how the visual celebration of Halloween has almost drawn parity with Christmas.

But on the other hand, its just meant to be fun for kids, and we probably shouldn't read too much into it.

Yes , the word "HALLOWEEN" is just a contraction of "ALL HALLOW'S EVE"
and , yes ALL SAINTS [read: HALLOWED] DAY would obviously be the next day.

We are lucky that we now just call "CHRISTMAS EVE" just THAT!!!

So big WHOOOP, I agree let's let the kids have some fun.

Sincerely, Michael.