This is Halloween

Halloween is--despite what you might hear from your local evangelical group--a Christian holiday... kinda.

There's a lot to it, and there are layers of syncretism to dig through, but just under the secular (not-technically-pagan) veneer of sugar and chocolate, is a thick layer of juicy Christian religious expression.

All Saints' Day on the old calendar begins at sunset, giving us the EVE of so many great holidays. Halloween was never meant to become it's own distinct holiday until we made it a great party. We explore the original dates for the Christian festivals for the dead saints, and how more recent authorities (Pope Gregory IV) moved the religious celebration 1200 years ago. 

We are obligated to look at the Celtic Samhain (or Calan Gaeaf) and the old Roman Lemuria, and the claims surrounding Wicca. Opening the earth in the cold season before the freeze brings with it a vast collection of superstitious ideas around the dead and their visitations, too, and we can't leave out the fae folk. 

We examine the traditions of the jack-o-lanterns, and guising, the fascination with death, and the uniquely Canadian contribution to the nearly-global practice of Trick-or-Treating. 

With the Mexican Day of the Dead, we also dip into the story of Lazaro Cardenas del Rio and 1930s' Aztec-Mexican nationalism and the beautifying effects of secularism.

After all, we have to spend some time exploring anti-Halloween rhetoric among evangelical Christians, and it's a little tough.

All this and more.... 

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