Fun Fact of the Day: Halloween…why?

Halloween or “All Hallows’ Eve” is the day before All Hallows Day, more commonly known as All Saints Day.

Every day of the year is dedicated to a saint.  The most common ones we still celebrate are St Patrick’s Day, St. Valentine’s Day, St Nicholas’ Day (Which actually is December 6th, but St. Nick’s story deals with generosity and gift giving, which is how he got connected with Christmas.)  But November 1st is a day to celebrate all of the saints. Being a very holy day, the day before became known as the day the devils and demons had reign before being locked away again.  November 1st is technically a Catholic day of obligation, like Christmas and Easter…most Catholics tend to forget that though…

It is actually quite common that the day before something somber, the opposite is the case. For example, Fat Tuesday is a day of debauchery because the next day, Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of a time of “purification” in time for Easter.

There is actually a tradition that just before a holy day, that is when the “Dark forces” are strongest. In fact their used to be a very strong tradition of ghost stories taking place just before Christmas. The only popular modern story keeping that tradition is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

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