Halloween And The Reformation

A friend told me recently that his granddaughter asked him an interesting question. "Grandpa," she said, turning with a puzzled look, "why do we always have Reformation Sunday right after Halloween?" She saw no connection, even though she and her family are Lutherans and active church goers.

All the emphasis upon scary costumes, trick-or-treating kids parading from house to house, spooky displays of skeletons, ghosts, spiders, witches and evil faced pumpkins in yards, in restaurants and shopping malls has turned the Eve of All Hallows into another time of lets pretend and have a party. This season also reflects the widespread interest in places like the Devil's Tramping Ground and other unexplained supernatural phenomena. All this certainly distracts from the church's original intent in establishing the Feast of All Saints (All Hallows). Since then believers have associated All Hallows Eve (Halloween) with everything opposed to All Hallows, a time when demons and devils came out to laugh at and mock God's ways. In a sense we join their party by dressing in ghoulish costumes and spreading or threatening to spread chaos around the neighborhoods.

Mary Reed Newland explains the Eve of All Hallows in this way:

A celebration much like our Halloween, with bonfires and feasting on apples and nuts and harvest fruits, was part of pagan worship for centuries. The Britons celebrated in honor of their sun-god with bonfires, a tribute to the light that brought them abundant harvest. At the same time they saluted Samhain, their "lord of death," who was thought to gather together at last the souls of the year's dead which had been consigned to the bodies of animals in punishment for their sins. The Romans celebrated the same kind of festival at this time in honor of their goddess Pomona, a patroness of fruits and gardens. Whether the Church "baptized" these customs or chose this season for her feasts of the dead independent of them, their coincidence shows again how alike men are when they seek God and His ways, give praise, use the language of symbols to express the inexpressible. 

It was in the eighth century that the Church appointed a special date for the feast of All Saints, followed by a day in honor of her soon-to-be saints, the feast of All Souls. She chose this time of year, it is supposed, because in her part of the world it was the time of barrenness on the earth. The harvest was in, the summer done, the world brown and drab and mindful of death. Snow had not yet descended to comfort and hide the bony trees or blackened fields; so with little effort man could look about and see a meditation on death and life hereafter.

She goes on to tell about how the Eve of All Hallows was celebrated in various countries around the world.

Many protestant and Lutheran churches celebrate the Reformation on the Sunday nearest Oct. 31. The Sunday following is the Feast of All Saints, a time to remember all who have entered heaven during the past year by God's grace. Their names are spoken aloud and prayers of thanks are offered.

So back to the question. What does Halloween have to do with Reformation Sunday? In sixteenth century Germany All Saints Day, November 1, was a big day. Many would be present at worship on that day. Further, the door of the castle church at Wittenberg was where one posted important items. So anticipating all the worshippers, Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses there on October 31, challenging the sale of indulgences. Needless to say, his theses set off the great storm that we now call the Reformation. More about this in my next posts.