Happy Halloween everyone/mildly OT

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 5040

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Denise Rogers" <gypsycaine at y...> 
wrote:

> I think that Halloween/All Saint's Day was originally the pagan
> holiday of Samhain first, then the "church" of the time changed 
> their holidays to match the holidays of the pagans, so that they 
> could be encouraged to join the new religion.  Hence the reason we
>  wiccans celebrate Samhain (or the Wiccan New Year) on October 31st 

As I understand it, the original All Saints's Day was on May 1st, and 
was related somewhere to the Pantheon being converted to a Christian 
church under the name of All Saints'. The date of All Saints' Day was 
changed IIRC a couple of times, before ending up on Samhain for 
the reason you stated.

Btw, the Halloween season is the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertes, 
when everyone visits family graves and makes offrendas (altars to 
welcome the visiting dead relatives, adorned with marigolds, candles, 
a glass of water, a chair for the spirit to sit and rest after the 
journey, the dead person's favorite foods, and other things the dead 
person liked). While that description (I left out the candy skulls 
with the eater's name on them) sounds like the generic relationship 
being living and dead relatives anywhere in the world, many details 
make everyone certain that it is really an ancient MesoAmerican Pagan 
holiday with just the date changed when they turned Catholic.

And I have been told that the dressing up in costumes holiday is 
celebrated on December 28, the massacre of the innocents by King 
Herod.