In order for us to understand the significance of All Saint’s Day, we must first understand how it relates to Halloween and Christianity.
Halloween, you say? Oh yes, Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (sa-win).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on Nov. 1. This day marked the end of summer and the Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.
On the night of Oct. 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, the Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.
For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated Nov. 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.
The celebration was also called All Hallows or All Hallowmas and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All Hallows’ Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Luther made it even more interesting in 1517 by nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg on Halloween and the reformation of the church began.
Are we all confused yet?
All Saints is the day of victory for the simple and quiet folk who are the regular Christians of the church. It is not just the famous saints in the Bible and others like St. Francis or even Mother Teresa who were called to glory; all Christians share equally in God’s glory.
We celebrate All Saints’ Day knowing that each and every Christian person at the moment of his or her death crosses over into glory as a gift to them from the love of God shown to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Our loved ones who have gone before us are at this very moment gloriously alive and feasting at the heavenly table with God, just as we feast at that Communion table with Jesus this Sunday.
We are also celebrating that God calls us also to be saints through our faith that we too will someday live in the full glory of God.
Please join us this Sunday for worship at 11 a.m. to hear more about All Hallows’ Eve and following the service we partake of our yearly Oktoberfest celebration. Brats, sauerkraut, German potato salad, beer bread, music and the like. It’s all free so please join us.
All are welcome so come as you are.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572. Email Pastor Chris at
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