Harvest Holidays

First of all, the holidays in the fall like Halloween are not pagan rites and have less to do with Celtic Druids as candy corn has to do with corn. These holidays during the harvest season have nothing to do with pagans, witches, or devil worshiping. Halloween originated with American Christians and that is why my online friends who are not American do not know much about, care about, or celebrate Halloween. Try it for yourself, and you will see that Halloween is an American idea, not some ancient festival.

Halloween falls on October 31st because most early American Christians were Catholic. All Hallow’s Day falls on November 1st. The definition of “eve” means the period immediately preceding, usually the evening or day before a holiday; like Midsummer’s Eve (Bonfire Night) for example. Since November 1st is All Halllow’s Day, the day before is October 31st making it All Hallows Eve. Halloween is short for All Hallows Eve. All Halllow’s Day is not Pagan or Druidic, so All Hallows Eve is not Pagan or Druidic, which means Halloween is not Pagan or Druidic.

While there was some ancients that recognised a minor festival on October the 31st, they also did the same thing on the last day on almost every month of the year. October the 31st was nothing special to them. As I said, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints, also called “All Hallows Day” falls on November the 1st.

All Hallows Day used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III moved it to November the 1st because it is the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome. Then in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere spreading All Hallow’s Day to Ireland. The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, “All Hallows Even” or “Hallowe’en.”

Even after the 840s, Halloween was just the day before All Hallows Day, and meant nothing more to Christians, and even less to pagans. Also of note is that St. Odilo made the next day (November the 2nd) “All Souls Day” in 998. This means that even in the year 998 Halloween was nothing like it is today. These historical facts prove that untill the 20th century, Halloween was no different than St. Mark’s Eve.

In the same way as how most people today have not even heard of St. Mark’s Eve, it has only been in the past millennium that people have heard of Halloween. This time scale makes it impossible for druids, pagans, witches, or anyone else to have even known what Halloween was because it did not exist, much less celebrate it in ancient time. Even if Halloween was an ancient festival, any non-christians would have carred about it as much as modern pagans care about St. Mark’s Eve.

Candy corn is made of honey and was created in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company. Each piece mimics a kernel from a dried ear North American corn in shape, size, and color.

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