Halloween blessings

Halloween seems to be all about putting on a bizarre show, and why not? Out of the 365 days of the year, we get to masquerade only once as something or someone else.

Halloween also seems to be all about celebrating, and why not? When better than a nationwide masquerade to enjoy the liberty of trying on a new face, of stepping out of the world of work and stress and into a new world of costumes, candy and craziness.
This zany night of entertainment started off much differently, though.

In England, the custom of “tricking” began when, on the night before Halloween, some communities in the North observed Mischief Night. On this night, as during Halloween in contemporary times, children played tricks on adults, though not necessarily for being sent away without any candy.

So much for the tricking. On to the treating.

Halloween became a part of the church calendar in England in the 9th century when Nov. 1 was fixed as All Saint’s Day, commonly called All-hallows. The evening before it was, of course, All Hallows Eve or Halloween.

The day after All Hallows was All Souls’ Day, during which English children would travel door to door singing and saying prayers for the dead in return for cakes or money, forming a model of the trick-or-treat routine in the United States today.

However, in medieval England, instead of being known as trick-or-treating, this process was called “souling,” and instead of threatening harmless reprisals if the home did not offer them sweets, these children were offering a blessing to the home.

Since prayers for the dead were understood to shorten their time of suffering in purgatory (England was a Catholic country until Henry VIII changed that in the 16th century), these children would have been donating a tremendous service to people in their community.

What has happened in our culture, so that instead of going around our neighborhoods in order to offer a blessing, we make rounds of a community only in order to gain candy and display gaudy costumes?

Some of this change in custom no doubt resulted from shifting religious allegiances. “Souling” became much less popular after the English Reformation in the 16th century.
But another factor in this shift might correspond to a more general change in our culture – away from community responsibility and concern for neighbors, toward increased emphasis on the individual and how much they can “get.”

These new emphases are not entirely wrong. The decline of community is actually quite understandable, though not commendable, considering the number of commuters and the rise in safety issues.

An emphasis on the individual or on “getting” may come partly from the fact that there is plenty of individual freedom and plenty to be gotten in the United States.

But consider this: What would you think if children approached your home on Halloween and announced that instead of asking for treats, they wanted to pray for you or offered to rake leaves in your yard?

That, indeed, would be bizarre.