Happy Hallowmas!

Happy All Saints Day!

For all of us who are still recovering from last night, today is what makes Hallowe'en possible.

All Saints Day is one of the great festivals of the Church, a holy day of obligation, and probably the third or fourth most important Christian festival (behind Easter and Christmas—the question is which is more important, All Saints or Ascension Day) in the Church's Kalendar. There are some great hymns and anthems associated with All Saints, and it's one of my favorite holy days. It's a shame that so many churches choose to ignore the celebration and they "transfer" it to a sort of second class observance on what they call "All Saints Sunday."

Anyway, as with all the big holy days, the Church traditionally started the observance on the previous evening, hence "Christmas Eve," "Easter Even," and "All Saints Even." All Saints Even? How do we get Hallowe'en out of that?

Blame the British. Instead of calling today All Saints Day, the Brits call it All Hallows Day or Hallowmas ("hallow" being a synonym for holy, sanctified, saintly, etc.). So, over there, they have All Hallows Even, or, more commonly, Hallows Even, which eventually metamorphosized into Hallowe'en.

I'm going to Mass tonight at St. Paul's K Street. It'll be exciting! My cute and talented friend John is one of the soloists for the Vaughn-Williams G-minor Mass they're doing during the service.