Title: All Souls
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6; John 11:32-44
Isn't it great to finally get some seasonal weather after eleven weeks of drought and extended summer? Thursday actually felt a bit like All Hallow's Eve instead of a typical summer day in California. The rain, clouds and cooler weather turn our attention naturally to ghosts, souls, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. Do we do this because of Halloween, or is there a deeper reason in human nature, and Halloween is conveniently placed at that point?
If you look at the history of this festival, you might be inclined to vote for the latter idea? To get a handle on this, we need to travel back in time centuries before Jesus - around the time Euclid was writing about geometry in 500 BC. The Celtic tribes ranging from Britain to the south in France were farmers. October was their harvest month, and the first day of November was considered the start of their new year. This is a common practice for agrarian societies.
But the Celts were deeply religious with their own rituals and practices. For example, they believed that the human body exists inside the soul which is the opposite of what later Greek-influenced Christian believed that the soul was trapped by the body and released at death. The Celts believed that the night before their new year, October 31, was a kind of liminal time where the souls of the dead were more accessible to their loved ones. They celebrated that event with bonfires, feasts, rituals, gifts, and playing tricks on each other.
It was also a way of ushering in the dead season of winter and lighting fires to drive away the spirit of darkness. Centuries later, by 600 AD, the Pope declared that the feast of all the martyrs would be combined with the feast of all souls and the date was moved from May to ... (wait for it)... November 1. This is how an originally pagan festival was overlaid with Christian meaning. I am sure the Celts and m ...
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6; John 11:32-44
Isn't it great to finally get some seasonal weather after eleven weeks of drought and extended summer? Thursday actually felt a bit like All Hallow's Eve instead of a typical summer day in California. The rain, clouds and cooler weather turn our attention naturally to ghosts, souls, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. Do we do this because of Halloween, or is there a deeper reason in human nature, and Halloween is conveniently placed at that point?
If you look at the history of this festival, you might be inclined to vote for the latter idea? To get a handle on this, we need to travel back in time centuries before Jesus - around the time Euclid was writing about geometry in 500 BC. The Celtic tribes ranging from Britain to the south in France were farmers. October was their harvest month, and the first day of November was considered the start of their new year. This is a common practice for agrarian societies.
But the Celts were deeply religious with their own rituals and practices. For example, they believed that the human body exists inside the soul which is the opposite of what later Greek-influenced Christian believed that the soul was trapped by the body and released at death. The Celts believed that the night before their new year, October 31, was a kind of liminal time where the souls of the dead were more accessible to their loved ones. They celebrated that event with bonfires, feasts, rituals, gifts, and playing tricks on each other.
It was also a way of ushering in the dead season of winter and lighting fires to drive away the spirit of darkness. Centuries later, by 600 AD, the Pope declared that the feast of all the martyrs would be combined with the feast of all souls and the date was moved from May to ... (wait for it)... November 1. This is how an originally pagan festival was overlaid with Christian meaning. I am sure the Celts and m ...
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