In the case of Halloween, the Celtic celebration of Samhain is critical to its pagan legacy, a claim that has been foregrounded in recent years by both new-age enthusiasts and the evangelical Right | Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night |
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In England and Germany, this celebration took place on 1st November | In fact, during All Hallow's Eve and Christmas Eve, cemeteries are known as valomeri, or seas of light |
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Festivals commemorating the saints as opposed to the original Christian martyrs appear to have been observed by 800 | The night before was called All Saints' Eve or hallowed eve meaning holy evening |
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Halloween or Hallowe'en, is the yearly celebration on October 31st that signifies the first day of Allhallowtide, being the time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints and all faithful departed Christians | Most funerals are Lutheran, and nearly 98 percent of all funerals take place in a church |
In Ireland, it was commemorated on 20th April, a chronology that contradicts the widely held view that the November date was chosen to Christianize the festival of Samhain | ; Village, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield 1988 |
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It is customary to take pictures of funerals or even videotape them | Halloween, a holiday with religious origins but increasingly secularized as celebrated in America, came to assume major proportions as a children's festivity |
Originally celebrated as the night before All Saints' Day, Christians chose November first to honor their many saints.
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