오늘(10월 31일)은 Halloween day history, 그유래가 생소하다.

"할로윈 데이"의 유래가 생각했던것과는 너무나 다른 내용이라서 유래를 찾아 보았다.

일종의 성스러운 날을 맞이하기위한 전날, 즉 크리스마스 이브처럼, 그전날인 10월 31일 저녁에 악령이나 나쁜마귀들이 찾아 들지 못하도록 중세기때 이전부터 모든 기독교인들이 철야를 하면서, 때로는 단식을 하면서 악령을 쫒아내기위한 기도를 하면서 Vigilance를 했던데서 유래하는것 같다.

매년 10월의 마지막날은 "할로윈데이"로 북미대륙을 포함한 유럽전역에서는 Trick or Treat로 이제 막 세상을 익힐려고 하는 어린 소년소녀들 뿐만이 아니고 부모들 까지도 이날 저녁에는 악령의 탈과 유령의 탈을 뒤집어쓰고 이웃집들을 방문하면서 Candy종류와 기타 먹을것을 도네이션 받는다.  젊은이들은 그들데로 유령의 옷을 입고, 밤새도록 파티를 하면서 보낸다.

간혹은 Candy종류를 어린 아이들에게 나누어주는 과정에서 짖꿎은 어른들이 Candy나 먹을것속에 독극물이나 바늘같은 이물질을 넣어 아이들을 괴롭힐려는 작난때문에, 조심 하라는 메세지가 뉴스를 타고 계속해서 흘러 나오기도 한다.

이러한 서구사회의 풍습이 생활환경과 동서교류가 잦아지면서 고국에도 전파되여 원래의 목적과는 다른 상혼이 그속에 깊이 파고들어, 유령을 묘사한 각종 Clown들을 입어야만 되는것으로 어린 아이들에게 잘못 전수되여, 그비용이 하늘을 찌를듯 하다는 어느 부모의 한탄을 들었던 기억도 있다. 

이러한 할로윈데이의 유래를 알고 즐긴다면 하는 마음에서 간단히 자료를 통해 적어본다.

"모두에게 성스러운날" 또는 "모든 성자들의 날"로 기독교인들 사이에서는 "성스러운 날 전야"로 보내면서 철야를 하고 기도하고, 단식을 하기도한다.

"할오윈"이라는 이름의 뜻은 고전영어에서 "성스러운" 또는 "성스럽게 해주는" 뜻이 Hallowed에서 유래 했다고 한다.

8세기에 11월1일날, 교황 그레고리3세는 로마의 성베드로 성당의 다락방에서 헌신예배를 집전한다.   그레고리 4세는 그후 온 캐톨릭교회를 통해  세상의 모든 교회가  축제를 열도록 했고, 11월1일날은 그래서 "모든 성자들의 날"로  서구사회의 교회에서는 기념해오고 있다.

정교회에서는 유월절이 지난후 첫번째 일요일을 "모든 성자들의 날"로 기념해 오고 있다.

그러나 오늘날에는 기독교를 포함한 어느종파에서도 원래의 뜻을 따르는 11월1일 성자의 날 축체행사는 거의 없는것 같다.  믿음이 변질돼서 일까? 아니면 세상이 변함에 따라 믿음의 본질도 변해서 일까?  아니면 상업성에 기독교가 넘어간것일까?

자료를 읽는 분들의 정확한 이해를 위해 자료를 옮겨 놓아 보았다.

All Hallows' Eve

All Hallows' Eve falls on 31st October each year, and is the day before All Hallows Day, also known as All Saints' Day.

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• All Hallows' Eve
• Hallowe'en and Samhain
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All Hallows' Eve

All Hallows' Eve falls on 31st October each year, and is the day before All Hallows' Day, also known as All Saints' Day in the Christian calendar. The Church traditionally held a vigil on All Hallows' Eve when worshippers would prepare themselves with prayers and fasting prior to the feast day itself.

The name derives from the Old English 'hallowed' meaning holy or sanctified and is now usually contracted to the more familiar word Hallowe'en.

A brief history of the festival

In the early 7th century Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, formerly a temple to all the gods, as a church dedicated to Saint Mary and the Martyrs, and ordered that that date, 13th May, should be celebrated every year.

It became All Saints' Day, a day to honour all the saints, and later, at the behest of Pope Urban IV (d. 1264), a day specially to honour those saints who didn't have a festival day of their own.

In the 8th century, on 1st November, Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel to all the saints in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Gregory IV then made the festival universal throughout the Church, and 1st November has subsequently become All Saints' Day for the western Church.

The Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints' Day on the first Sunday after Passover - a date closer to the original 13th May.

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Hallowe'en and Samhain

It is widely believed that many Hallowe'en traditions have evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain which was Christianised by the early Church. Pronounced sow-in, Samhain is a Gaelic word meaning 'end of the summer'. This festival is believed to have been a celebration of the end of the harvest, and a time of preparation for the coming winter.

It is widely accepted that the early church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, thereby smoothing the conversion process.

A letter Pope Gregory I sent to Bishop Mellitus in the 6th century, in which he suggested that existing places of non-Christian worship be adopted and consecrated to serve a Christian purpose, is often provided as supporting evidence of this method of acculturation. (See related links.)

Encyclopaedia Britannica states that this date may have been chosen "in an effort to supplant the Pagan holiday with a Christian observance".

The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions also claims that Hallowe'en "absorbed and adopted the Celtic new year festival, the eve and day of Samhain".

However, there are supporters of the view that Hallowe'en, as the eve of All Saints' Day, originated entirely independently of Samhain and some question the existence of a specific pan-Celtic religious festival which took place on 31st October/1st November.

In his book Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Nicholas Rogers states:

Festivals commemorating the saints as opposed to the original Christian martyrs appear to have been observed by 800. In England and Germany, this celebration took place on 1st November. 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.

Nicholas Rogers, Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

Steve Roud, author of A Pocket Guide To Superstitions Of The British Isles, says:

Certainly the festival of Samhain, meaning Summer's End, was by far the most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish calendar, and there was a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen, but however strong the evidence in Ireland, in Wales it was 1st May and New Year which took precedence, in Scotland there is hardly any mention of it until much later, and in Anglo-Saxon England even less.

Steve Roud, A Pocket Guide To Superstitions Of The British Isles

In Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Ronald Hutton says:

Heavy Irish immigration into the Scottish Highlands and Isles in the early Middle Ages carried the name Samhain there, in local variations, but to the Welsh the day was 'Calan Gaeaf', 'the first day of winter', and the night before was termed 'Nos Galan Gaea', winter's eve'. Perhaps significantly, the earliest Welsh literature attributes no arcane significance to these dates (in sharp contrast to May Eve) and describes no gatherings then (in sharp contrast to New Year). It must be concluded, therefore, that the medieval records furnish no evidence that 1st November was a major pan-Celtic festival, and none of religious ceremonies, even where it was observed. An Anglo-Saxon counterpart is difficult either to prove or to dismiss completely.

Ronal Hutton, Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain

Either way, what we can be sure of is that the modern celebration of Hallowe'en is a complicated mix of evolved (and evolving) traditions and influences.