“Something Wicked This Way Comes!”
The Great Hall in Hogwarts from the Harry Potter movie
For most children (and adults!) familiar with the Harry Potter series, the opening title of this article would ring a bell. Why, of course, this was the song sung by the Frog Choir at the Welcoming Feast of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
A whole industry has been birthed from this perennial human fascination with witches and magic, and spirits. A large part of the English-speaking world is right now gearing to celebrate Halloween, and even a Japanese chain like Daiso wants in on the profits to be gained from selling all sorts of colourful pumpkins, pointy hats, and scary masks. Come Halloween, big and small children in the civilised West will be prowling excitedly around their neighbourhoods trick-or-treating.
What many people do not remember though, is that Halloween has very Catholic roots. And to retrace these roots, we need to begin our investigation with a brief explanation about the Solemnity of All Saints, which we celebrate on the first day of each November. Originally celebrated on the thirteenth day of May each year, Pope Gregory III in the eighth century transferred that feast to the first day of each November.
As all regular practising Catholics are aware, we usually begin celebrating a feast in the Church from the evening before the actual day. We call it the vigil. And the eve of All Saints Day was the very day that the Catholics of yesteryears called “All Hallows Eve” (“hallows” is nothing more than an Old English term for “saints”). Halloween, therefore, was originally the beginning of the celebration, or the feast, of All Saints Day. Like any Catholic feast, it was to be a time of holy feasting – a happily good Catholic party! – that would climax with the celebration of the Holy Mass.
As you can probably see by now, Halloween back then had nothing to do with witches, broomsticks, goblins, pumpkins, or even candies. It was a very Christian feast. The commercial world capitalises on it by bringing all these irrelevant elements into the celebration in the same way that it brings Santa Claus and his reindeer and sleigh into Christmas, except at a more spooky level.
On All Saints Day, we remember those who have lived their lives faithfully in the path of faith, and who, upon their departure from this world, have achieved the beatific vision. They are with God. We celebrate them and ask for their intercessions with the hope that one day we too will tread the same path towards our sainthood.
Of course, the Holy Church has many saints in its register, and many more are being added on an annual basis. But there are actually more saints than we know, and on this great and happy feast, we call to mind and acknowledge even those whom we do not know. We call upon them to intercede for us so that we too might end up where they are in their happy journey towards eternity.
Now, to be sure, we do not talk to the dead in the way people commonly think (for example, going through mediums in séances) and neither do we play with them. Such a practice is categorically forbidden by the Church and considered as wrong an indulgence as witchcraft is. But to these holy souls, we are frequently encouraged to seek their intercessions on our behalf.
Having said that, we do not also forget those who have died and have yet to attain the eternal experience of heaven. Hence, on the day following the Feast of All Saints, we remember those who are still undergoing the process of purification – those “in purgatory” – and we pray earnestly for them. This is the Feast of All Souls which we commemorate on the second day of every November.
The practise of praying for the dead is neither new, nor is it an invention of the Catholic Church. It has existed since the days of the Old Testament among the ancient Jews (refer to 2 Maccabees 12:42-46).
There are many people whose lives had demonstrated visibly clear signs of faith in God but who had not been fully purged of the effects of their sins in the course of their earthly journey. Their sins were forgiven through the sacrament of reconciliation, to be sure, but they continued having attachments to certain fallen aspects of their lives.
God does not will that these who die in imperfection should be separated from him eternally. He wants them. In fact, God wants all to be saved if that were at all possible! And so, on the Feast of All Souls, we pray for these souls that their purification would be hastened and their continuous “conversion” be fully complete in order that they may swiftly be in union with God who loves them totally and absolutely.
In this non-final state, our prayers for them have efficacy, just as the prayers of the saints for us have great effect. After all, even in physical death, one does not get separated from the mystical communion of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
In Malaysia, we can be thankful and glad that our Feasts of All Saints and All Souls have thus far not been contaminated by a culture of trick-or-treating. Let us pray that the day never comes. In seeking to remain faithful to our Catholic tradition and liturgical practices, let us observe these two days by seeking to be prayed for by the saints, and by praying for those who have departed and are still aspiring to be saints.
