Thanks to my friend Jim De Piante for putting together this fact list about All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween):
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Halloween is an English language contraction for All Hallows Evening.
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It literally means the Eve, or Holy Vigil of All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day.
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The term came into being in the very earliest form of the English language.
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When the word “Halloween” came into being, the term All Saints Day did not yet exist.
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In English, at the time, the term was “All Hallows” day.
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The term “Halloween” was in use by 1300.
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This was approximately 300 years before Protestantism.
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This was 200 years before Columbus sailed.
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This was 500 years before there was a country called the United States.
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There is no way the term is Protestant or American.
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The Church has always encouraged secular observances of holy times.
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We are not restricted to only do explicitly holy things to observe holy times.
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What other people do that is a perversion of a holy time does not change the inherent holiness of the holy time.
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Begging treats has various pedigrees. Yes, there were soul cakes, but there were other Catholic customs as well wherein children went to their neighbors homes to beg treats.
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There is no association between Halloween and Samhain other than coincidental.
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There is no association between Halloween and any pagan feast other than coincidental.
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The fact that pagans do a thing does not illegitimate anyone else doing it.
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There is very little about Halloween that is