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Fr. Steve Grunow |
In the spirit of the upcoming All Hallows Eve, a.k.a. Halloween, Word of Fire staffers fired some questions at the walking encyclopedia that is Fr. Steve Grunow. He responded with everything you ever wanted to know about Halloween and its deeply Catholic roots.
This article is the second in a three-part series.
Question: What is the relation of Halloween to All Saints/All Souls? Which came first?
Father Steve: All Saints Day appears to have a more ancient genealogy than All Souls Day.
The practice of a festival day to honor the whole Communion of Saints, rather than that just a single saint, seems to happen for the first time in the Catholic Church with the consecration of the Pantheon as a public place for the Church’s worship. This happened in the year A.D. 609 (or A.D. 610) on May 13.