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      All Saints Day, (“All Hallows” in old English) on November 1, was certainly observed in England, France, and Germany in the eighth century. Pope Gregory III (731–741) moved All Saints Day (originally celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, signalling the official end of Easter) from May to November 1. The day, which involved a vigil kept the night before (October 31) was set aside to commemorate all saints too numerous to be given their own feast day and was observed in Rome, before being extended by Gregory IV to the rest of the church a century later. It coincided with the Celtic New Year, “Samhain,” when pagans believed the boundary between this life and the next could be more easily crossed. However, there exists no evidence that either Pope had any knowledge of Samhain.

      Note that the ‘occult’ aspects of modern Halloween (all-hallows-eve) have their roots firmly in Roman Catholic belief, not in ancient paganism! Both the vigil and day remain Roman Catholic holy days of obligation. It would seem that the people needed something more tangible for their own dead and therefore All Souls’ Day, on November 2, with its solemn Mass and prayers for the departed was introduced to supply this need. The special liturgical features of the church’s celebration are the Vespers, Matins, and Lauds of the Dead on the evening of November 1, and the solemn Requiem Mass on November 2. Throughout Europe various customs continue to prevail, from making meals for the dead to eat in the night, to baking “soul-cakes,” given originally to the living as a reward for their prayers for the dead in purgatory.

      St. Hubert’s Day, was concocted for November 3; St. Martin’s Day or Martinmas was concocted for November 11 by Pope Martin I (649–654); St. Clement’s Day for November 23; St. Catherine’s Day for November 25; St. Andrew’s Day for November 30; St. Nicholas’s for December 6; St. Lucia for December 13; and St. Thomas the Apostle for December 21. The three saints’ days immediately following Christmas are St. Stephen’s for December 26; St. John the Evangelist’s for December 27; and the Holy Innocents’ for December 28.

      The number of fantastic superstitions which built up around those days, part pagan and part Roman Catholic in origin, not to mention those associated with Christmas Eve and the twelve days thereafter, are legion in number. In light of all of the Saints Days established, we can understand how the feature of Advent evolved, with a few churches commencing it the sixth Sunday before Christmas Day but most on the fourth Sunday before. While Advent was ratified at the Council of Tours in 567, it is attested to have been in existence since 480.

From our historical review, it can be gathered that while we associate Christmas with December 25, on its pagan side it cannot be separated from the folk-feasts of November and December. In the Hampton court of Charles I (d. 1649), Christmas was reckoned to commence on All Hallow Tide, (All Saints Day) on November 1.15 As November 1 was considered by many to be the start of Christmas, so Candlemas on February 2 was considered to be the end of Christmas. There had existed in Roman society a festival called the Amburbium, which took place at the beginning of February and consisted of a procession around the city of Rome with lighted candles to purify it. Candles or other lights were also placed in graves with dead bodies, the thought being that they would have light in the next world! This was displaced by Pope Liberius in the fourth century with Candlemas. Candles were blessed in church and then taken on procession as a symbol of Christ as a light to lighten the Gentiles. As with all of these “Christian” holy days concocted by the papacy, with the passage of time there was assimilation with the pagan myths and practices which the church festivals were intended to displace.

      It was commonplace in some areas to remove the winter evergreens such as holly and ivy on Candlemas Eve, replacing them with spring plants such as snowdrops. Miraculous powers came to be associated with the candles, so that they would be lit and kept burning during times of storms or illnesses or at a death. Candlemas was believed by some to be the lighting of a partially burned stick from the Yule log of Christmas, therefore considered to be the last farewell to Christmas. Linked with this was Mary’s forty days of purification after she gave birth (Lev. 12:1–8) before she could offer a sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, therefore with the assumption that the Lord was born on December 25, forty days later brings us to February 2–3 (Candlemas).

      When it came to Christianising the pagan festivals, the church encountered a particular problem with New Year and the varied forms of paganism which evolved from the Romans Kalends celebrations. Their attempts to change it proved less successful, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter on New Year. The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern carolling), etc. We conclude this section with a quote from an American historian. Stephen Nissenbaum, history professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, writes,

In

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