Halloween is celebrated on the eve of All Hallows (or All Saints) day, an important feast day in the liturgical calendar." As you say, the word started out as "All Hallows Evening" and devolved into an abbreviation/contraction of "All Hallows Eve[ning]." As far as I know the word should still have an apostrophe in it- it should be spelled "Hallowe'en"- although it has been commercialized to such an extent in the U.S. that I'm sure the apostrophe is lying, broken and bleeding, in a gutter somewhere in Lower Manhattan, having been rudely tossed out of a Madison Avenue limousine's rear window. One hopes it's not at the bottom of the East River... ;( Doug on February 1, 2011 8:23 am More than 2 years ago, a.d. asked "P.S. Which is correct: Heart-rending or heart-rendering? I thought it was 'rendering' but lately I've seen 'rending'." I searched and didn't see a response, so I'll answer. I'm sure a.d. is checking back here daily awaiting a response. The expression you're thinking of is supposed to be a stronger form of "heart-breaking." To rend is to tear apart, to break, to rip into pieces, to sever, to sunder. To render is to give ("the judge rendered an opinion"), to surrender, to relinquish, to make or cause to become ("the sudden downpour rendered the baseball rivalry moot") and several other senses, none of which involves the breaking, tearing or maiming of anything (although one sense of rendering is "to boil a carcass down for