The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-20

o'lanterns, fOrtune-telling, table rapping,
gravcyards and all half-hiddcn and myS-
terious things, particularly for the young
people. But to the aged who are near
ing their approach to the undiscovered
country, this fascination has passed
away. and hence / could not enter into
the spirit and hilarity of the OCCASION.
i / preferred a lamp in the sitting room
to those cavernOus candle lights i'll the
paror-those dismal, fiendish lights
that shone through yellow eyes and
noses and mouths of huge pumpkins and
were reminders of ghosts, hobgOblins
and raw heads and bloody bones. |
didn't see any fun or any reverence III
/ tiptoeing away up into the old garnet
| and looking into a broken mirror for
! lover who was appear behind you, and
am too old to walk down the stairs back
wards at the peril of my cOrporosity. /
couldn't see any reason or philosophy in
cracking nuts for good luck or bad luck
in love affairs. But / did enjoy some
/ of the more sensible performances, such
| as music, and writing questions and an
swcrs, and the feast of fruits and cake
and chocolate.
| 1t was Illuminating about this Hal
/ lOWe'en business-hOw it ever came
/ about that the night of October 31st was
a gala night for the fairies, and they
went abroad whispering love to the
! young people and helping them to mate
/ and to marry. We are told that it ORR
! ginated in Scotland many centuries ago
and continues there yet. Halloween, of
! course. means hallOw eve and bears the
same relation to All Hallow's day, No
! vember 1st) that Christmas eve does to
J I,.e nd 4barn 10 tho
| kind of foolishness carried on. 1t is the
romance of the mind to have Il shadowy
! faith in superstitions. Some folks still
4 believe that the cows all go to prayer
1 the twelfth night after Christmas, and
/ some believe in "conjurin' and witch
/ craft The Puritans believed that witch
/ es were always females, and they never
/ drowned Il man for bewitching anybody.
/ Poor woman! How she has suffered
! from her lord and master; then | remem-
! Der well how one of them bewitched me
| in the long ago.
Now this "Hallow's day" is simply Il
| contraction of ''All Hallow's day. and
/ that for ''Al the hallowed saints day."
or "All Saints day" Away back i'll
! the eighth century the calendar of saints
! got pretty full. for the bishops sainted
/ nearly every Christian who died or was
! a martyr. Every church recorded their
names, and brief sketch of his or her
! life and good deeds. Eusebius and
/ Origen began it, and their catalogues are
! still preserved. Later on in the CEN
| turtles these saints were multiplied to
| the disgust of some of the pOpes, aud
an edict was passed that nobody should
! be sainted or canonized unless he or she
| had performed at least two miracles and
left some relics to the church. Well,
! that put Il stop to it, of course, for
miracle is a right hard thing TO perform.
But the making of saints by the Roman
! Catholic and by Greek and
! eastern churches had been 60
ing on for 10 centuries, UNI
til there were as many dead saints in the
/ church as there were living sinners out
side. The Belgium government began
/ to catalogue them 800 years ago, after
| the art of printing was begun. A learn
ed Jesuit by the names of BOlland was
employed, and in five years he made
| three volumes and died. His successor
/ made five more volumes and died, and
so they have been making volumes and
dying until now they have fifty-seven
/ volumes and are not near done. | tell
! you heaven is crowded if they are all
of them there. We know that in the
| days of the apostles and for q good while
after ALI who the Christian
churches were called saints, and the
Apostles creed says, II believe in the
communion of saints" and even in our
day the hymns written by English
churchmen call Christians saints. Just
a hundred years ago George Keith wrote
that beautiful hymn, How Firm a
| Foundation Ye Saints of the Lord But
in PauPs day the name was changed at
/ Antioch to Christians. / reckon that
there was some suspicion that the mem
bers of the churches were not all sancti-
fled; and that suspicion, | am sorry TO
say, still continues to our time and peo-
Pile.
"All Saints" is n festival of very an.
! Gent origin and is obeyed with great
reverence by Roman Catholics and EOS
! copalians. 1t was instituted in the fourth
century. Pope Boniface gave it perma-
nence and renOwn in the seventh cen
/ tury when he dedicated the Pantheon
I of Jupiter to the worship of the true
God under the invocation of all tho
/ saints. So many churches had been
built and dedicated to the more noble
| and illustrious saints, such as Paul and
| Peter and John and James and Saint
Cecilia, that the people felt sorry for
! the thousands who had not been honor
j ed, and he took them all in at once and
! called the first day of November ''Ali
Saints Day" Subsequently the next
day was chosen as ''All Souls day"
when the mass of requiem is said for
the rest and peace of the dead who have
not gone to heaven, but are in n state of
purgatory. In Germany the people visit
the graveyards on this day and strew
flowers on the graves of their friends
The conservation of the Pantheon to
all the saints was very like Henry r.
Jackson's sympathetic appeal to our
people who were building monuments
to our illustrious heroes all over the
South. '"This is WELL" he said, uut
now let us build somewhere in this con
quered land a higher and grander and
more beautiful monument to the mem
DRY of the unknown and unrecorded
dead" The Roman Catholics believe
that the saints in heaven have great
influence with the Almighty Father
in procuring a remission of sin and hence
it is right and proper that we should
nrov IN thaIn and ta fboir. oas