St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-24
A RELIC OF THE PAST
Reflections Of Bill Arp on Hallow-
e'ea Celebr lions.
Had one 1T His Hone-Why Young
People Have Fortunes Told ON
the Eve Of All Saints
Day.

Hallowe en- was observed at our house
but why, can hardly tell. There Is
a natural reverence for old-time ways
and customs and superstitions. There
is a fascination about witches, jack
olanterns, fortune telling. table rap
ping, graveyaris and all haif-hldden
and mysterious things, particularly 1or
the young people. But TO the aged who
are nearing their approach to the IN
discovered country this fascination mas
passed away, and hence could not en-
ter into the spirit and hilarity OF the
occasion. | preferred lamp in the
sitting-room TO those cavernous candle
lights i'm the parlor-those dismal,
fiendish lights that shone through vel
low eyes and noses and mouths OF huge
pumpkins and were reminders Oh
ghosts, hobgoblins and raw heads ano
bloody bones / didn't see any fun or
any reverence in tiptoeing away up
into the old garnet and looking into
a broken mirror for lover who was to
appear behind you. and am too old 70
walk down the stairs backwards at
the peril Of my corporosity. lcouidn
see any reason or philosophy in crack
ing nuts for good luck or bad luck in
love affairs. But / DO enjoy some 81
the nice. sensible performances. such
as music. and writing questions and an
swers. and the feast of fruits and cake
and chocolate.
[ was Illuminating about this Hal
lowe'en business-how it ever came
about that the night of October 81 was
gala night for the fairies. and they
went abroad whispering love to the
Young people and helping them to mate
and 10 marry We are told that 1T orig
mated i'm Scotland many centuries ago
and continues there yet. Hallowe en-.
of course. means hallow eve and bears
the same relation to All Hallow's day
iNovemher y that Christmas eve does
to Christmas day-and there is the
same kind of foolishncss carried on.
1t is the romance of the mind to have
a shadowy faith in superstitionss. Some
folks still believe that COWS all go to
Christmas. and some believe in "con-
turin" and witchcraft: The Puritans
believed that witches were always fe-
males. and they never drowned man
for bewitching anybody. Poor woman!
How she has suffered for her lord and
master; then remember well how one
of them bewitched me in the long
ago.
Now this .Hallow's day" is simply a
contraction Of "All Hallow's day." and
that for "All the haliowed saints day.
or "All Saints day" Away hack in the
eighth century the c:.iendar of saints
got pretty full. for the bishops sainte.i
nearly every Christian who died or was a
martyr. Every church recorded their
names. and brief sketch of his life
and good deeds. Eusebius and Origen be-
gan il. and theircatalogues are still pre-
served. Later on in the centuries these
saints were multiplied TO the disgust
Of some of the popes, and 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 stop to it, of course, for a
miracle is right hard thing to per-
form. But the making Of saints by the
Roman Catholic and Greek and eastern
churches had been going on for ten
centuries, until there were as many
dead saints in the church as there were
Ral<
government began to catalogue them
800 years ago. after the art of printing
was discovered. 4 learned Jesuit by
the name 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 81 volumes and are not near
done. ! tell you Heaven is crowded ii
they are all of them there. We know
that in the days Of the apostles and for
good while after all who entered the
Christian churches were called saints,
and the Apostles Greed says: II be-
lieye in the communion of saints;" and
even in our days 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 i'm Paurs day
the name was changed at Antioch to
Christians. l reckon that there was
some suspicion that the members of the
churches were not all sanctified; and
that suspicion, | am sorry to say, still
continues to our time and people.
"All Saints" is a festival of very
ancient origin, and is obeyed with great
reverence by Roman Catholics and Epis-
copalians. 1t was instituted i'm the
fourth century. Pope Boniface gave it
permanence and -enown in the sew
enth century when he dedicated the
Pantheon of Jupiter to the worship of
the true God under the Invocation of
all the saints. So many churches had
been built and dedicated to the more
notable and illustrious saints. such as
Paul and Peter and John and james and
Saint Cecilia, that the pope felt sorry
for the thousands who had not been
honored, and he took them all in at
once and called the first day of Novem-
Der "All Saints day" Subsequently
the next day was called '.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 state of purgatory. In Germany
the people visit the graveyards on this
day and strew flowers on the graves of
their friends. E~s
This conservation of the Pantheon to
all the saints was very like Henry n.
Jackson's sympathetic appeal to our
people who were building monuments
to our illustrious heroes all over the
south. This is WELL" he said, but
now let us build somewhere in this
conquered land higher and rr.rda.