Is Halloween a religious holiday?
 

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Isn't November 1, All Saints Day?

Halloween is the evening before that and was called All Saints Eve.

Halloween is the contraction of "All Hallows Evening." Halloween/October 31 is not a religious holiday, but as previously posted, is the night before All Saints' Day, a solemn day observed by many Christian denominations.

Yes, Nov 1 is All Saints Day.

While Halloween is not technically an official religious holiday, it has become a defacto religious holiday aka day of celebration for Wiccans.

For some, "Halloween is revered for horror, and partying".

Religious, NO!!!!!

TexanVA you are correct it was and is still celebrated by Wccun practioners We had an occasion in a case we were investigating to explore the Wiccun and found it was at the time the 7th largest church

In NJ the night before Halloween was mischief night. Young teen boys would roam in gangs carrying eggs and shaving cream. You would also have a sweat sock filled with about 3 inches of flower that would be used in battle like a numchuck. If the police caught you they would pat you down, breaking all the eggs in your hooded sweat shirt. I use to keep my eggs in a nail apron I wore backwards so that the eggs would be in the small of my back. No one would touch a boy there.

Was mischief night practiced in other states? We were all good catholic boys in my gang but it was not religious.

Is Halloween a religious holiday?
 

There's really very little if any connection between Halloween and the religious celebration of All Saints' Day.

Talk about a trip down memory lane! I lived in NJ as a kid (Metuchen), went to Catholic school and we likewise did the mischief nite thing ... maybe not quite to the same level you talked about in your post ... but hey, we were dumb kids and had fun. :)

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/samh...in_History.htm

All Hallow Mass:

Around the eighth century or so, the Catholic Church decided to use November 1st as All Saints Day. This was actually a pretty smart move on their part – the local pagans were already celebrating that day anyway, so it made sense to use it as a church holiday. All Saints’ became the festival to honor any saint who didn’t already have a day of his or her own. The mass which was said on All Saints’ was called Allhallowmas – the mass of all those who are hallowed. The night before naturally became known as All Hallows Eve, and eventually morphed into what we call Halloween.

Do you have a problem with Saturnalia, a pagan holiday, being adapted as a Christian celebration?

That's very interesting. Thank-you for looking it up and passing it on. Do you know if our customs in the US of trick or teating, dressing up kids, and putting out pumpkins resembles any other country's customs?

Like I said, very little connection.