- Feb 5, 2002
- 167,171
- 56,584
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
Halloween is increasingly being stripped of its Catholic essence worldwide — except in Poland, where traditions remembering the saints in heaven and faithful departed in purgatory are carried on with devotion.
“The voice of the people is the voice of God,” says a Polish proverb, which could be quite rightly used on the eve of two days of celebrations surrounding the saints and the departed souls.
It is indeed the voice of God that millions of Poles seek to embody by filling their streets, squares and cemeteries to honor the memory of their ancestors and celebrate the promise of eternal life in Christ.
Events in cities throughout Poland Oct. 31 will reaffirm the Christian identity of All Saints’ Eve. HolyWin, a movement that began in Europe in the early 2000s, was born as a reaction to the morbid, secular version of Halloween that originated in the U.S. and has spread worldwide.
“Halloween was taking up more and more space and children were asking questions, so the parishes and schools have started proposing alternatives,” Grzegorz Bartosik, a professor of Mariology at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, told the Register.
Continued below.
In Poland, Halloween is Hallowed, not Hellish
“The voice of the people is the voice of God,” says a Polish proverb, which could be quite rightly used on the eve of two days of celebrations surrounding the saints and the departed souls.
It is indeed the voice of God that millions of Poles seek to embody by filling their streets, squares and cemeteries to honor the memory of their ancestors and celebrate the promise of eternal life in Christ.
Events in cities throughout Poland Oct. 31 will reaffirm the Christian identity of All Saints’ Eve. HolyWin, a movement that began in Europe in the early 2000s, was born as a reaction to the morbid, secular version of Halloween that originated in the U.S. and has spread worldwide.
“Halloween was taking up more and more space and children were asking questions, so the parishes and schools have started proposing alternatives,” Grzegorz Bartosik, a professor of Mariology at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, told the Register.
Continued below.
In Poland, Halloween is Hallowed, not Hellish
