Halloween is short for All-Hallows-Even. Even
or Eve refers to the evening before the day.
Christmas Eve is the night before December 25. Similarly, Hallows Eve is the night before November 1, the Catholic festival of All Saints. This holy day of obligation was known as All Hallows since "hallow" is a more ancient form of "holy." For example, "hallowed by thy name" means "holy is thy name." All Saints = All Hallows. In fact, November 1 was once called "Hallowmas."
Christmas Eve is the night before December 25. Similarly, Hallows Eve is the night before November 1, the Catholic festival of All Saints. This holy day of obligation was known as All Hallows since "hallow" is a more ancient form of "holy." For example, "hallowed by thy name" means "holy is thy name." All Saints = All Hallows. In fact, November 1 was once called "Hallowmas."
For those
linguists out there, hallowed comes from the Old English word haligra
which fell out of use before AD 1500. Those who know German will recognize it's
similarity to heiliger.
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