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| Icon depicting the Great Cloud of Witnesses surrounding Christ. Click here for a full explanation of the imagery and history of All Saints Day |
All Saints Day is an often-overlooked Christian holy day. It is observed by Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Churches as a way to celebrate the lives of the saints who have gone before us. In the writings of the Apostle Paul, the word "saint" simply means "holy one." In that sense, all Christians are saints. Therefore, All Saints Day is about remembering the faithful who have gone before us -- from the Apostles of the first century, to the martyrs who died for their faith over the centuries, to the founders of our local churches, to our grandparents, to the church member who passed away last week. When we recite the Apostles' Creed, we affirm our belief in "the communion of saints." This day is not, as it is often misunderstood to be, a "Day of the Dead." It is, rather, a day to remember the faithful who have gone before us who are awaiting with us Christ's return and the final resurrection. (Using New Testament language, it may be better dubbed as a "day to remember those who are asleep in Christ.")
John Wesley is noted to have celebrated All Saints Day, calling it "a festival I truly love." (Click here to read more about Wesley and All Saints Day.)
My favorite hymns for this occasion is "For All the Saints," which was written by William W. How, who, like Wesley, was an Anglican priest. The 11 original verses (click here to read them all) has 3 movements. The first traces the saints through the centuries -- apostles, Evangelists, martyrs -- who trusted in Christ. The second encourages Christians today to look back to the faithfulness of previous generations. The third looks forward to the day of the final resurrection when all the saints of all generations will be gathered and sing endless praise to the Triune God. (I found this explanation of both the hymn "For All the Saints" and a Protestant understanding of All Saints Day.)
...In Transylvania:
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| Cemetery in Sighisoara on All Saints Day |
The Orthodox Church uses a different liturgical calendar than the Western Church, so most Romanians observe All Saints Day on the Sunday after Pentecost.
Reformation Day
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| Commemorative LEGO-compatible Martin Luther I was given. |
Luther was not the only one calling for reform of the Catholic Church. Forerunners to Luther's Reformation included John Wycliffe and John Huss. Others followed Luther, including Zwingli and Calvin, the Anabaptists, and the English Reformation. In addition to these Protestant (Protesting against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church) reformations, there was also a reformation within the Catholic Church.
As Stanley Hauerwas points out in this recent article in the Washington Post, the Protestant Reformation has resulted in the reform of the Roman Catholic Church. That should be motivation for Christians of all backgrounds to celebrate Reformation Day -- that the abuses of medieval Roman Catholicism have been reformed and that the Church universal is more reflective of Christ than it was 500 years ago.
I recently discovered this video that looks at our connection as Wesleyans to the Protestant Reformation: (Another article on the same topic can be found by clicking here.)
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| Mug of the Lutheran Church in Sighisoara commemorating 500 years since the Reformation |
Today I attended a special service at the Lutheran Church in Sighisoara commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It was all in German, so I didn't understand much (except for when we sang Luther's most famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God"). But I was participating in history. The service was held in a church that was built as part of a Roman Catholic monastery in the 13th century, but was converted to a Lutheran Church at the time of the Reformation .
Unlike the Saxons who converted together to Lutheranism, the ethnic Hungarian population of Transylvania, at the time of the Reformation, was divided. Some remained part of the Roman Catholic Church. Others became part of the Reformed Church, and others formed the Unitarian Church.
The Protestant Reformation had little impact on the ethnic Romanians of Transylvania, as they were predominantly part of the Orthodox Church.
Halloween
The origin of the word "Halloween" comes from "All Hallow's Eve," referring to the night before All Saints Day. The origins of the practices of Halloween are debated. In short: pre-Christian folk traditions were combined with the Christian holy day of All Saints to bring us the present-day practices relating to Halloween.
This video helps explain the Christian connection to the origins of Halloween:
...In Transylvania:
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| Go left to celebrate Reformation Day at the Lutheran Church Go right to celebrate Halloween at Dracula's birthplace. |
I know many Christians who choose to boycott Halloween. Others send their kids trick-or-treating, and many churches have "Trunk or Treat" or "Harvest Festivals." But my thought is that each of these approaches follows a secular approach to Halloween and misses the rich Christian traditions that come along with All Saints Day and Reformation Day. (It would be like if Christians boycotted Christmas because of commercialism and Santa Claus, or Easter because of painted eggs and the Easter Bunny instead of choosing to celebrate these holy days in the Christian Church as times to observe the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.) There is so much that is holy and worth celebrating in these two days (Oct 31-Nov 1). Why do so many Christians either ignore these holy days completely or simply reflect the observances of the world's holiday?
I choose to celebrate All Saints Day and Reformation Day. So, tonight, I'm inviting friends over to my apartment. It's not a Halloween party (even though it falls on All Hallows Eve). It's a Reformation Day Party; we'll be watching the movie Luther.
However you choose to observe today and tomorrow, I hope you take into consideration the rich Christian heritage that these days are meant to reflect.
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