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62-795: Allhallowtide , Hallowtide , Allsaintstide , or the Hallowmas season is the Western Christian season encompassing the triduum of All Saints' Eve ( Halloween ), All Saints' Day (All Hallows') and All Souls' Day , as well as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (observed on the first Sunday of November) and Remembrance Sunday (observed on the second Sunday in November) in some traditions. The period begins on 31 October annually. Allhallowtide

124-546: A Plenary Indulgence by visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead during the octave of All Hallows. Within Allhallowtide, which has a theme revolving around martyrs and saints, many Christian denominations also observe the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on the first Sunday of November, to remember those who continue to be persecuted for their Christian faith . In the United Kingdom ,

186-468: A vigil "when worshippers would prepare themselves with prayers and fasting prior to the feast day itself." This church service is known as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints ; an initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the observance of Vigil of All Hallows throughout Christendom . After the service, "suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as

248-699: A Dedication Festival or Patronal Festival may be celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter. Among the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches , what in the West would be called an Octave is referred to as an Afterfeast . The celebration of the Great Feasts of the church year are extended for a number days, depending upon the particular Feast. Each day of an Afterfeast will have particular hymns assigned to it, continuing

310-551: A mob." Two of the Post-Nicene Fathers, Ephrem the Syrian , as well as John Chrysostom , both wrote about the importance of honoring the dead; the theologian Herman Heuser writes that in the early Church , the feast days of the martyrs were local observances, with churches being built on those sites where their blood was shed. Frances Stewart Mossier explains that this changed during the persecution of Christians in

372-730: A slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt , referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt. Most Western Christians use a version of the Nicene Creed that states that the Holy Spirit " proceeds from the Father and the Son ", where the original text as adopted by the First Council of Constantinople had "proceeds from

434-463: A soule-cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soule-cake." Historically, in France , on All Souls' Day, "the burial fraternities were especially active in decorating the churchyard, and everywhere priests led a procession around the graveyard and blessed the graves." Western Christian Church Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity ( Eastern Christianity being

496-521: A visit to the graveyard or cemetery , where flowers and candles are often placed in preparation for All Saints' Day (All Hallows). The second day of Allhallowtide is known as All Saints' Day, All Hallows' Day, or Hallowmas. Occurring on 1 November, it is a "principal feast of the church year , and one of the four days recommended for the administration of baptism" in Anglicanism . In some Christian denominations , All Saints' Day may be "celebrated on

558-516: Is a "time to remember the dead, including martyrs , saints , and all faithful departed Christians." The present date of Hallowmas (All Saints' Day) and thus also of its vigil (Hallowe'en) was established for Rome perhaps by Pope Gregory III (731–741) and was made of obligation throughout the Frankish Empire by Louis the Pious in 835. Elsewhere, other dates were observed even later, with

620-701: Is applied to distinguish all these denominations collectively from Eastern Christianity. The establishment of the distinct Latin Church, a particular church sui iuris of the Catholic Church , coincided with the consolidation of the Holy See in Rome , which claimed primacy since Antiquity. The Latin Church is distinct from the Eastern Catholic Churches , also in full communion with

682-466: Is encouraged. The final day of Allhallowtide is known as All Souls' Day, and is also called the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed. All Souls' Day focuses on honouring all faithful Christians "who are unknown in the wider fellowship of the church, especially family members and friends." However, today, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day have become conflated, and many Christians remember all

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744-580: Is not nearly as absolute as in Antiquity or the Middle Ages, due to the spread of Christian missionaries , migrations , and globalisation . As such, the adjectives "Western Christianity" and "Eastern Christianity" are typically used to refer to historical origins and differences in theology and liturgy rather than present geographical locations. While the Latin Church maintains the use of

806-662: Is performed in Judaism on the “eighth day” after birth, the number 8 became associated in Christianity with Baptism , and baptismal fonts have from an early date often been octagonal . The practice of octaves was first introduced under Constantine I , when the dedication festivities of the basilicas at Jerusalem and Tyre, Lebanon were observed for eight days. After these one-off occasions, annual liturgical feasts began to be dignified with an octave. The first such feasts accorded such were Easter , Pentecost , and in

868-463: Is perpetuated through the practice of trick or treating . In medieval Poland , believers were taught to pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls of the dead might find comfort; in Spain , Christian priests tolled their church bells in order to allow their congregants to remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve. The Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through

930-518: The Americas , much of the Philippines , Southern Africa , pockets of West Africa , and throughout Australia and New Zealand . Thus, when used for historical periods after the 16th century, the term "Western Christianity" does not refer to a particular geographical area but is used as a collective term for all these. Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity

992-630: The Anglican Communion traditionally observed octaves associated with the feasts of Christmas , Corpus Christi , Epiphany , Michaelmas , Easter , and All Saints' Day . Many provinces have followed the Catholic Church and altered the practice of observing octaves. In the Church of England , the only octave that remains in some form is that of Easter: no other feasts may be celebrated in the six days following Easter Sunday, and only

1054-476: The Church Triumphant , All Hallows Day seeks to especially "honour the blessed who have not been canonized and who have no special feast day." On All Saints' Day, many Christians visit graveyards and cemeteries in order to place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones. This is a common practice in countries such as Italy , Spain , Poland , the Philippines , as well as certain parts of

1116-478: The Church of England , mother church of the Anglican Communion , extended All Saints-tide to include Remembrance Sunday in the 20th century. All Hallows' Eve, often contracted as Halloween, is the eve of All Hallows (All Saints' Day), and the first day of the Allhallowtide. According to some scholars, the Christian Church absorbed some Celtic practices associated with Samhain and Christianised

1178-592: The Council of Chalcedon (451), and then from Eastern Orthodoxy with the East-West Schism of 1054. With the last-named form of Eastern Christianity, reunion agreements were signed at the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439), but these proved ineffective. Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of

1240-464: The East , Epiphany . This occurred in the 4th century and served as a time for the newly converted to take a joyful retreat. The development of octaves occurred slowly. From the 4th century to the 7th century, Christians observed octaves with a celebration on the eighth day, with little development of the liturgies within the intervening days. Christmas was the next feast to receive an octave, and by

1302-666: The Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar respectively. However, before the Council of Nicea, various dates including Jewish Passover were observed. Nicea "Romanized" the date for Easter and anathematized a "Judaized" (i.e. Passover date for) Easter. The date of observance of Easter has only differed in modern times since the promulgation of the Gregorian calendar in 1582; and further, the Western Church did not universally adopt

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1364-620: The Latin liturgical rites , Protestant denominations and Independent Catholicism use various liturgical practices. The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) appeared during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, which included territories that practiced Western Christianity at the time. For much of its history, the Christian church has been culturally divided between

1426-559: The Middle Ages , adherents of the Latin Church, irrespective of ethnicity, commonly referred to themselves as "Latins" to distinguish themselves from Eastern Christians ("Greeks"). Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization . With the expansion of European colonialism from the Early Modern era , the Latin Church, in time along with its Protestant secessions, spread throughout

1488-681: The Pope in Rome , and from the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches , which are not in communion with Rome. These other churches are part of Eastern Christianity . The terms "Western" and "Eastern" in this regard originated with geographical divisions mirroring the cultural divide between the Hellenistic East and Latin West and the political divide between the Western and Eastern Roman empires . During

1550-809: The Roman province of Africa . There is evidence of a Latin translation of the Bible as early as the 2nd century (see also Vetus Latina ). With the decline of the Roman Empire , distinctions appeared also in organization, since the bishops in the West were not dependent on the Emperor in Constantinople and did not come under the influence of the Caesaropapism in the Eastern Church . While

1612-659: The United States heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism such as Louisiana and Maryland . For Roman Catholic Christians , attending Mass ( Eucharist , Holy Communion , "Lord's Supper") is compulsory, as All Saints' Day (All Hallows) is a holy day of obligation ; for members of other Christian denominations , such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church , Anglican Church / Episcopal Church , Methodist Church and some other Protestant Christians , though not mandatory, attendance at worship services

1674-600: The patron saint of a particular nation, diocese, or church was celebrated therein with an octave, on each day of which the Mass and Office of the feast was repeated, unless impeded by a higher-ranked celebration. Although the feasts of St. Lawrence and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary officially still had simple octaves, by the 20th century they had all but vanished as higher-ranking feasts were added to

1736-605: The see of Constantinople became dominant throughout the Emperor's lands, the West looked exclusively to the see of Rome , which in the East was seen as that of one of the five patriarchs of the Pentarchy , "the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees under the auspices of a single universal empire. Formulated in the legislation of the emperor Justinian I (527–565), especially in his Novella 131,

1798-417: The 12th century, the custom arose of liturgical observance of the days between the first and the eighth day, as well as the eighth day. During the Middle Ages , octaves for various other feasts and saints were celebrated, depending upon the diocese or religious order . While Pope Pius V reduced the amount of octaves in 1568, these were still numerous. Not only on the eighth day from the feast but, with

1860-467: The 8th century, Rome had developed liturgical octaves not only for Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, but also for the Epiphany as in the East, and the feast of the dedication of a church . From the 7th century, saints’ feasts also began to have octaves (as an eighth-day feast, not eight days of feasting), among the oldest being those of Saints Peter and Paul , Saint Lawrence and Saint Agnes . From

1922-512: The Americas (especially South America), Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Protestantism, including Anglicanism, came to North America, Australia-Pacific and some African locales. Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is much less absolute, due to the great migrations of Europeans across the globe, as well as the work of missionaries worldwide over

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1984-760: The Catholic Church accounting for over half and various Protestant denominations making up another 40%. Hussite movements of 15th century Bohemia preceded the main Protestant uprising by 100 years and evolved into several small Protestant churches, such as the Moravian Church . Waldensians survived also, but blended into the Reformed tradition . Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Relevant figures: Octave (liturgical) Octaves, not being successive, are quite distinct from eight-day weeks and simply refer to

2046-585: The Dead is read out in churches on All Souls' Day." In England , a popular tradition associated with All Souls' Day is souling , in which "bands of children, or of poor men, went round to the houses of the well-to-do on Souling Day, as they called it, begging money, apples, ale, or doles of cake. In some parts specially baked cakes were prepared in readiness to give away; they were called soul-cakes ." The individuals who go souling often chant rhymes as they go door to door; for example, an old saying goes: "A Soule-cake,

2108-669: The Eastern Orthodox Church, has traditionally held a distinction between God's essence, or that which He is, with God's energies, or that which He does. They hold that while God is unknowable in His essence, He can be known (i.e. experienced) in His energies. This is an extension of Eastern Christianity's apophatic theology , while Western Christians tend to prefer a view of divine simplicity , and claim that God's essence can be known by its attributes. Today, Western Christianity makes up close to 90% of Christians worldwide with

2170-527: The Father" without the addition of either "and the Son" or "alone". This Western version also has the additional phrase "God from God" ( Latin : Deum de Deo ), which was in the Creed as adopted by the First Council of Nicaea , but which was dropped by the First Council of Constantinople. The date of Easter usually differs between Eastern and Western Christianity, because the calculations are based on

2232-624: The Gregorian calendar at once, so that for some time the dates of Easter differed between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but not necessarily as between the Eastern Church and the Western Protestant churches. For example, the Church of England continued to observe Easter on the same date as the Eastern Church until 1753. Even the dates of other Christian holidays often differ between Eastern and Western Christianity. Eastern Christianity, and particularly

2294-487: The Latin Church, developed under the bishop of Rome . Out of the Latin Church emerged a wide variety of independent Protestant denominations , including Lutheranism and Anglicanism , starting from the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, as did Independent Catholicism in the 19th century. Thus, the term "Western Christianity" does not describe a single communion or religious denomination but

2356-554: The Latin-speaking West, whose centre was Rome , and the Greek-speaking East, whose centre was Constantinople . Cultural differences and political rivalry created tensions between the two churches, leading to disagreement over doctrine and ecclesiology and ultimately to schism . Like Eastern Christianity , Western Christianity traces its roots directly to the apostles and other early preachers of

2418-695: The Lord, with proper readings and prayers. The Second Sunday of Easter , which ends the Easter Octave, has also been called “White Sunday” (Dominica in albis), among other traditional names . The Christmas Octave is presently arranged as follows: The liturgical calendar of the Lutheran Churches may have octaves for the following feasts: "The Nativity of Our Lord, The Epiphany of Our Lord, The Resurrection of Our Lord, All Saints, Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday ." Churches within

2480-418: The Roman Empire , saying that: This arrangement worked very well at first, but soon there were more martyrs than there were days in the year, and so one day was set apart in honor of them all, and called All Saints' Day. This took place about the year A.D. 610. The day of the year on which the festival first occurred was the first of May, and it was not till two hundred years after that it was changed to Nov. 1,

2542-573: The Sunday following November 1." All Saints' Day is a holy day to honour all the saints and martyrs , both known and unknown. All Hallows Day is "a universal Christian holy day ," but it has a special importance in the Roman Catholic Church , Evangelical Lutheran churches , Anglican Church , and some other Protestant churches . The liturgical colour of All Saints' Day is white, which is "symbolic of victory and life." While honouring

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2604-543: The calendar. The octave day alone of St. Lawrence was still commemorated during the Mass of St. Hyacinth . The entire octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was impeded, but The Most Holy Name of Mary was celebrated during the octave, and The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated on the former octave day. Pope Pius XII further simplified the Calendar with a decree dated 23 March 1955: only

2666-554: The celebration in order to ease the Celts' conversion to Christianity ; other scholars maintain that the Christian observance of All Hallows' Eve arose completely independent of Samhain. On All Hallows' Eve, some believed that the veil between the material world and the afterlife thinned. In order to prevent recognition by a soul , "people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities"; in North America , this tradition

2728-639: The date in Ireland being 20 April. In the early 11th century, the modern date of All Souls' Day was popularized, after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the dead . The word Allhallowtide was first used in 1471, and is derived from three words: the Old English word hallow , meaning 'holy', the word tide , meaning 'time' or 'season' (cf. Christmastide , Eastertide ), and all (from Old English eall ) meaning 'every". The latter part of

2790-426: The day we now observe. The Christians of those times were in the habit of spending the night before All Saints' Day in thinking over the good and helpful lives of those in whose honor the day was kept and in praying that they might be like them. Services were held in the churches, and candles and incense burned before the pictures and statues of the saints. It was to them one of the holiest, most significant days of all

2852-477: The dead souls or "saints" on All Saints' Day.' The observance of All Souls' Day "was spread throughout Europe" by Saint Odilo of Cluny in the early 11th century. Like All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day, family members often attend mass and visit the graves of their deceased loved ones, placing flowers and lighted candles there. In many Anglican / Episcopal , Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic Christian services, an A.D. 7th-century prayer The Office of

2914-610: The exception of the octaves of Easter, Pentecost, and, to a lesser extent, Christmas, on all the intervening days the liturgy was the same as on the feast day itself, with the exact same prayers and Scripture readings. Octaves were classified into several types. Easter and Pentecost had “specially privileged” octaves, during which no other feast whatsoever could be celebrated. Christmas, Epiphany, and Corpus Christi had “privileged” octaves, during which certain highly ranked feasts might be celebrated. The octaves of other feasts allowed even more feasts to be celebrated therein. To reduce

2976-429: The hymns that were chanted on the first day of the Feast are repeated. On the Apodoses of Feasts of the Theotokos , the Epistle and Gospel of the Feast are repeated again at the Divine Liturgy . The term "octave" is applied to some church observances that are not strictly liturgical. For example, many churches observe an annual "Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity ", which runs from 18 January to 25 January. The octave

3038-403: The occasion under the title " Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ", but it is still often referred to as an octave, especially within the Roman Catholic , Lutheran and Anglo-Catholic traditions. The Week of Prayer is observed at various times around the world, especially in the Southern Hemisphere where it is commonly observed from Ascension to Pentecost. Each year, Luxembourg celebrates

3100-447: The octaves of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were kept, as these did not repeat the same liturgy daily. All other octaves in the Roman Rite were suppressed, including those of local calendars (see General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII#Octaves ). In 1969, the Church further revised the Calendar by deleting the Octave of Pentecost. The first eight days of the Easter Season were made the Octave of Easter and celebrated as Solemnities of

3162-403: The other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism , together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Church , Independent Catholicism and Restorationism . The large majority of the world's 2.3 billion Christians are Western Christians (about 2 billion: 1.2 billion Latin Catholic and 1.17 billion Protestant). One major component,

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3224-535: The past five centuries. Original sin , also called ancestral sin , is a Christian belief in a state of sin in which humanity has existed since the fall of man , stemming from Adam and Eve 's rebellion in the Garden of Eden , namely the sin of disobedience in consuming the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . Theologians have characterized this condition in many ways, seeing it as ranging from something as insignificant as

3286-410: The religion. In Western Christianity's original area, Latin was the principal language. Christian writers in Latin had more influence there than those who wrote in Greek , Syriac , or other languages. Although the first Christians in the West used Greek (such as Clement of Rome ), by the fourth century Latin had superseded it even in the cosmopolitan city of Rome , as well as in southern Gaul and

3348-447: The repetition of the same liturgy for several days, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X made further distinctions, classifying octaves into three primary types: privileged, common, and simple. Privileged octaves were further arranged in a hierarchy of first, second, and third orders. For the first half of the 20th century, octaves were ranked in the following manner, which affected holding other celebrations within them: In addition to these,

3410-425: The return of the same day of a seven-day week in the inclusive counting system used in Latin (just as the ninth day was a return to the same day of a nundinal cycle , the eight-day week of the pre-Christian Roman calendar ). The "eighth day" or octava dies was associated with the weekly Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ every "eighth day", which became a name for Sunday . As circumcision

3472-400: The theme of the Feast being celebrated. Most of these Great Feasts (except Feasts within the moveable Paschal Cycle) also have a day or more of preparation called a Forefeast . Forefeasts and Afterfeasts will affect the structure of the services during the Canonical Hours . The last day of an Afterfeast is called the Apodosis (lit. "giving-back") of the Feast. On the Apodosis , most of

3534-410: The theory received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), which ranked the five sees as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem." Over the centuries, disagreements separated Western Christianity from the various forms of Eastern Christianity: first from East Syriac Christianity after the Council of Ephesus (431) , then from that of Oriental Orthodoxy after

3596-453: The values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization ". The rise of Protestantism led to major divisions within Western Christianity, which still persist, and wars—for example, the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 had religious as well as economic causes. In and after the Age of Discovery , Europeans spread Western Christianity to the New World and elsewhere. Roman Catholicism came to

3658-488: The wickedness of the world before flood. The second night then celebrates the saved who survived the deluge and the third night celebrates those who would repopulate the Earth. The octave of Allhallowtide, lasting "eight days was established by Pope Sixtus IV in 1430 for the whole Western Church." The octave, however was eliminated in the 1955 reforms of the Catholic Church , although it continues to be observed by many Lutherans and Anglicans. The faithful may still obtain

3720-420: The word Hallowmas is derived from the word Mass . The words hallow and saint are synonyms . The Christian attitude toward the death of martyrs is first exemplified in the New Testament , which records that after the beheading of St. John the Baptist , his disciples respectfully buried him. Stephen was likewise "given a Christian burial by his fellow-Christians after he had been stoned to death by

3782-414: The year. Following the establishment of All Hallows' Day and its vigil , All Hallows' Eve in the 8th century, Odilo of Cluny popularized the day to pray for All Souls , forming the third day of the triduum of Allhallowtide. It has been thought that the first three days of Allhallowtide may have originated as a ritualistic remembrance of the deluge in which the first night, All Hallows' Eve remembers

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3844-464: Was established in 1895 by Pope Leo XIII for the period between Ascension and Pentecost . In 1909, Pope Pius X approved the transfer of this octave to the period between the former feast of the Chair of St. Peter (then on January 18) and the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25). In 1968, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican 's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity agreed to jointly publish prayer materials for

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