Family and friends gathered on a windy October afternoon to place the cremains of the family matriarch into the gravesite. At one point they said together, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is uttered in many and various situations when Christians gather. The familiar words, still is use today, come from the King James Version of the Bible (1611).
Children need to be taught, and adults need to be reminded, what the word “hallow” means, since it is not used in common English much anymore. The most familiar use of “hallow,” outside of the Lord’s Prayer, is the term “Halloween.” The name of the festival on October 31st each year is a combination of the words “hallow” and “evening.” November 1 is All Hallows Day in the Western Church, now known as All Saints Day. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, shortened to Hallow’een, later Halloween.
In Middle English (1150-1500) the word “halowen” meant to make something holy or set apart for holy use. This came from the Olde English term “halgian,” which derived from the Greek word hagiazo. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made hagiazo by the word of God and prayer.”
In the 8th century the Roman pontiff decreed November 1 as a time to honour all the saints who did not have a special day set aside to remember them. This date lined up with the Celtic [Ireland, UK, France] New Year’s Day, which marked the end of the summer/harvest season and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on the last night of the year (October 31) the boundary between the material and spiritual worlds was opened. The spirits could be summoned to help predict the severity of the coming winter season. These spirits could cause mischief in the corporeal world, so people dressed up in costumes to confuse the spirits and carved scary faces in large hollowed out turnips in hopes of confusing and scaring away the mischievous spirits.
The events of modern Halloween also connect to “mumming or mummering.” Mummering was a time for costumed people to visit house to house on an eve before various holidays in medieval Europe. A Mummers Festival is still observed in Newfoundland. In fact, in St. John’s, November 27 to December 11 is the 2021 version. There will be costumed house visiting and various events planned in the city.
So when you combine All Saints Day with the Celtic New Year’s Day and medieval mumming, you get our modern Halloween.
These things might help us better understand what Jesus meant when he asked his followers to pray, “hagiasthato to onama sou,” or as we know it, “hallowed be thy name.” In effect we are saying, ‘Lord, make your name holy among us.” Christians would agree that God’s name is holy in and of itself. We don’t make God’s names holy. We are asking God to help us live in ways that indicate the special significance of the designations of the God revealed in the Bible.
“Hallowed be thy name.” It is useful to continue using the KJV of the Lord’s Prayer in our churches and in our personal prayers because it encourages us to consider what we are really saying in the prayer. Sometimes when the words roll off our tongues too easily, we can neglect to put our hearts and minds into this communication with the Almighty. But as we encounter words like “hallow,” “thy,” and “trespass,” it compels us to think on and ask about the meaning of the words and why we use them.
Happy Hallow’een! Blessed All Saints Day!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
