ALL HALLOWE'EN

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 30, 29 October 1932, Page 19

ALL HALLOWE'EN

THE MEANING OF THE NAME All Hallowe’en, or Hallowe’en, as it is usually called, is the Eve of All Saints’ Day, that is, the day before, like Christmas Eve. In the very early days when the Christian Church was being established in England, the people of the land still spoke what is called Anglo-Saxon, or old English, which is the ancestor of the English we speak to-day, but tvhich we would find difficult to understand if we were to step back a few centuries and listen to two of our forefathers who lived when Alfred the Great was king, speaking. The Anglo-Saxons had a word “haiig, which meant “blessed” or “holy,” and it was used to mean “the saints, who were both blessed and holy. Thus when the missionaries from Rome wished to make the people understand what “All Saints” was they used that word, and spoke of “Eall Haliges. Now, as the centuries passed many changes took place in the old words. The “g” in haliges” sounded more like an “h” than a “g” and it was difficult to say, so the word became “hallowes, and then just “hallows”—and there we have All Hallows and All Hallows Eve, or Hallowe’en; if you prefer it that way. Remember, too, that the word holiday used to be “haiig daeg,” and meant, as you can see, “holy day.” Holidays then only came on a saint’s day or a festival of the church, but as the vears passed it came to be used of any day upon which people did not work. Don’t you think the history of words is rather fascinating?—Kiwi.