However, from a ritual standpoint, I’m not sure that any of it really matters. The etymology or origins of the rituals matter less than how they are being used.

Think of it this way: the phrase “good bye” originated as a parting blessing “God be with you.” When some one says “good bye” at the end of a conversation today, we don’t think that this is in someway an active blessing upon folks (if so, old AOL users should have be mightily blessed).

So, I’m curious if you have any idea what the deal with Halloween *is*. It seems like I’ve come across various “origin stories” of Halloween, many of which indicate that it was a Pagan holiday (Samhain or whatever) in which the dead were believed to return to Earth and so on which was later Christianized by moving All Saint’s Day to that date. Other things I’ve come across say that it was the Christianization of the Pagan holiday, but said “dead returning to Earth” elements were not actually part of the Pagan holiday. Finally, I’ve seen one or two things that say the Pagan holiday links are bogus, that it *began* with the Roman Church setting All Saint’s Day on Nov 1 and things went from there.

So…while I know it’s probably not exactly your area, I thought I might as well ask if you had any ideas here.