" It
is easy to perceive that, while in the festival of Hallowe'en we have
the survival of the old Druidical festival of thank-offering to the
sun-god for the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, we have also in
these two festivals of _All Saints_ and _All Souls_ the survival of the
ancient _Ferralia_, or festival to the dead, when offerings were made to
both good and bad spirits, to prevent them haunting the living; and thus
we can account for the prevalence of the numerous superstitions
concerning ghosts and evil spirits connected with the festival of
Hallowe'en. That these Church feasts were regarded as the substitute for
the _Ferralia_ of Pagan Rome is verified by Father Meagan in his work on
_The Mass_. We quote from Jamieson:--"Such was the devotion of the
heathen on this day by offering sacrifices for the souls in purgatory,
by praying at the graves, and performing processions round the
churchyards with lighted tapers, that they called the month the month of
pardons, indulgences, and absolutions for souls in purgatory; or, as
Plutarch calls it, the purifying month, or season of purification,
because the living and dead were supposed to be purged and purified on
these occasions from their sins by sacrifices, flagellations, and other
works of mortification.
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