La Toussaint (All Saints Day) - Festival of the dead.

November 1st

La Toussaint in France (All Saint’s Day) was originally created by the Catholic Church to honour the poor old saints and martyrs who didn’t have their own holy day.

Rather sneakily, it was also believed to be an attempt by the church to detract attention from the Celtic, Pagan celebration of Samhain, (pronounced sow-in), born in the British Isles, later to become Halloween. The festival celebrated the end of the bright, warm days of summer and the beginning of the cold dark nights of winter, when spirits were supposed to rise from the dead - none too Catholic for the conrolling church..

However, it was too late! Ghost, ghoulie and evil beastie celebrations had already caught on and Halloween soon became a yearly festival of masks and disguises to scare away the spooks and evil spirits.

Halloween in France however, has only recently become fashionable thanks (?) to films and American sit coms, McDo etc, all of which have given French children a taste for dressing up and ‘trick and treating’ (originally the poor used to go door to door receiving food in return for prayers for the dead.)

Cemeteries are busy this weekend of remembrance and chrysanthemums are on sale on every street. Don’t offer them to your hostess when invited out for dinner! They are for the dead

TRICK OR TREAT?

‘Des bonbons ou une farce’ is one way to beg for sweeties on Hallo’eve, ‘friandises ou bêtises’ is another, but as there is no literal translation, just about anything goes!

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