The Anti-Catholic Roots of Halloween

 

Plymouth, Massachusetts, is thought to be the site of America’s first Thanksgiving meal. 

Plymouth, where the Mayflower Pilgrims landed and founded the first colony in 1620 also  became the first town to hold “Pope Night,” (Nov.5)  three years later. It was far from a celebration of the Bishop of Rome, it was to mock the Pope and Catholics.

Pope Night was a vehicle for expressing anti-Catholic sentiment even more than Guy Fawkes Day, which was its inspiration. Guy Fawkes Day was commemorated every 5th of November in England, recalling the supposed failed attempt of Catholic plotters, including Guy Fawkes, to blow up the House of Lords in London.

By the 1770s, just before the American Revolution, Pope Night had taken on so many traditions that it was difficult for participants, especially in Boston, to give it up. Eventually, this  tradition changed  into a more benign celebration on Oct. 31st that we now know as Halloween.

Guy Fawkes Day-- Myth?

Did members of a government faction set up the plot themselves? So they could crack down on Catholics?

The Gunpowder Plot (Nov. 5, 1605) was supposedly a conspiracy by a number of Catholics. The best known of these was Guy Fawkes, but Robert Catesby was allegedly the mastermind, second only to the Jesuit superior named Henry Garnet. The gunpowder laid  in a cellar under Parliament for about 6 months, before it was even discovered.

The real history of the plot may never be known. But the evidence lies heavily that Lord Cecil and his minions were the real plotters.

It was an elaborate misadventure. The conspirators were supposed to have rented a house and from within this house they dug a tunnel to Parliament. But before completing the tunnel and just reaching the foundations of Parliament-- they stopped. They discovered a cellar under parliament. Thus instead of tunneling, they snuck huge barrels of gunpowder into the cellar, where the barrels remained waiting for 6 months, until Parliament's first day of opening.

The government claimed to have discovered the plot 10 days before Parliament was to meet.

Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, got an anonymous letter delivered by an unknown man. The letter, couched in incoherent language, warned him that it would be wise to be absent for the opening ceremony of Parliament.

Monteagle took the letter at once to Lord Cecil, the king being out of town on a hunt, and Cecil figured out its meaning and gave it to the king five days later.