All Saints Day.

It's a little sad to me that Halloween has become only an excuse for candy gluttony, pranks, or outright criminal behavior and, if you ask some fundamentalists, satanic practices.

Halloween is actually the vigil of All Saints day, a Christian Holy day whose roots are lost in the traditions of the ages but does, in fact, reflect scriptural themes:

All Saints is a day of rememberance for the saints, with the New Testament meaning of all Christian people of every time and place. We celebrate the communion of saints as we remember the dead both of the Church universal and of our local congregations.

from The United Methodist Book of Worship, 413

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

from the Book of Common Prayer

Happy All Saints Day...