Allhallows Eve

American  

Sometimes All Hallow Even.

noun

1. Halloween.

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Usage

What is Allhallows Eve? Allhallows Eve is a traditional name for what has become known as Halloween—the holiday on October 31 that’s essentially a celebration of spooky and scary stuff, like ghosts, witches, monsters, and haunted houses.The name Allhallows Eve refers to the night before Allhallows, the Christian holiday better known as All Saints’ Day. Although Halloween is a secular (nonreligious) holiday, its name and some of its traditions have roots in Allhallows. It’s not common for people to call Halloween Allhallows Eve. When they do, it’s usually to make it sound a bit old-fashioned or just to use a different term for fun. Occasionally, Christians used in reference to the fact that the next day is All Saints’ Day.Observations of Allhallows Eve hundreds of years ago certainly looked a lot different than modern Halloween celebrations, but many of the current customs are rooted in old traditions. Wearing costumes, carving jack-o’-lanterns, and trick or treating all derive from earlier practices.Example: Ah, Allhallows Eve, the spookiest night of the year, when spirits roam free and ghouls lurk in dark corners, blowing out candles in jack-o’-lanterns.

Etymology

Origin of Allhallows Eve

First recorded in 1550–60

Example Sentences

The costume extravaganza, billed as Harryween, was a hybrid celebration of the pop prince’s florid gender-free style and of a traditional Allhallows Eve — a veritable fashion parade that rivaled cosplay conventions and the most fanciful runway shows.

From New York Times

The wooden double doors of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty's Episcopal Palace are locked now, and shutters are drawn over the windows where candles flickered briefly last year, for the first time in years, on Allhallows' Eve.

From Time Magazine Archive

I'd better be drinkin' when neighbors go walkin' round the village on Allhallows' Eve with their heads done up in white.

From Project Gutenberg

She's goin' to leave me, lad; 'tis Allhallows' Eve whatever!

From Project Gutenberg

An' here 'tis Allhallows' Eve again, an' the best year of my life is past, an' she must die in an hour an' a half.

From Project Gutenberg