Stopping the marching zombies

A medievalist takes on the "Christians stole all the Pagan festivals" meme.

So the juxtaposition of Samhain and All Saints Day is just that - a juxtaposition, not an adoption or adaptation by the Church of a pre-existing Celtic holiday, unless you want to think that there were Celtic pagans living in central Italy in the early 8th century celebrating Samhain.

Ah, but it's so hard to stop the basic religious outbidding of "Our festival is older than yours, nyah nyah nyah."