Wednesday, October 31, 2007

All Hallows Eve

There are some who argue that it's imprudent, perhaps even wrong, to celebrate Halloween.

To such as these I say: Pish posh.

I haven't the time to write an eloquent defense — or, for that matter, even an ineloquent defense — of the thoroughly Catholic celebration of Halloween, but I don't have to.

Sean Dailey, Mark Shea, and Rod Bennett already have.

What I will include, though, is a picture of our pamilya at a Halloween party on Saturday night, at which, I am proud to say, we won the prize for the "Best Group Costume":



All six of us were characters from the Hundred Acre Wood: Teresa was Rabbit, Cecilia was Winnie the Pooh, Lucy was Tigger, Jocelyn was Kanga, Joey was Roo (who, as a baby kangaroo, is a joey—how cool is it that his costume was his name?), and I was Christopher Robin.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's just that the UK spent about 100 million pounds on halloween..

sunnyday said...

Cute =)

Halloween parades and parties for kids are really a big tradition over there. Here the malls are coming up with nicer costumes every year, I think. But the occasion is not celebrated here with as much fanfare as it is over there. My sis-in-law who lives there told me of the 3-month-old baby of the receptionist at the place where she works...the baby was dressed as a hot tamale! Tee-hee, sounds so cute =)

Molly Marie said...

How cute! :)

We had a Halloween party in the garage. My brother decided to pour gasoline on his hands and light them on fire for our "entertainment", so that was... interesting. My friends shrieked while I blocked the entrance to the garage so the little 3 and 4 year olds couldn't see what was going on.

Anyway, thanks for the links! I agree: despite was many fellow Christians say, I don't have a problem with Halloween.

Matt said...

Ugh. Jansen, we're going to have to talk about this sometime.

For the short version, I agree completely that this is our holiday. So let's celebrate it like it was a Christian Holy Day, not the way the neo-pagans out there do.

Direct me to a party celebrating our mortality and the memory of the saints who went before us, and I'm there. But this trick or treating, ghosts, vampires, and witches nonsense is for the birds.

Nice costumes, btw. Very cute kids.

In Pax Christi,

Matt

chestertonian said...

But this trick or treating, ghosts, vampires, and witches nonsense is for the birds.

Matt, I know you mean well, but in rejecting the trappings of Halloween, you are really getting worked up over nothing. We are Catholics, not Prod worry-warts who jump at our own shadows. We have nothing to fear from the ghosts, vampires, and other fun on Halloween. Satan does.

Satan, in his pride, hates to be mocked. And that is just what we do with all the trappings of Halloween: we mock satan. We thumb our noses at him and have a jolly good time doing so. There are many ways we form our children so that they grow in holiness, and this is one of them: maintain a healthy fear of evil and satan, but don't get carried away with it. Mock satan, for our Champion is stronger than he.

-Sean Dailey

Matt said...

Sean,

I hear you, and I'm all for that, if that's what we're actually telling our kids.

I can't say as I see a whole lot of kids dressed like witches and demons running around overjoyed that witches and demons have been triumphed.

More often than not it seems like a thoughtless following of modern American culture rather than a thoughtful, rousing, joyful celebration of a Christian Holy Day.

If us Catholics went about this day more intentionally I think I would have way less of a problem with it.

In Pax Christi,

Matt

chestertonian said...

Changing the world starts in the home, Matt. :-)

John Jansen said...

Taylor,

You're welcome!

As for your brother's shenanigans, "interesting" is an interesting choice of word.

I'm glad he didn't lose his arm. Or burn down the garage.

Or both.

John Jansen said...

Matt said: "Ugh. Jansen, we're going to have to talk about this sometime."

Yes, we should, but only on one condition:

We must do so over beer.

chestertonian said...

Did somebody say beer?

Matt said...

That sounds like a plan John.

I don't want to be dogmatic about the issue, there's just something about it that doesn't feel right to me.

C'est la vie.

Matt