“I got a rock.”
Charlie Brown
From the only reliable source of news on the net, the Onion. My last trick or treating experience as a child was in 1969 and I reared my children in the McClarey Halloween tradition of ample candy, cheap costumes and Dad falling asleep on the couch after over indulging in candy. May my offspring keep these hallowed traditions alive for the next generation!
My niece was raised without religion. She posted on FB that Halloween is a “sacred” holiday. This is how bad it is when parents shun their duty to raise the children in The Faith.
Also, my wife goes to craft stores while I sit in the car listening to conservative talk radio. They had the Halloween stuff up in July; and now it’s Christmas.
Of course the craft stores do that– it lets them snag the people who really don’t have much time at all, but kinda want to do a neat crafty thing.
And then you can catch them like four times because they lost something in the last few months since they bought it!
We just don’t see trick or treaters anymore. At least in Bear’s neck of the woods, it seems to have died out. He wonders what kids do now. Or maybe it was the salmon Bear would drop into bags.
We add silent horror movies during tricks or treats (for the adults left back handing out candy),a copy of Nosferatu being a favorite, followed by eating pumpkin donuts, roasted pumpkin seeds and apple cider (cold or spiced as the taste fits). No sexed up or gory costumes allowed. We finish it off (usually) with one last watching of Great Pumpkin.
I thought all of the Onion videos were yanked.
Of course, that video is a parody of Christians complaining about the commercialization of Christmas.
Hello, the idea that phantoms come around on Halloween is false. Phantoms and demons are all around all year round, every day . The devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking the ruin of souls, never a day off. The opposite is also true. Our Guardian Angel is capable of being in every place at all times. So it is with spirits.
My eldest son went as a “Charlie Brown ghost”. Cut the multiple holes in the sheet himself. Happy with his haul of candy, but sad no one gave him a rock. Made the outfits for my other kids myself. Great fun was had by all.
T. Shaw
If All Hallows (All Saints) Day is a holy day (and the Church says it is, for the Church declares it a holy day of obligation) then its eve also participates in the day’s holiness. So, score one for your niece. Perhaps she is on a journey, however indirect, toward home.
Still, I agree that the large majority of parents seem to rely on osmosis (Fr. Mitch Pacwa, “Osmosis is not a sacrament.”) to pass on the holy faith. Yes, parents should know more. The visible institutions of the Church should do more to educate adults in the holy faith. The homily in the Mass is the most obvious opportunity to do this yet almost all homilies are easily forgettable mush.
Unless parents are committed believers, they will not raise believing children.
At least she is better informed than those who claim Halloween is a pagan holiday! It is the eve of a Christian holiday – thus no more pagan that Christmas Eve. However, I will agree that, to an even greater extent than Christmas, it has become paganized. Remember the good ol’ days when Christians used to Christianize pagan holidays? Now the pagans are all “right back at ya!”