Posted on 10/14/2010 8:20:33 AM PDT by marshmallow
Catholic parents are being advised to celebrate Halloween by dressing up their children as popular saints instead of witches and devils.
They should kit out their youngsters to look like St George, St Lucy, St Francis of Assisi or St Mary Magdalene rather than let them wear costumes that celebrate evil or occult figures, according to a campaign endorsed by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Nor should pumpkins have menacing or scary faces carved into them, according to a website link provided by the bishops’ conference, but must wear smiley expressions and have crosses cut into the foreheads.
Party games during the October 31 revelries should also have a distinctively Christian theme, parents are told, with musical statues, or chairs, danced to music by “contemporary Christian artists”.
Trick or treat pranks are definitely discouraged, with Catholics advised to light bonfires instead in an attempt to re-brand Halloween as a celebration of the triumph of the forces of light over the forces of darkness.
The suggestions for a Christian-style Halloween end with the idea that children each take a wrapped present from a box plastered with such slogans as “Jesus is our light”, “Jesus is our king”, “Jesus loves me” and “Jesus is the biz!”.
Adults are also being encouraged to place lights in their window “as a sign to passers-by that yours is a Christian household and Christ is your light”.
They are also being asked to wear a white garment as a symbol of their “allegiance to Christ, our light”.
The bishops are launching the campaign in an attempt to reclaim the Christian festival of “All Hallows Eve” that, in their opinion, has become dangerously paganised and heavily commercialised.
They want Christians to understand that Halloween was once the vigil feast of All Saints’ Day, which is celebrated on November 1 and which remains a Holy Day of Obligation.
Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, chairman of the bishops’ Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis, said: “Halloween is now the biggest commercial festival after Christmas and Easter, and it is time we reminded Christians of what it really is. The celebration of feast days is an important part of our Catholic culture.
“On the evening of October 31 why not do something to make your faith respectfully seen and heard?” he said. “Light a candle or display publicly another kind of light, for example, perhaps alongside an image of Christ.
“This could be a powerful way in which we can show people that we have hope in someone other than ourselves. The light will provoke questions and is a way that people can be signposted to goodness. I encourage everyone to participate.”
It is the first time the bishops have ever endorsed “the Night of Light”, an international campaign to reclaim Halloween that was started in 2001 by Damian Stayne, the founder of Cor et Lumen Christi, a Catholic community.
The initiative has been gaining ground among Christians left uneasy by the emphasis on horror themes in modern Halloween celebrations.
This year it will run in partnership with the bishops’ Home Mission Desk as a way of following up the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain last month.
Among the supporters of the “Night of Light” is Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster.
As Archbishop of Birmingham he complained about the “increasing tendency for the popular mind to make the association between Halloween and secular if not pagan imagery”.
He asked every parish to “think about what it could provide in the late afternoon and evening of Halloween in order to express the life of the Church and indeed in families that this is the beginning of a feast in which we rejoice in the work of God seen in his saints and cause of great inspiration and joy to the world”.
This obnoxious manifestation — actually started out as the “Eve of All Hallows” — children DID dress as saints in the very beginning.
It has been corrupted by the modern world. Stick with the saints and you can’t go wrong.
We all know the apostles — have children be apostles!
All Hallows' Eve
Celebrating 'All Hallows Eve' and the 'Feast of All Saints' in a Pre-Christian West
Halloween Prayers: Prayers and Collects for All Hallows Eve
Holiday Hysteria (a Christian defense of Halloween)
Hallowe'en - Eve of All Saints - Suggestions for Reclaiming this Christian Feast
Yesh, but in my youth we would have dressed as headless saints.
But then, we grew up on those horror comic books of the 60s.
Oh for crying out loud, I couldn’t even read the entire article.
Here is an idea.
How about we let little kids be kids. They only get one chance to be a kid, then they grow up and are forced to deal with idiots.
When I was a kid I dressed as a scary ghost, a hobo, a cowboy—with two “six shooters”, a pirate and various Superheroes.
Surprisingly, I have never worshiped the devil, lived in a boxcar while eating from dumpsters, robbed a bank and shot up the town, forced anyone to walk the plank, and I have never jumped from a skyscraper trying to save the world from evildoers.
Instead, I grew up and served my country in the US Army, started a couple of businesses, and later spent 30 years fighting crime as a LEO, detective. Come to think of it, it might have been those Superhero costumes and playing with my Army men and toy guns that twisted my mind, causing me to walk down those horrible and sinful roads in my life.
Maybe I just got lucky, after all, I was born on Halloween.... Boo!
It’s interesting that back in the 50s, early 60s we wore our costumes to class on Halloween and the nuns/priests had no problem with it. Then again, those were more sane and sensible times; why, we even played on metal jungle gyms and rode our bikes without helmets, what a concept.
Cool!...thanks for the idea. Something similar will be on the front porch!
You must not have truly celebrated the Halloween spirit then, if you turned out ok. Try to get your kids to be more pro-active in their celebrations, and maybe they will grow up to be like their costumes!
“You can’t read our minds, nor can you read the mind of God.”
But I can red the news.
I think MYOB is 90 times better..
Which means the ancient Celtic observance of Samhain.
“served my country in the US Army, started a couple of businesses, and later spent 30 years fighting crime as a LEO, detective.”
see that right there qualifies you as a hero in my book, maybe even a super one.:)
Exactly.
The Celts believed that during Samhain the wall between the living and dead got so thin the dead could come through. People wore scary costumes so the harmful spirits wouldn't notice them. The practice was later absorbed into the Christian event placed around the same time. I say around because Samhain (and thus Halloween) goes according to the Celtic lunar calendar, so would be on the new moon around Oct 31, which is Nov 6 this year.
This is also the policy of our Catholic school. Children should come as saints or other positive figures . . This allows for some of the girls to come as modern Magdalenes before her reform)and I know of a child who went as Saint Stephen. Really the possibilities for gruesome martyrdom and gore are endless.
You got your tradition of dressing up on Halloween ("All Hallows Eve'n" = the night before All Saints day) from us stupid Catholics in the first place, or didn't you know that?
People would dress up as saints. Those who dressed up as martyrs incorporated some elements of the instruments of the martyrs' death (which is a traditional element in the iconography of martyrs), which is how gory costumes got started.
And now you think we're strange for not embracing your corruption of our traditions???
Halloween has become a HUGE event. It’s bizarre.
Exactly. It would be nice if we could come up with a good costume idea for saints who were beheaded. (I'd like to dress up as St. Thomas More, myself.) Simulating the decapitated condition in a costume is not easy, however.
Well, not necessarily, because All Saints' Day was moved to November 1 by the Pope of Rome (it was originally in the late spring, and still is, in the East), and I don't think "ancient Celtic observances" had much to do with it.
Pagans celebrated stuff around that time because it was the end of the harvest in N. Europe, just like the celebrated stuff in the spring (for obvious reasons) and around the winter solstice (yes, they did astronomy, too). It doesn't follow that anything celebrated around that time is pagan.
“And now you think we’re strange for not embracing your corruption of our traditions???”
Don’t get me started on that Coca Cola creation, Santa Claus.
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