Halloween
Letter from Bulletin of October 26, 2003

Dear Parishioners,

This weekend we celebrate Halloween with costumed parades at the Saturday 5:00 pm and Sunday 9:15 masses, plus special Halloween liturgies in the gym at both mass times.

Halloween is an ancient festival with roots in Celtic pre-Christian times. As with most major and many minor Christian feasts (like Christmas, Easter and May crownings), it was long ago taken over by believing Christians and given new meaning and significance. Linked with All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd), Halloween is old English for “holy eve” or “eve of the holy days”.

It begins a three fold celebration for Catholic Christians to first poke fun at the dark and its demons, then to celebrate our heroes and heroines of faith on their victory in Christ, and finally to remember our lost loved ones and recognize our weakness and need for Christ.

The traditional Christian approach at Halloween has been to dress as demons and devils, witches and goblins, skeletons and grim reaper so that we can laugh at the powers of darkness because we know that Jesus is victorious; then we throw off costumes and masks because like the saints we are called to be new persons in Christ. Modern advertising and merchandizing have popularized a greater variety of costumes to include our heroes and celebrities like athletes, cowboys, power rangers, wonderwoman, spiderman and their companions. Some modern day catechists have suggested we mix in the saints, especially martyrs who died violent deaths: for example, St. Thomas Moore with his head tucked under his arm and St. Sebastian with arrows protruding! Somehow I don’t think that’s going to sell, but we still celebrate that we are part of the “communion of saints”, that we are unafraid to talk openly about death and that we smile at witches and devils who symbolize the evil Christ has overcome.

Your Pastor,
Brian Joyce