A Catholic Rethinking of All Hallows Eve

A really post, who would have thought!  I have a lot of things that I would like to write about but time and brain space are conspiring against that happening.  However, today being the 31st of October, I thought it fitting that does get written about is more thought on an old argument.  (You can read previous entries here, here, here, and finally here).

We often forget that the 31st of October is not just Halloween, but also the date the Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 thesis to the door of Wittenberg Chapel, and so is remember as the start of the Reformation.  The shared date brings to mind differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, particularly in regard to how they view the dead.  The Catholic Church stresses the unity of community of believers, including the unity of the dead and the living.  Those of us still one earth ask Christians who have gone before us to intercede for us, while we pray for the souls of the depart to abbreviate their time in purgatory and help them on their way to heaven.

And it is in this ritual that the two, Halloween and the Reformation are connected.  Martin Luther rejected the idea of purgatory and so for a Protestant the communion between the living and the dead only works one way--there can be no prayers for the dead.  John Zmirak at Inside Catholic points out that this is why so many Protestants see Halloween as demonic.  If the afterlife is restricted to a strict dichotomy between heaven and hell, then dressing up as anything as a besides and angel or a saint is a celebration of the demonic.  However, within a Catholic perspective the the spookiness, and the fright of Halloween reminds us of our human condition, of the uncertainty of the state of our souls and those who went before us, of the effects of sin and the importance of praying for the dead.

So while intercessory masses on All Souls day are important, dressing up as something scary for Halloween or participating in a day of the dead ritual like decorating a grave and pay your respects to a grave can also strengthen us and remind us of our role as the church militant.  As fallen people we ought to be frightened ever once in a while.

Stand and Stare

I am sorry to beat the topic of Halloween over the head, but it is difficult to ignore at the moment and I have just a few things to wrap up. First, Aloysha accepted my challenge and carved an amazing pumpkin last Sunday, thereby celebrating (in a small way) the holiday. Secondly, I think that my qualms about the current attitude towards and celebration of Halloween is indicative of a deeper problem--lack of leisure.

That may seem like a very strange assertion, but without real leisure there is no contemplation. Thus, people spend no time trying to figure out the meaning behind the holidays they celebrate, or to wonder why they perform their daily traditions let alone admire and celebrate the world. For leisure is more than a state of not working, it is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul which allows people to look on the world in wonder and wonder in turn leads to contemplation.

Current society does not really allow for leisure. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics tells me Americans work, on average, more than 50 hours a week. This leaves little down time. The time they are not at work Americans have filled with consumer substitutes for leisure--either they scheduled that time with activities so they are still on the go, or spend it shopping, watching tv, or the like. When time not at work is spent in such pursuits is it surprising that holidays have become so commercial? According to Josef Pieper, the pursuit of these mindless distractions not only prevents people from confronting the awesome reality of existence. It undermines and even corrodes civilization and culture.



As a parting thought I will leave you with a favorite poem of mine on the topic.


What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep, or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

--William Henry Davies

Better to light a candle

... One day a tortoise will learn how to fly

Everyday life is saturated by traditions that most people perform without thought. Removing one's hat upon entering a building, placing flowers on a grave or candles on a birthday cake, even putting the fork on the left when setting a table--these are customs that people observe on a daily basis, usually without giving their actions any thought. Just, however, because people do not think about the rituals they perform or the traditions to which they subscribe does not mean that those traditions should be abolished. Each of these has a meaning and purpose which they do not loose just because people no longer think about them. In his book "The Thing--Why I am Catholic" Chesterton tells a parable of a gate approached by two reformers, the first of whom looks at it and says "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." The second, whom Chesterton calls the more intelligent reformer, replies "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

The same can be said about the traditions surrounding Halloween. Carving jack-o-lanterns, distributing candy, dressing in costume, there was a meaning behind the establishment of each of these and they should not be abolished until that meaning is remembered and understood. Because a knowledge of the origin of these things is not reflected in peoples current practise of them is not a reason to stop, nor, as Aloysha claims, does it turn them into nothing. Whether giving out candy on Halloween originated from grave offerings for the dead, from the tradition of providing strangers with hospitality or from something else entirely, the original meaning is honored whether people do so intentionally or not. And, perhaps more importantly in this day and age, there is something to be said about people performing rituals and practicing tradition whether they realise what they are doing or not. For, whether you bow or courtesy to the queen, genuflect before a tabernacle, watch fireworks on the 4th of July, or merely hold a door for a stranger, the point of rituals is to pay respect to something outside oneself and to put oneself in perspective of system larger than themselves--something modernity, with its emphasis on individuality and conflation of liberty and a complete lack of rules, tends to forget.

So the beauty of the day is in the traditions. The mystery of the Danse Macabre is that it was not a one time thing but rather happened regularly allowing everyone to participate. So, if Aloysha wants to attempt to be alive this Halloween he will attempt to carry out the traditions, but with the proper reflection about what those traditions mean and proper reverence to those they honor.

You wanna fly...

then lets fly.

Robert Owen Hood has previously stated that Halloween has become a day celebrating consumerism and promiscuity. In this remark we agree completely. Whatever it once was, Halloween has become a day of costumes and candy for children, a day which many people in the United States would say is their favorite holiday. However, underneath this corrupted mindset, under this superficial day, there is something more. As Robin Hood has said, it was a day meant for remembering the dead, who, by all means, should be remembered. Now I know not how peopled viewed death at the birth of this day, but I know that now death is viewed completely wrong. And that wrongness is exemplified in Halloween.

Death is dark, it is a mystery, it does have fear, but it is not evil, it is not "spooky," with ghouls and zombies and the such-- it is a beauty. And in this culture of Halloween that beauty is gone. The day celebrating death should be like the Danse Macabre. It should have that feeling, that aura of mystery and not only darkness but also light. As was said, there are two sides to every coin. The dead should be remembered. We should care, as Enjolras said, about what they died for. They're death meant something, it still means something. And we should honor them. In death the greatest victory, the greatest mystery of all occurred-- Christ died. Death, therefore, should have a day in remembrance of its beauty, and it should forever be remembered as one of the greatest gifts from God to man.

That is why I have a vendetta for Halloween. It has taken one of the most extraordinary things and turned it into nothing. it has taken the evil in this world and made it friendly and childish. I am against the superficial aspects of this day, but that does not mean, as Robin Hood as pointed out, that one must not live. We must throw out the fakeness, so that the beauty may be seen. We must dance the Macabre. It is a two sided coin, yet I make my own luck. Therefore, concerning a challenge I was recently issued, I accept. I will strive not to let the culture ruin the day, and will attempt to be alive. I will remember, and hope to understand.

There are two sides to every coin

I would like to begin by saying that I agree with everything that Aloysha said in his last post. However, I believe that it is only half of the story. As artists employing the chiaroscuro technique know, it takes deep shadows to bring out the light. The powerful and haunting depictions of humanity present in the work of Edgar Allen Poe, among others, is achieved by their continual awareness of the skull beneath the skin. Silas's exhortation to Bod at the end of The Graveyard Book is made more poignant by the fact that the boy had been raised in a graveyard.

What I am saying, of course, is that people can only achieve the zeal for life that Aloysha is advocating if they keep their mortality in mind. This is what Tolkien meant when he said that death is the gift of the One to Men. While it can be a bitter gift, it is death, the knowledge that time is limited, makes each experience touching and meaningful and focuses people on the moment at hand.

This discussion is especially apt at this time of year, with Halloween around the corner. The origins of Halloween are in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was their New Year celebrated on November 1st. This feast, coming at the end of the harvest was their way of remembering the year past and preparing for winter which so often brought death with it. They further believed that on the eve of the New Year the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, and so used this night to remember their dead.

The current issues with Halloween then lie not in their original origins but in the modern distortions of the day. It was not until more recent times that Wiccans and others tried to make it a day devoted to the devil. However, I believe it is the much more common practise of ignoring all meaning of the day that is more troubling. It has become a day celebrating consumerism and promiscuity. As said Cady says in Mean Girls, "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." But I will come back to this idea at a latter point.

So my challenge to all of you, but particularly to Alyosha who has a vendetta against the day, is to enjoy Halloween but to use it as an opportunity to memento mori. That knowledge is a gift that will help you truely live.

P. S. The quote of this week is my response to Enjolras first post.