|
|
Minutes of Meetings with God |
 |
|
The Witch ... |
||
| I've been sitting, looking out of the window at the witch plastered
against one of the trees in the front yard. It appears that she recklessly
flew into a large maple ... the broom seems to have gone all the way through
the tree and her face is buried in the bark ... her arms and legs stuck at
funny angles to the trunk. It is windy today and her mop of hair twitches
with the gusts. She is the harbinger of Halloween and a reminder of how quickly
this year is passing. If Halloween is near, can Thanksgiving and Christmas
be far behind?
Halloween ... All Hallows Eve ... the day before All Saints Day. Like so many holidays, this one has fallen pray to the ravages of greed ... merchandizers have stripped it of everything that won't make them money and we have been left with the worst of Halloween traditions. Halloween hasn't always been all trick-or-treat, witches, ghosts, goblins, devils and such. For that matter, moderns (not the ancients) seem to put more emphasis on the superstitious, dark and ghastly side of Halloween than anyone ever has ... mostly because these days people will pay to be shocked and made afraid. Unlike some who feel the need to condemn Halloween observances as Satanic ... our current practices seem to me to be mostly misguided. The saddest part of modern Halloween is that some people take the dark side of it too seriously and people get terrorized ... get hurt , and even get killed. It would be terrific if we could reclaim All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and All Saints Day as Christian celebrations. All Saints Day as been observed as a feast ... a joyous celebration ... of the Church since at least the mid-fourth century (for some 1,500 years). All Saints Day was a time to be happy about being Christian ... to acknowledge all the saints and martyrs of the Church both known and unknown. It was a time for each Christian to joyously reaffirm her/his personal dedication to life in Christ ... to be a saint. Early on All Hallows Eve (Halloween) was a time of vigil ... a night given to prayer for all who follow Christ. Often All Hallows Eve was a time to show compassion and generosity, especially to the poor. The beggars that have become so strongly associated with Halloween originally were probably poor folk who went door to door seeking bread for the feast day ... not ghosts, goblins or witches. The observances of All Hallows Eve have been varied ... some would say that almost every village had its own traditions and practices. Many villages combined their harvest festival with their observance of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. The harvest festivals tended to have two main emphases ... first, celebration of the successful gathering in of the crops and, second, augury (seeking omens about the future) or incantation (making magic to bring blessings and to ward off evil). Most of the ancient observance of All Hallow's Eve (especially in England) had to do with going to church for prayers ... sometimes the church bell was rung all night ... and with building a great bonfire around which there was singing, dancing and eating. No one was to go hungry on All Hallows Eve. It was occasion for celebrating and sharing God's blessings. Some accounts of the celebrations indicate that everyone at these festivals ... lord, lady, milkmaid, or fieldhand ... was treated equally; for at least a brief time there was no social class or distinction and there was a radical sort of democracy. On All Hallows Eve, some places ... especially schools, colleges and universities ... elected the person who would oversee the community's up-coming Christmas celebration. In quite a few places there was a very bright side to the celebration of All Hallows Eve ... a little bit of God's Kingdom broke through. In most of the ancient observances , the augury and incantation ... the stuff that tended to be superstitious and/or outright pagan ... was of secondary importance. Sadly, our contemporary observances have reversed that order ... inflated the superstitious and/or outright pagan and almost totally diminished the rest. The dark side of Halloween has almost eclipsed the bright side ... now there's the danger of needles, razor blades and other metal in treats; now there's vandals setting fires; now there's young hooligans who rob younger beggars of their treats; now there are self-deceiving people who think that they can cater to and control the demonic by doing things to other human beings that are terrifying, abusive, or murderous. I wonder what a modern Halloween could look like ... if families went to church together for prayers and were just glad to be Christians ... if, then, blessings were shared by making sure that every poor family in the community had enough to eat for at least one day ... if the church folk built a great bonfire and then sang and danced and ate until the wee hours of the morning ... if we rang the church bell all night long for the pure joy of it. What a Halloween that would be ... so different ... so unforgettable! What a dream! And, now, about this witch stuck to the tree ... |