Posted on 10/29/2013 10:56:52 AM PDT by mlizzy
Way ahead of Halloween, I start telling the people at Holy Mass, at Catechism, at the Catholic school and parents meeting that Halloween is not good and is getting worse every year (along with satans influence growing every year). I tell them they can have a party with saints costumes and tons of candy to rot their teeth and get them hyper. Of course, as usual, I am not popular because I do not go along with satanic fun. --Fr. Peter CarotaSome Christians think Halloween is fun and harmless, but since I was one of those "unpopular" moms that steered our kids away from Halloween, I enjoyed this post very much. This line is good:
I should have stopped them and kicked them out of the chapel, but I am a coward and will pay for it after I die. --Fr. Peter Carota[I can relate.]
One of the ways you can tell there really is a devil is the transformation of a harmless holiday to a full-on glorification of decadence and death.
It’s not that people are just “doing their own thing”. Pay attention and you can see a master intelligence directing all these seemingly independent actions into, basically, something that looks consistently demonic.
On the plus side though, this past Sunday we had a Eucharistic procession in the city past a bunch of houses with skeletons and mangled corpses.
Take that Old Scratch LOL
Children dressing as little devils do not a devil make. Sheesh, in the 1950s, most boys either wore flimsy red costumes with horns and tail or blacked up the lower part of their faces with shoe polish and went out as hoboes.
We are going to Mass Halloween night. It’s the vigil Mass for All Saints Day.
We have fun and go out on Halloween, but I totally get where he’s coming from. I particularly don’t understand the whole blood and guts stuff. It is really strange to me. Monsters and other costumes are just fun for the kids. But people do go way overboard these days.
Maybe I am too culture immersed though, I see nothing wrong with little kids dressing up as angels, princesses, cowboys, or astronauts and having a party at home. Trick or treating at strangers' houses, though, is no longer safe.
Going out trick or treating is very Christian in its origins, but we’re a long way from what it used to be. One way to reclaim some of that is to have kids pray for the departed souls for each person who gives them treats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_cake
“A soul cake is a small round cake which is traditionally made for All Saints Day or All Souls’ Day to celebrate the dead.[1] The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, were given out to soulers (mainly consisting of children and the poor) who would go from door to door on Halloween singing and saying prayers for the dead. Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from Purgatory. The practice of giving and eating soul cakes is often seen as the origin of modern trick-or-treating.
...
American Hallowe’en composer Kristen Lawrence found two historical tunes associated with soul cakes as she was researching souling songs for her 2009 A Broom With A View album. As Lawrence heard the traditional Cheshire tune, she was struck that the beginning notes were the same as the mediaeval plainchant Dies Irae, “Day of Judgment”, calling the people to repent and pray for the dead. It seemed plausible that the Cheshire tune could be a folk corruption of the chant as children and beggars asked for cakes in return for praying for the dead.”
You're not alone. I hate Halloween with a passion.
I got a lot of grief from other people, including a lot of church people, about my stand on it and would not back down.
It is NOT fun and games beyond the surface of the trick or treating.
My kids did not participate either. I built a fire in our fire place, popped some popcorn, had some cheese and apples, and a little candy, and that was it. It kept them busy and distracted from all the other kids out there.
We were ghosts or gypsies. One year I was a pumpkin.
All Hallow’s Eve.
But don’t tell the secularists!
Hallowe'en (with facts and recipes)
How Halloween Can Be Redeemed (from Catholic Update)
History of Halloween
Bishops’ Halloween Advice: Dress Children Up as Saints, Not Witches
Halloween (CNA Video)
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
I built a fire in our fire place, popped some popcorn, had some cheese and apples, and a little candy, and that was it. It kept them busy and distracted from all the other kids out there.That sounds like fun! What did your kids think about it at the time, and what do they think about it now?
...I see nothing wrong with little kids dressing up as angels, princesses, cowboys, or astronauts and having a party at home. Trick or treating at strangers' houses, though, is no longer safe.Yes, we pretty much did something like this. The kids went to the church's Halloween festival, and we went along. Cakewalks, games, stuff like that. While I didn't like the costumes with axes buried into their skulls, I didn't like the lack-of-health standpoint of Halloween either. As it was ME, too, with my hands in the kids' candy stash grabbing all those little Tootsie Roll candies. -lol- We were all wired, and the kids just learned greed on top of it, imo, and yes, I didn't like them going to homes that were strange either.
On the plus side though, this past Sunday we had a Eucharistic procession in the city past a bunch of houses with skeletons and mangled corpses.Oh, that is cool; how frequently does your parish do that?
The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, were given out to soulers (mainly consisting of children and the poor) who would go from door to door on Halloween singing and saying prayers for the dead. Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from Purgatory.Wow, if only this was still done, it would be grand. I wouldn't mind putting tombstones out in the yard for the various saints either, and I wouldn't even mind a kid with a costume bearing grill marks for St. Laurence, etc. :)
They thought it was fun at the time and they didn’t know what they were *missing*.
My kids never had nightmares of night terrors and I wasn’t about to start with that by letting them see the *costumes* most kids in our neighborhood went out trick-or-treating in.
Their opinion now? I really don’t know. They never complained about missing it. They’re all in their 20’s now and scattered across the globe at the moment so there’s not much chance to ask them.
We only moved into the area around Easter, but this is the third procession we’ve done this year. :)
Isn’t it nice? We’re going to keep track of the houses we visit that night and say the Eternal Rest prayer for all their families’ departed—a modern take on the old custom.
Both of the Latin Mass parishes we’ve been to had parties where the kids dressed as saints. At our last parish each kid would read a little bio of the saint and the other kids would have to guess who it was.
Your St. Lawrence idea is awesome! LOL
If we’re going to give up a holiday whenever pagans observe it in a pagan way, we can say goodbye to St. Patrick’s and Christmas, too.
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