From Busted Halo:
Is Halloween really the holiday from Hell?
by Timothy Hester
From my high school students this time of year I often get a lot of questions like this:
“Mr. H., why are we celebrating Halloween? I mean, isn’t it a pagan/demonic/commercial holiday anyway?”
Well, let’s look at a tiny bit of the history of this ghoulish night of witches and goblins. Or is it a gleeful night for saints and angels? Let’s go way back to the 8th century, when a chapel dedicated to the memory of all the holy martyrs in Rome was declared. This feast, which happened to coincide with other pagan festivals — such as the Irish samhain (pronounced “souwain”) celebrating the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter with a touch of playful remembrance of the dead — ultimately became a universal Catholic celebration. The evening before a holy day is typically referred to as the “eve” of that day. In Catholic liturgy, solemnities or major feasts are considered to begin at sundown on the night before. Since the evening of October 31 would therefore be All Saints Evening or All Hallows Eve this has been shortened to Hallow e’en or Halloween. So there’s the simplest explanation of the “why” of Halloween. You take a noble cause — celebrating all the saints and martyrs — place it near a pagan holiday and extend the celebration to the night before and certain elements of that pagan day are bound to crossover to the religious day.
Our modern practice of sending the little ones begging for candy has a connection to the celebration of the saints. There was, in the Middle Ages, a custom of “souling” in which the poor would go through neighborhoods begging for food in exchange for prayers for the dead. This souling took place November 1, and the prayers would be offered on the following day, All Souls Day, which is a day of remembrance and prayers for all the faithful departed. For some customs, there seems to be no general consensus as to when or how the practice of dressing in costume came about.
For other Halloween traditions, such as carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, the historical path is easier to trace. Once again, those crafty Celts found a way to turn turnips into lanterns by hallowing them out. In this country, the pumpkin was more plentiful then the turnip and so it proved a worthy replacement.
New traditions
But perhaps this would be a good time to look at how we as 21st century Catholics could add to the centuries-old collection of Halloween traditions. Remember, it is a celebration of our saints, after all, and it’s not as if there’s a law banning innovation. But since it is essentially a celebration of our faith why don’t we start by adding to the party atmosphere?
My wife and I try our best to instill a sense of true celebration in our kids where feast days are concerned. Owing to my wife’s expert baking abilities this usually translates to a specialty cake. This year, for instance, she plans on shaping cake batter into the Roman Pantheon, the church commemorating all the saints. Just kidding. Apparently she’ll be making cupcakes with images of some of our favorite saints iced on top. Truthfully I don’t know how she ever planned on creating the dome.
We’ve decided to keep the big traditions. Our kids really enjoy having pumpkins around. Daddy really enjoys seeing his two angels trying to pick them up. And my daughter, Rita, who eats everything in sight, is so adorable as she tries to find a way to get her tiny mouth around the giant orange-colored rinds.
But the best part of our Halloween is, in fact, the costumes. We couldn’t decide at first how to approach this one. Should we turn them into headless monsters or incorrupt medieval saints? As luck would have it, it seems we could do both! We decided that during the day we would dress them as saints, preferably two saints with a connection to one another, while at night they could be their favorite characters for trick-or-treating.
Last year they were Mother Teresa (my daughter is indirectly named for her) and John Vianney (it was the year of the priest). Since their dad is a high school teacher and since teenage girls go nuts for little kids in costume, they get to come to school and show off their holy alter egos. This year, they will be Saints Benedict and Scholastica, the holy twins who founded the Benedictine order. OK, this one’s kind of cheating since the costumes, two black robes, are about as simple as you can get. When they get home they’ll change into Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. We figured it was appropriate since we just moved to Texas.
We’ll still get around to all the “scary” elements of Halloween. The kids enjoy hanging ghost and witch decorations and wearing their glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas to bed. I’m not sure they’ll ever get around to watching The Exorcist or Carrie as long as I’m alive; but I suppose some scary movie, like anything with Lindsay Lohan, could be acceptable. So, Halloween will continue to thrive in our house. Only this celebration will include a nod to the real meaning behind the holiday. And the best part is all the candy that Daddy gets to “test” before letting the kids have at it.
The Author: Timothy Hester
Jersey boy Tim Hester is a blogger and high school theology teacher in Dallas, Texas. Fourteenth in a family of 16 and father of his own two saints in the making, Tim previously worked as a TV producer. He is the purveyor of harveymillican.wordpress.com.
http://bustedhalo.com/features/putting-the-hallow-in-halloween
Archive for October 2011
Putting the “Hallow” in Halloween
Charis Ministries Retreat and Volunteer Opportunities
http://www.charisministries.org/
Be Still: A Silent Retreat
Friday – Sunday, November 18-20
Marytown Retreat Center, Libertyville, IL
Renew your spirit and reflect in the presence of God at this quiet retreat away from everyday life. You'll have the chance to meet with a spiritual director, discover new ways to pray, celebrate Mass, read, journal, and rejuvenate! All in their 20s and 30s are welcome! Visit http://www.charisministries.org/ for info and registration!
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Are you seeking a volunteer opportunity?
Want to get involved with Charis Ministries and help inspire other young adults to grow in their faith? Do you enjoy writing and reflecting on the gospel? Charis Ministries is currently looking for young adults interested in volunteering to write spiritual reflections for the Advent and Lenten Seasons. If you are interested or need more information, please contact Stephanie Scherra, at stephanie@charisministries.org or at 773-508-2843.
Opportunity for Former Volunteers
Trinity Fellows Program, Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Full-time service organization volunteers and alumni are invited to apply for graduate study in the Marquette University Trinity Fellows Program, a 21-month study/work program offering master’s degrees in business, civil and environmental engineering, communication, dispute resolution, economics, English, history, international affairs, applied philosophy, political science, or public service.
While engaged in full-time graduate study, Fellows work on substantive projects designed by selected nonprofit organizations in the Milwaukee area. The nonprofit work commitment is 18 hours per week during each academic year and 40 hours per week during the intervening summer.
To qualify for the program, student applicants must meet the admission standards of the graduate school and must have completed service in AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, or comparable full-time volunteer organization.
Each fellowship includes a monthly stipend ($1565 per month) and a full-tuition scholarship. Each student is charged a participation fee of $1250 per semester. Up to ten fellowship awards will be distributed each year.
See program website for further details about the program, application procedure, and application deadline: www.marquette.edu/trinityfellows.
Contact Carole Ferrara, Program Coordinator, at (414)-288-5861, or carole.ferrara@marquette.edu for additional information.
Celebrating the Life of Dean Brackley, SJ
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"I invite you to discover your vocation in downward mobility. It's a scary request... The world is obsessed with wealth and security and upward mobility and prestige. But let us teach solidarity, walking with the victims, serving and loving. I offer this for you to consider - downward mobility. And I would say in this enterprise there is a great deal of hope.
Have the courage to lose control.
Have the courage to feel useless.
Have the courage to listen.
Have the courage to receive.
Have the courage to let your heart be broken.
Have the courage to feel.
Have the courage to fall in love.
Have the courage to get ruined for life.
Have the courage to make a friend."
- Dean Brackley
At 83, Honduran priest returns to help his country face its past
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
SANTA ROSA DE COPAN, Honduras (CNS) -- An 83-year-old Honduran priest has returned from exile to help the Central American nation face its past.
A member of an alternative truth commission established by human rights groups, Father Fausto Milla fled Honduras July 8 after a series of threats and other acts of intimidation against him and his assistant.
For the more than two months he lived in neighboring Nicaragua, Father Milla said, he missed his homeland. The priest suffers from chronic back problems and started using a cane while in Nicaragua. He returned home Sept. 18 and said that, within four days, he quit using the cane and began walking normally.
He had wanted to keep his return quiet, hoping to continue his work without attracting attention, but it's hard to keep his presence a secret.
"Even the dogs on the street recognize me and greet me," said Father Milla, who lives in Santa Rosa de Copan, a regional capital in the northwest. He helps celebrate Mass at a local parish and runs a store that sells natural herbs for healing.
Father Milla is no stranger to controversy. In 1980, scores of Salvadoran refugees were massacred at the Sumpul River along the Salvadoran-Honduran border in a combined operation of the two countries' militaries. Father Milla's parish was nearby, and he widely condemned the massacre and participated in an international tribunal to investigate the crime. In response, he was threatened repeatedly and finally kidnapped in 1981. Following an international outcry, he was released after five days. Later that year, he was forced into exile for four years, allowed to return to his parish only after lengthy negotiations between the Honduran military and his bishop.
Now, Father Milla wants to know the truth about what happened before and after the 2009 military coup that overthrew Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
In May 2010, international pressure led the Honduran government to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that includes Honduran and foreign members. Yet many Hondurans doubted that such an official commission would produce anything critical of the coup plotters and, with violence increasing across the country, human rights groups created an alternative commission that June. They called it the "True Commission."
Father Milla is one of two Hondurans on the alternative commission, which is chaired by Maryknoll Sister Elsie Monge, an Ecuadorean who serves as president of that country's Ecumenical Commission on Human Rights.
"The official commission was created by the delinquents who carried out the coup. If I kill you but also function as judge in my trial, my verdict isn't going to be legitimate," Father Milla told Catholic News Service.
"The official commission's creation was part of the clown act in the circus, something to distract the attention of the people from the growing violence around them. It's entertainment, like football," he said.
The alternative commission's creation put pressure on the official commission to produce a more balanced report, Father Milla said, admitting he was pleasantly surprised at the Truth Commission's final report, released recently.
"We were surprised, first of all, because they recognized that what happened was indeed a coup d'etat. The coup plotters had worked hard to convince the world that it was a legitimate change of presidents. And now even (current Honduran President Porfirio) Lobo has recognized that it was a coup," Father Milla said.
"They pointed out that the (post-coup) government of Roberto Micheletti was illegal, which is a serious charge. And they pointed out a variety of crimes that need to be processed, but that won't happen because there's complete impunity here," he said.
Since the 2009 coup, the security situation in Honduras has deteriorated dramatically. Demonstrators protesting what they consider to be an illegitimate government have been beaten and killed. Journalists asking hard questions about government corruption or involvement in drug trafficking have been frequently threatened; according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 12 Honduran journalists have been murdered since March 2010. And landless peasants seeking rich farmland they claim is rightfully theirs under the country's agrarian reform laws have been assassinated and had several of their settlements burned in the fertile Aguan Valley.
Thelma Mejia, an independent journalist and political analyst in Tegucigalpa, said the official commission's report is a good contribution to resolving the country's many problems -- if anyone would pay attention.
"The report is well-written and very professional. It says a lot about where the country should be headed. But there was no reaction to it. Its recommendations, such as the creation of a constitutional court, are being ignored," Mejia said.
The alternative commission's mandate is broader in scope, but several obstacles have slowed its work. The commission's requests for U.S. records under the Freedom of Information Act, for example, have been stymied by U.S. officials.
"The Department of Defense can't seem to find any records for the week before or the week after the coup," said Tom Loudon, executive secretary of the True Commission.
Loudon, a former representative for the American Friends Service Committee in Central America, said the increasing violence in the Aguan Valley stems directly from the policies of the post-coup government.
"Zelaya was beginning a process to address some of the land conflicts and move toward significant land reform in that area, and so people felt hopeful that the poor who had lived there for years would finally be able to get titles. But that came to an abrupt stop when the coup happened. And then the evictions started. The evictions are the gasoline fueling the violence there," Loudon said.
Father Milla said that, instead of ordering the police to stop the evictions, Lobo has ordered officers to put on a friendlier face.
"The people aren't stupid," he said. "They'll believe in the police when there's a different police. They'll believe in the police when they put the criminals in the police in jail. The people think (the president's) order is a joke. (The president) and his people live up there in another world and don't have a clue what the people think."
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1104021.htm
¡Oye! Magazine
¡Oye! Magazine has featured the St. Vincent Pallotti Center this week in their Volunteering section!
Check out their website (www.oyemagazine.org) and check out our website too (www.pallotticenter.org)!
Need a Community Activity?
Check out the Current Volunteers section of our website for more Community Activities!
Asking Yourself New Questions
Brief Description: For the past several months, you have been hard at work at your placement site and striving for some type of rhythm in your community living Activity:
- life in your neighborhood, society or in the Church,
- policy issues, poverty and access to health care,
- communication and relationships related to community living, etc.
Pallotti Center on the Radio
Take a listen to hear our National Director, Mike Goggin, on WMET 1160AM Guadalupe Radio:
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