|
Post by E on Oct 30, 2009 13:23:24 GMT -5
content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/10/vatican-warns-parents-that-halloween-is-anti-christian/1Vatican warns parents that Halloween is 'anti-Christian' The Vatican is warning parents not to let their kids dress up as ghosts and goblins this weekend for Halloween, calling it a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death," Britain's Daily Telegraph reports in a dispatch from Rome. The newspaper's Rome correspondent, Nick Squires, notes that the Roman Catholic Church has become alarmed in recent years as the traditional U.S. celebration spreads to other countries, particularly Britain and Italy. The Vatican issued its warning through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in an article headlined "Halloween's Dangerous Messages." It quotes a liturgical expert, Joan Maria Canals as saying, "Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian." Parents should "be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death," says Father Canals, a member of a Spanish commission on church rites, the Telegraph reports. In many European countries, particularly those with large Catholic populations, the focus is on All Saints' Day, on Nov. 1, when many families visit cemeteries to remember deceased loved ones. (Posted by Doug Stanglin)
|
|
|
Post by Denethor on Oct 31, 2009 15:59:06 GMT -5
Woah...the Vatican?I'm aware that certain Protestant groups, especially of the evangelical or the fundamentalist variety (the two are not the same thing, but have significant overlap) have a problem with Halloween; my neighbor is in fact a member of one of these. I'm planning a quiet Samhain in and I know he won't be here, as he always goes out to avoid the trick-or-treaters, doesn't party, and remains out late at some kind of cowering-in-the-church event. To each his own. (Me, I have candy and quarters and a Harry Potter Dementor costume for the first part of the night, and sufficient candles, tools, and suchlike for the later part). But I hadn't heard of the Vatican getting on that bandwagon; I've never even met an individual Catholic who felt that way. Who knew?
|
|
|
Post by MsAriel on Nov 2, 2009 9:11:27 GMT -5
Oh good gods!!!!
|
|
|
Post by blackrose on Nov 2, 2009 9:32:39 GMT -5
I'm not entirely surprised, because the 'new' pope is known for being rather, um, conservative. It is a bit odd, though, because, as with Den, none of the Catholics I've known have ever had this attitude, and we were even allowed to dress up for class. (One year in high school I went as a cobweb ladden zombie - which was such a mistake 'cause the cobwebs kept sticking to everything!)
But, yeah, weird on one hand... but, on the other hand, I knew the new pope was going to be a pain in the butt.
|
|
|
Post by Shannon on Nov 2, 2009 10:20:38 GMT -5
I didn't follow the link, but from what was posted here it doesn't necessarily sound like the Pope is directing Catholics to not participate in Halloween, but to stay away from certain costumes and themes that celebrate 'Eeeeevil!' [/mermaid man] He still recommends participating in the holiday, just with a specific focus, and a religious advisory attached. Which, I'll take what I can get because these loons trying to kill Halloween altogether are killing me.
Halloween here sucked balls. I know a big part of that is the recession, and candy is 12 bucks a bag, and customes are 30 a pop... but still. I also know there's a lot more vacant homes then there used to be, but I also think a big part of it is this growing push to eliminate Halloween altogether.
And off topic, the scariest part of the night for Ben and I was seeing all the dead-eyed grown-ups silently walking the streets with their children. I can't tell you how many people we smiled at, waved at, said ''Happy Halloween'' to, that just stared back at us lifeless and miserable. And, seriously, how utterly depressing for children to grow up in this type of social-psychological state. I understand it sucks to work everyday, miss your kids' birthday, sacrifice things...just to realize four years down the road it was all for naught; you're losing your house, you're losing your job, you don't know what the hell your future is going to be...
Sigh.
|
|
|
Post by Denethor on Nov 2, 2009 17:17:03 GMT -5
Man, and I thought it was sucking balls here mainly because it was raining. My quiet Samhain in part went off without a hitch, but the Dementor costume and handing out candy part (chocolate, of course! ) was a study in the concept of all-dressed-up-and-nowhere-to-go. I suppose a Dementor outfit is in a way appropriate for me; however, there I was with this big bag of candy, and the kids didn't even show up. At first I thought it was because you couldn't see my lights from the street, but when I poked my head out, there wasn't anyone out in the neighborhood either. And this is a big Halloween area; everyone decorates, dresses up, and generally has a good time. This being a first-ring D.C. suburb, there's usually a lot of amusing mixtures of Halloween and politics whenever there's a big election on. No big surprise that that's not a highlight this year, but, there's usually all the regular Halloween stuff, and this year it was just dead. This year, the highlight of the neighborhood was the people who put a bunch of that fake cobwebby stuff on their "For Sale" sign. Funny, but depressing. Wonder what those Realtors thought of that? Not many offers, I take it? And we don't even currently have that many empty places, compared to other parts of the country. Just no one's ready to buy at all. I'm still envious of the light set the people down the road have, though, that looks like flashing pairs of eyes peeping out of the bushes. ;D They must like it too; they leave it up until almost Thanksgiving most years.
|
|
|
Post by E on Nov 3, 2009 13:19:30 GMT -5
Since we were in a new neighborhood, we really didn't know what to expect as far as trick or treaters. The neighbors in our tract ranged from a couple of yard stakes with cute and silly "Boo" or a pumpkin on them to all out, fully decorated yards with animatronics to a temporary fence built to look like a stone wall with wrought iron (very neat looking, I think they used spray foam and granite spray paint on plywood).
We bought a 150 and a 100 count bag of candy at Target (6.99 each) and Shawn still had to run out at about 7 to get MORE. I think we could have done with out it but we thought that it was sooo slow in the beginning that we were giving out handfuls. We didn't expect to have a pack of kids descend on us.
At about 6:30 we had a group come that (I am not joking) had to have been the whole block from another part of the tract. There had to be at least 25 kids on the porch at one time. They ranged in age from toddler to about 12. I was quite impressed with the parent who let them bombard us at once. They had a traffic lane organized up our sidewalk so that the ones coming went up one side and the ones that had gotten their candy came back down the other.
Shawn had been in the shower and he heard their chatter coming up the road, he said he thought the whole 4th grade had come.
Autumn was up in Scottsdale with her friend that just moved there and B and Aj were with their dad. When we picked Aut up on sunday she said it was pretty dead up there and only a few houses were giving out candy.
I wonder if this being a brand new and cheap area if the families here are more likely to afford holidays? I know we'd be screwed had we bought anywhere more expensive.
|
|
|
Post by Denethor on Nov 3, 2009 18:54:52 GMT -5
That explains it! All the kids from Shannon's and my neighborhoods simply went over to yours to trick-or-treat. In my case, it was obviously that the top secret government satellite warned all the Capitol Illuminati parents that it was going to rain; they then all got in their black helicopters and flew out to California. My own damn fault for not looking at the weather - or going to Lodge.
|
|