I'd be surprised if we don't get a few knocks on the door with costume-bedecked kiddies asking for a trick or a treat. This is what they will get if they do - a simple ATC-sized card with a fashionable skull and cross bones on it. I didn't realise how hard it was to draw until I tried this!
Hennyway.
This is what one person has to say about Hallowe'en.
It's odd, isn't it, that Hallowe'en is such a big deal in our secularized society in America today? In the pre-Modern world the threat of impending death from plagues and wars, as well as uncontrollable disease, loomed large in people's daily lives. Death could not be ignored. Themes of the Last Judgment, Heaven, Hell were on people's minds, and the art of the period illustrates this. Consciousness of personal sin, repentance, confession and penance and the Church's role in forgiveness of sins influenced the spiritual life and devotion of most Catholics.
The omnipresent reality of death, almost daily experience of it, and people's authentic religious beliefs about it, along with ignorance and superstition and folk legend, led to an attitude toward death that often seems primitive, bizarre and alien to us, now.
Paradoxically, though, in our contemporary world — justly called a "Culture of Death" — people often seem to be "in denial" about death. As a culture, we avoid not only avoid coming to grips with personal sin and the consequences of evil, but we deny the spiritual value of the suffering and pain associated with dying, which are a part of the human condition.
Then there's this informative article about Hallowe'en.
What will you being doing on this hallowed evening?
Me? Chatting with the children about the great gift that God has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ - and how Christ's death has set us free from sin and death and hell - while we await the arrival of the dreaded chicken pox!
