FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2021 LOVE WINS/SPIRITUAL/HALLOWEEN

 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2021 LOVE WINS / SPIRITUAL/HALLOWEEN

Many organizations have various honors.  You might be an “Employee of the Month”; “Outstanding Volunteer”, “Most Valuable Player”, “Most Improved Player”, “Purple Heart”, and many more.

For the first ten centuries of Christianity, various leaders “or holy people were honored by being called “Saint”.  (There is a criterion but that is not for today’s discussion).  Even with the Eastern and Western Christian split in 1054 both sides of that still had saints.  

Even today, there are people designated as “saints” - such as Mother Teresa in 2016

Now, some of these honored or holy people get specific days on the calendar.  For example, St. Patrick is honored on March 17th, St. Joseph’s day is March 19th.  As more and more holy people were honored, the leaders of the Christian Church decided to create a special day for ALL those holy people in the year 609.  

Thus we have All Saints Day - which is celebrated on November 1st.

Thus the evening before the special All Saints Day became “all hallowed eve”.  That term has morphed into “Halloween”.

Okay, but there have been a lot of bad people and things over time.  So, if the holy people get a day, somehow having a day for the unholy people made sense, so the day before the holy day became a day for the unholy people.

Witches were evil, right?  So witches could come out on Halloween.  (Note - witches can be male or female.  The misused term of a warlock for a male witch is (seemingly) for a witch who has been banned from his or her group (coven). 

So, Halloween has become synonymous with evil.  

Christianity seems to take the concept of good and evil as being spiritual warfare:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:11) 

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Okay, enough of the historical and religious factors for Halloween.

For me, a twenty-first-century person, I don’t like to dwell on spiritual warfare - yes, there is evil, but for me, I believe LOVE WINS.

To me, Halloween is a night of kids coming out in costumes.  I have dressed up for Halloween for many years - and never as an evil being.  It is a time to literally “put on a different face”.  I’ve been Zorro - probably my favorite character - who in the legend fought against evil and corruption.  (Aside - I remember fondly the Zorro television series - in Black and White.  The swashbuckling hero arrived in the nick of time to save the lovely lady from the mean alcalde and his crew.  Zorro was a man of righteousness - and in the series and legends - a friend of the church.  He was a California version of Robin Hood.  

As for other costumes, I was a giant ketchup bottle.  (My daughter was a red crayon, so we matched)!!!  I’ve been a pirate, but, of course, a good pirate taking from the rich and giving it to the poor.  I’ve been a clown.  

It isn’t necessarily about being that character, but about having fun and laughing.  My bridge group yesterday dressed up, or at least some did.  (I think the “fun” people in the group joined in!!)

I think of children (and, in particular, my grandchildren) and having them dress up in some costume.  

Yes, there is evil in the world, yes, all Hallow’s Eve (aka Halloween) can be a celebration of witches and evil but allowing fun activities is a good thing as we go into the “dark months” of November, December, and January.  

So, this weekend, think of Halloween as a fun event - an event to be a kid, to laugh (and even eat some candy).

LOVE DOES WIN!!!

Karen