C'mon, Lighten Up ...

I was startled to run into a usually eminently sensible Catholic this morning who barely held back from a rant about Halloween. He said that if kids dressed up as saints then he had no objection. Otherwise he had no use for Halloween.

Talk about sucking all the fun out of the holiday! That feeling is akin in my mind to Richard Dawkins' lamentably literal condemnation of Harry Potter because it is an "anti-scientific" fairy tale.

What is it about Americans that makes us unrelentingly hew to such Puritanical lengths? (Yes I realize Dawkins is English but his extreme zeal makes him a prime candidate to immigrate ... and, remember, those Puritans originally came from England.)

I recommend to all those similarly minded that they seek out Ray Bradbury's short story Usher II from The Martian Chronicles.

In the meantime, they can go read Darwin's Short Halloween Rant instead.

I don't have anything against the idea of having a saints themed costume party on All Saints Day -- there's no real tradition behind it, but it's not a bad idea. However, All Saints Day is Nov. 1st, not Oct. 31st. And I'm not really sure why we as Catholics should feel the need to counter-program against Halloween parties. Certain Protestant groups, certainly, are convinced that all that surrounds Halloween is evil superstition, but there's no reason for Catholics to go off the deep end about this stuff.

Others on record in supporting Halloween can be found here:

• Aliens in This World who pulls in G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown in support
  
  
• Simcha ... But I'll tell you the thing I really enjoy about Halloween: at least it's not a religious holiday -- I mean, Halloween as a boo, eek, Kit-kat and Smartees, oh-how-cute day, setting aside saint and souls and praying and such, which is a different day.
  
  
• Last but certainly not least, The Anchoress...

  I was excitedly discussing our Halloween plans at a meeting one night, when this woman told me I was being used as a tool for the devil “to make evil ordinary.”
  
  I told her that evil is made ordinary every single day on television and in movies and in how we treat each other, and that my gleeful Halloween antics had less to do with making “evil ordinary” than in proving that externals are mostly powerless over us, except as our own minds and souls perceive them. I said, “mock the devil he will flee from thee…”

For those wanting true tradition, I recommend Recta Ratio. You won't find a better source anywhere for history about all things of the faith, including Halloween!