|
Could Halloween, our annual fun, scare, and satire on the horrible and death, seem this year to be a bad joke? Can we dress ghoulishly like a corpse when
they are still pulling the bodies of many innocent fellow Americans and the 300 firefighters out of the WTC wreckage? Can we dress up for trick or treat,
engage in masked parties in a time of terror, and "war," when bombs being dropped by our countrymen on another country? Is it okay for us to be
pretending not much is really different this year when everything has changed?
When death has reached its long arm into our country with such horrific results, with many of us still reeling with the memories of thousands perishing in the WTC spectacle, are gruesome costumes still appropriate? Should we continue to make fun of death and horror as part of our usual titillating game, when our military personnel are facing death daily? Maybe it is enough that Halloween be satire, not politically correct? On the other hand, maybe we need to expand Halloween as a kind of recovery party. Maybe our annual scaring of each other needs a different slant. If we have scarcely thought about the approach of Halloween this year, we've not been paying much attention. Pumpkins and orange and black merchandise have been appearing everywhere. It is the biggest holiday celebration in the USA, bigger for merchants than even Christmas. Yet, our annual masquerade ritual of making fun or horror and death would be a hard ritual to cancel, particularly for parents with small children. "Calling off Halloween would be like sandbagging my windows and doors," said one mother. One national association of school principals is calling for small children to reject the choice of ghosts and witches in favor of firefighters and policemen and EMTs. Could we expand our celebration this year with new awareness? Halloween started as a party to honor the Saints and All Souls, November 1 and 2, with All Hallows Eve, on October 31 on the liturgical calendar of some churches. Could Halloween help us recognize the very thin veil there is between our worlds, between life and death? We grasped this in ways we can never forget on September 11. It could also be a time to linger for a while with those we miss, particularly for those who have loved ones they have lost. Maybe even including those our country has lost recently. If our hearts are big enough, they may not stop at our country's boundaries, but include the Afghan people and Muslim communities. In Mexico, Halloween and All Souls day are experienced as joyous feasts, with home altars and ceremonies to honor and spend time with those who are gone. Why not create a special place in each home to honor these precious family members who have died, and other family heroes such as the 300 firefighters in NYC? Should we create a special place at home for an small altar, with pictures, and flowers and candles to honor all those who have gone before us, even those in this tragedy so helplessly, often while helping others? Consider inviting children and other family members to celebrate what is good in this family, about loved ones we have lost, and how their own brand of fun and loveliness is carried on amongst us. When we use our imaginations, design it together, it could be rewarding and memorable. I can still remember a charades game when our children were small, with Michelle, age 7, pretending to be her mother, so accurate and funny that it cracked all of us up. Maybe we have been horrified and terrified enough. Perhaps we can use this holiday to continue our individual and communal healing. Appreciate the rich diversity and unique history of each of our families, with some reverence for all those who brought us to this place in time. Some wonder: "How did Halloween get to be such a big thing?" Consider that it combines pretending spookiness, earthy fun, otherworldliness, creativity, trading goods, and good ole Yankee enterprising. Also, "it vaguely smacks of religion but identifies none in particular, appealing therefore to nearly everyone while offending almost no one (the notable exception being some conservative Christians who consider it Satan worship). In short, it's everything you need for success with a pluralistic, religiously minded people dedicated to the profit motive," according to Kenneth Riggs. Yet its origin was very Christian, not pagan. Perhaps this is the year to extend Halloween, in honor of all those who have given so much for our freedoms, to make it both playful and prayerful. |