Tuesday - Trick? No, Treat.
Oct. 24th, 2006 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermoreToday on my drive into work, I was thinking about my first encounter with people who didn't celebrate Halloween because it is "evil." I was 24 years old at the time, and it was a shock to me that these people existed.
When I was a kid, almost everyone I knew celebrated Halloween. Even the Baptist kids in those days dressed in costumes and went trick-or-treating. My elementary school held a Halloween Carnival (what the heck is a Fall Festival, anyway?), and the only kids who didn't participate were the Jehovah's Witness kids, who didn't really celebrate anything, anyway, so it didn't really count that they sat this one out, too.
As a teenager, Halloween was when my church youth group held it's biggest annual fundraiser - a spook house. This wasn't some religious "Hell House" where we showed sinners suffering for eternity and then handed you a bible tract as you left. We were Methodists, and Methodists are more laid back and fun than that. The goal of out spook house was to scare you so bad you peed on yourself, have you go home to change pants, then come back to get the pee scared out of you again, all for $2 a person. We had a guy who came after you with a chain saw (with the chain removed, but who notices that in the dark?). We had rotting zombies and a mad scientist dissecting a live person who begged for help (large bones from a local butcher and real raw meat made this look surprisingly authentic). We guy who ran up to you with a live snake. I was the girl who lay in a coffin who sat up, screamed and tried to bite you. People used to leave our spook house saying, "Wow, I can't believe a church is doing this." The comments perplexed me at the time. I had no idea that some other churches took a grim view of this sort of thing.
In the early 1990's, I worked in an orthodontist's office for about a year. Dr. K. practiced the sort of right-wing Christianity that was only then starting to gain a foothold in America, and his office staff either practiced it too, or played along as if they did. I was working through a temp agency, so I came in as an outsider.
One day that October the office manager, Margie, was talking to the receptionist, Dorothy. Margie lived in one of Houston's historic neighborhoods, and in the previous months a movie had been filmed in her area. One of the scenes for the film was set in a cemetery; large, realistic-looking papier-mâché tombstones had been brought in as props. When the movie closed up, the production company abandoned these tombstones in an empty lot, where many of Margie's neighbors helped themselves to this ghoulish loot.
"You should see what they're doing with them," Margie said, "They drag them into their yards and put fake cobwebs all over them. When I drive down my street it looks like I live in the middle of a grave yard."
To me, this sounded positively neat. "Cool!" I said.
Margie and Dorothy turned toward me and glared.
"Not cool," Dorothy said. Margie shook her head vehemently.
"Not cool?" I asked. I would have loved Halloween decorations of that caliber, and free ones at that. How could this not be cool?
"We don't celebrate Halloween," Dorothy said, icicles hanging off of every word, "We don't believe in it. It's Satanic."
I was stunned. "Oh. Uhm, okay."
I thought about telling them about my church's spook house when I was growing up, but then thought better. These women were looking at me with the kind of disapproval usually reserved for people who kick puppies. I decided to back away slowly and pretend to be busy elsewhere.
Dr. K.'s poor dental technicians all complained bitterly about his attitude. While all of them were Christians, none of them shared the doctor's rigid interpretations of the religion. The previous year, another doctor had sent a Halloween gift basket that was shaped like a jack-o-lantern filled with treats and goodies to share with the staff. Dr. K. threw it in the trash and wouldn't even let them take the treats out. They still hadn't forgiven him for this. "There was chocolate in there," one of them whispered, "and he just threw it away. Perfectly good chocolate." She was a Catholic girl who only just barely even qualified as a Christian in Dr. K.'s eyes. Apparently, she really liked chocolate.
That year, I didn't just hand out candy to children on Halloween night. I dressed up as a witch and handed out candy. I knew it would get under the good doctor's skin if he only knew. For some reason witch costumes were the most egregious to him. His staff calling my favorite holiday "Satanic" was egregious to me. I've always loved Halloween. To my mind, it's a holiday dedicated to whimsy and make believe, and I see nothing evil about it. It's about trusting your neighbors enough to open your door to their children and handing them treats, just because they ask for them. It's about good will and generosity to strangers. The spookiness is all in fun; the screams are recorded ones played on my sound effects CD; the laughter of the kids and their "thank you's" as they walk away from my door are real.
I do believe in evil, but I happen to know that the real evil in the world has nothing to do with pumpkins or black cats. In a world with plenty of food, there are people who die of starvation every day. There are places where most of the children born die before the age of 5 because they don't have access to clean drinking water. In the United States, in my own backyard, people die of treatable diseases because they can't afford the medications that would save their lives. Evil exists, all right, and it's common enough that no one reading this has to look the words rape, torture, or murder up in the dictionary, because we all have heard enough about them to know what they are.
If the Devil really does get excited about Halloween, I think I know why: it gets a certain segment of the population so worked up that they use their resources to combat a holiday about make believe, and turn their backs on the real evils in their midst that are so much harder to fight.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ # ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
When I was a kid, almost everyone I knew celebrated Halloween. Even the Baptist kids in those days dressed in costumes and went trick-or-treating. My elementary school held a Halloween Carnival (what the heck is a Fall Festival, anyway?), and the only kids who didn't participate were the Jehovah's Witness kids, who didn't really celebrate anything, anyway, so it didn't really count that they sat this one out, too.
As a teenager, Halloween was when my church youth group held it's biggest annual fundraiser - a spook house. This wasn't some religious "Hell House" where we showed sinners suffering for eternity and then handed you a bible tract as you left. We were Methodists, and Methodists are more laid back and fun than that. The goal of out spook house was to scare you so bad you peed on yourself, have you go home to change pants, then come back to get the pee scared out of you again, all for $2 a person. We had a guy who came after you with a chain saw (with the chain removed, but who notices that in the dark?). We had rotting zombies and a mad scientist dissecting a live person who begged for help (large bones from a local butcher and real raw meat made this look surprisingly authentic). We guy who ran up to you with a live snake. I was the girl who lay in a coffin who sat up, screamed and tried to bite you. People used to leave our spook house saying, "Wow, I can't believe a church is doing this." The comments perplexed me at the time. I had no idea that some other churches took a grim view of this sort of thing.
In the early 1990's, I worked in an orthodontist's office for about a year. Dr. K. practiced the sort of right-wing Christianity that was only then starting to gain a foothold in America, and his office staff either practiced it too, or played along as if they did. I was working through a temp agency, so I came in as an outsider.
One day that October the office manager, Margie, was talking to the receptionist, Dorothy. Margie lived in one of Houston's historic neighborhoods, and in the previous months a movie had been filmed in her area. One of the scenes for the film was set in a cemetery; large, realistic-looking papier-mâché tombstones had been brought in as props. When the movie closed up, the production company abandoned these tombstones in an empty lot, where many of Margie's neighbors helped themselves to this ghoulish loot.
"You should see what they're doing with them," Margie said, "They drag them into their yards and put fake cobwebs all over them. When I drive down my street it looks like I live in the middle of a grave yard."
To me, this sounded positively neat. "Cool!" I said.
Margie and Dorothy turned toward me and glared.
"Not cool," Dorothy said. Margie shook her head vehemently.
"Not cool?" I asked. I would have loved Halloween decorations of that caliber, and free ones at that. How could this not be cool?
"We don't celebrate Halloween," Dorothy said, icicles hanging off of every word, "We don't believe in it. It's Satanic."
I was stunned. "Oh. Uhm, okay."
I thought about telling them about my church's spook house when I was growing up, but then thought better. These women were looking at me with the kind of disapproval usually reserved for people who kick puppies. I decided to back away slowly and pretend to be busy elsewhere.
Dr. K.'s poor dental technicians all complained bitterly about his attitude. While all of them were Christians, none of them shared the doctor's rigid interpretations of the religion. The previous year, another doctor had sent a Halloween gift basket that was shaped like a jack-o-lantern filled with treats and goodies to share with the staff. Dr. K. threw it in the trash and wouldn't even let them take the treats out. They still hadn't forgiven him for this. "There was chocolate in there," one of them whispered, "and he just threw it away. Perfectly good chocolate." She was a Catholic girl who only just barely even qualified as a Christian in Dr. K.'s eyes. Apparently, she really liked chocolate.
That year, I didn't just hand out candy to children on Halloween night. I dressed up as a witch and handed out candy. I knew it would get under the good doctor's skin if he only knew. For some reason witch costumes were the most egregious to him. His staff calling my favorite holiday "Satanic" was egregious to me. I've always loved Halloween. To my mind, it's a holiday dedicated to whimsy and make believe, and I see nothing evil about it. It's about trusting your neighbors enough to open your door to their children and handing them treats, just because they ask for them. It's about good will and generosity to strangers. The spookiness is all in fun; the screams are recorded ones played on my sound effects CD; the laughter of the kids and their "thank you's" as they walk away from my door are real.
I do believe in evil, but I happen to know that the real evil in the world has nothing to do with pumpkins or black cats. In a world with plenty of food, there are people who die of starvation every day. There are places where most of the children born die before the age of 5 because they don't have access to clean drinking water. In the United States, in my own backyard, people die of treatable diseases because they can't afford the medications that would save their lives. Evil exists, all right, and it's common enough that no one reading this has to look the words rape, torture, or murder up in the dictionary, because we all have heard enough about them to know what they are.
If the Devil really does get excited about Halloween, I think I know why: it gets a certain segment of the population so worked up that they use their resources to combat a holiday about make believe, and turn their backs on the real evils in their midst that are so much harder to fight.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 09:56 pm (UTC)Or, worse, perpetuate those evils on souls they believe are unworthy! Yes, this coming from your Baptist cousin (Suthun, thenk yew... and in recovery).
So, what are you and E dressing as this year? Has he discovered Halloween yet? Are y'all going Trick or Treating, or just handing out candy at home. There is that party on the WMOH list -- interested? I'm gonna go re-check the details.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 10:07 pm (UTC)Not sure I can make that party.
The church that runs his daycare is having a Fall Festival (a.k.a. "Halloween, but we don't want anyone to think bad of us by calling it that") with games and such, I may take him to that. Or I may drag him around in his little red wagon and see what the neighbors have to offer. :D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 10:07 pm (UTC)The best part of Halloween for me? Going to the grocery store November 1 for clearance candy.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 10:10 pm (UTC)I used to work with a dentist when I was in college... he was a pretty right wing born again type Christian... he did celebrate Halloween, but he was a pretty judgemental guy. When I tol him i was an athiest, he basically told everyone in earshot that I was a immoral heathen, and that I was going to hell... He didn;t even know me... I'd never done drugs, or drank, or even had sex at that time... Who the hell is he?
ok.. I was ranting.. but I'm with you!
Jeff
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:16 pm (UTC)Here, have a Kit-Kat bar; it will make you feel better. ;D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 12:21 am (UTC)My neighbors' kids would unmercifully bologna/soap/TP any house that dared to give them Chick tracts in place of candy.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:25 pm (UTC)I don't get the appeal of the fundamentalist movement, either. :P
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 01:12 am (UTC)I love Halloween and yes I'm Pagan. But I've loved it way before I knew what it was really about. Despite it meaning more to me that just the trick-or-treating, that is my favorite part.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:38 pm (UTC)From what I've read, Samhain, which the Catholic church replaced with All Saints Day and All Souls Day, was basically the Celtic New Year celebration. In that light, it's no more evil than The Chinese New Year or the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. In a multi-faith, multi-cultural society, I think most causes for celebration are good ones. Bring on the candy! ^_^
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 02:12 am (UTC)"
These are lines that makes me think, "You need to write a book."
I went through a brief phase when I was 16-17 where I felt anti-Halloween because I heard about all the "evil" connotations with the holiday. But you know, most Americans don't even know those connotations. It's all about candy! And costumes! I don't celebrate Halloween anymore, though I'd love to go to a costume party if I was invited to one.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:41 pm (UTC)It's been awhile since I've been to a costume party, but they are a lot of fun.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 07:32 pm (UTC)