THANK GOODNESS, the overblown, increasingly pagan and macabre celebration of Halloween is over for another year. Here is a recent post from the blog Eponymous Flower about an Italian bishop who condemned Halloween. It would be nice if there were more voices against it. Bishop Massimo Camisasca issued a statement that said:

“Halloween is a mixture of heathenism and commercialism that is rejected in both components equally.”

— Comments —

Bruce B. writes:

I agree with your characterization of the contemporary, paganized celebration but Halloween can provide useful lessons to our children. Have you seen Scott Richert’s articles on Halloween?

 Laura writes:

I strongly disagree with Richert. As Marian T. Horvat writes:

Exploiting the skeletons, ghosts, vampires and demons, even in the ludicrous form of costumes and masks, the modern Halloween does more than obliterate the memory of death – it is a kind of invitation for our children to be accustomed to the worst side of Paganism, which is its familiarity with horror and the devil.

 Halloween becomes more excessive and ghoulish each year, and some of it’s truly frightening for young children.

Lisa writes:

I read your bit on Halloween this morning, and while I strongly object to the ghoulishness and garishness that are so much a part of contemporary taste, I thought the history of Halloween you referenced on the Tradition in Action site, quite shallow.  There’s more to this holiday and it doesn’t all point to Samhain and Paganism, as Horvat suggests.  The early Church met in catacombs. The great Cathedrals all wanted their relics.  And, martyrdom, preceded by great mortification of the flesh, is a bedrock theme in Christianity.  Also, I would direct you to such motifs in painting, print, sculpture, music, as this. 

I am an American and proud of my country’s contributions to the arts, which consist most notably of Old Hollywood, with its great stars such as Katharine Hepburn, and Jazz.  As for the latter, and for Hallowe’en, that is All Hallows Eve, wherein the celebration of great feasts began traditionally with the vigil of the night before, I would direct you to Louis Armstrong’s “When the Saints Go Marching In.”  It’s not so much that the more macabre aspects of paganism, or anything else, have taken over as there is not enough good to balance them and to refocus people’s attention. I also think things become more extreme all the time, precisely because people are so insulated from reality, and on some level suspect as much.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, (1966) set the standard of Christian American Era good taste.  My husband and I watched the newly remastered version last year. Those earliest Peanut specials were balanced and intelligent; and exhibited the excellent good taste that used to characterize American culture and that is the polar opposite of what we have now.  To me, they have a New York sensibility, and come to us from the time when East Coast storytelling was dominant in movies and television.

Everything from the use of actual children’s voices to the party scene décor to the vibrant watercolor mattes to Vince Guaraldi’s jazz. Charlie Brown repeatedly gets a rock while trick-or-treating, and a beagle does a silent film star turn as a WWI flying ace.  Great Pumpkin is innocent and sophisticated at the same time, assuming as it does children and adults both would be watching.  In this it respects childhood and adulthood, made as it was in a time when we used to have both.

Laura writes:

I suggest you read Dr. Horvat’s piece again. She didn’t condemn Halloween altogether or reject the recognition of the dead and demonic in its festivities. She said the holiday has reverted to its pagan roots. She wrote:

The eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls were celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.

I hardly think of Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin as an example of what she is talking about and it’s not the kind of thing I was condemning. I was thinking more along the lines of houses decorated with four-foot skeletons and plastic tombstones with no larger meaning to it all. You write:

It’s not so much that the more macabre aspects of paganism, or anything else, have taken over as there is not enough good to balance them and to refocus people’s attention.

If there is not enough good to balance the macabre aspects, then the macabre aspects have taken over.

Lisa writes:

What Dr. Horvat should be doing is burning the midnight oil writing about the history and beauty of Hallowmas, to begin that rebalancing. Charlie Brown and Louis Armstrong, and Katharine Hepburn, do just that, emphasize the good, and that is why I made reference to them.

Jane S. writes:

Excellent post from Lisa. Makes me want to run right out and watch Charlie Brown.

Jane adds:

Somehow reading Horvat’s piece made me want to go straight out and carve a pumpkin, even though I didn’t feel like doing it for Halloween.

 Laura writes:

Pumpkin-carving is a beautiful tradition.

Marian Horvat takes very seriously the demonic aspects of Halloween today and I credit her for that.

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