When I was a very little boy, my mother used to make me a ghost costume out of an old sheet and I would go collect candy for a few blocks or so. That was enough to get a bellyache and a few cavities.
This year, according to a story someone sent me, the most popular costume in New York City is Kate Moss, the supermodel who recently got in trouble for cocaine. The costume includes a transparent plastic bag of talcum powder.
Running a close second was Katie Holmes, actor Tom Cruise’s latest, complete with L. Ron Hubbard’s scientology manifesto and a pillow to pad out one’s chest. And another popular choice is said to be Harriet Miers, the now-discarded nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Her outfit consists mainly of “offensive raccoon-style eyeliner.”
That‘s hard to believe, and what‘s harder to believe is that a single ten-year-old anywhere would think of dressing up as Harriet Miers. I‘m not sure that many ten-year-olds have ever even heard of Harriet Miers.
But I can tell you that last year I had several children, white and black, come to my door dressed as pimps and prostitutes. “I‘m a ho,” one child who was seven years old told me when I asked.
That is wrong, wrong, wrong. And not just for the usual reasons. Halloween is a time to get in touch with our civilization’s cultural icons. Ghosts and Goblins, Frankenstein and Dracula.
And, of course, Richard Nixon. I bought a very realistic Nixon mask the year he fell from power and wore it to take kids in the family trick or treating. “That looks very real. Someone’s going to shoot you,” I was soberly warned once in the late 1970s. Once someone actually tossed me a reel of tape. Until last year, I would still wear my mask when handing out candy at my door. But over the last decade, it has gotten less and less reaction.
Even the parents don’t recognize Old Tricky any more. Last year, however, one late teenager did react with admiration.
“Cool. Is that a porn star?“ he said.
I stared blankly through latex. He pointed at the nose.
Ahhh… no, I told him.
I wonder if Mama still has that sheet somewhere.
HALLOW E'EN is All Hallows Eve, the vigil of the celebration of All Saints Day, November 1, in the the Christian Liturgical Calendar. Although there are pre-Christian elements in the festival of fertility vegetation god(s)who die in autumn and rise in the spring, Halloween in the church calendar is All Souls Day. It commemorates those souls in purgatory hoping for admission to heaven as saints.
HELP THE POOR = "Help the poor souls." They are seen as wandering about begging for our prayers on their behalf beseeching God to shorten the souls' time in purgatory. "Treats" are physical symbols of prayers or good works that might be offered up in behalf of the Poor Souls. Traditionally, extra masses, penances, or good works might be concentrated on All Souls Day to assure their deliverance in time for All Hallows Day, which is All Saints Day (still a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing that includes Ann Arbor). The Mexican Day of the Dead is a cogante variant of inculturated Catholicism
"HELP THE POOR" is a cry for good works to benefit the unfortunate. Hence, the UNICEF money collection fit right in with the spirit of the Christian festival.
DEVILS, witches, goblins and the like are seen as wandering about hoping for a last chance to snatch sinners before they are ready for heaven.
Armchair theologians might keep in mind that the Catholic universe is essentially communal. Prayers--and other good works--by one person might be applied to benefit another (indulgences, for example). The Protestant view, prevalent in the American imagination, is more individualistic.
Posted by: Conrad L. Donakowski | October 31, 2005 at 03:00 PM