premier.org.uk
Christians in the UK are having ‘light parties’ to fight back against that oh so devilish Halloween business, but they don’t want the sproggen to miss out, so:
Damian Stayne started Night of Light around 15 years ago.
He told Premier 31st October should really be about the eve All Saints’ Day.
He said: “All Saints Feast is the celebration of the success of the work of the cross.
“The devil seems to have hidden that message by disguising Halloween into something about darkness and death and witches.
[…]
Stayne said: “The kids who come to our Night of Light parties have got to have a better time than all their friends who are doing trick or treating.
“We invite them to come and dress up as Saints their heroes of faith, and we do some kind of teaching, a little tiny short thing, that gives them an aspiration for living in God.”
To set itself apart from traditional Halloween celebrations, the event is decorated with pumpkins that have happy faces carved into them.
Night of Light also encourages people to place a light in their window along with a picture of Jesus as a sign to passers-by that it’s a Christian household and Christ is “their light”.
Dressing up as saints and martyrs, oooh fun. Well, I guess one could get creative with the martyrs, but the adults probably wouldn’t approve. That ^ photo. Oh, it’s awful, and I’m itching to at least adjust the levels in pshop, but I’ll resist the temptation. It’s interesting to me that they complain about Halloween, but adopt most of the customs, and are celebrating with a depiction of an execution, because hey, that gore is good, and no doubt stress all the grisly deaths of various martyrs. I feel so sorry for those sprogs. I guess it’s a good thing they specify placing a picture of Jesus by the candle, because candles are a rather big feature of Samhain/Halloween.
If I start seeing pumpkins carved with happy/smiley faces, I’m going to become a pumpkin smasher, with extreme prejudice.
Via Premier and The Guardian has this one, too.
At least one of those kids should be dressed as Cardinal Torquemada, and run around torturing the others. As always the Spanish Inquisitions’ 2 main weapons are
FearFun, Surprise, and Ruthless Efficiency!As I recall, most saints were martyrs.
Those costumes are severely lacking in blood and gore.
Saint Lucy would make another good costume. All you need is a bored look and a pair of eyeballs on a plate.
Or St Agatha. Or St Sebastian. Or…
Hey, it’s like christianity only really starts to rock when you’re a sadist.
Also, I think it’d be super fun to attend wearing a lion costume, then chase the other kids around, roaring loudly.
Don’t forget Appolonia! She had all her teeth pulled out as torture before the grisly death. A lion? Hmmm…what about a kid dressing up as Samson’s lion? The one he killed, then claimed was full of honey, as he scooped out entrails and maggots? And the bear! The horrible she-bear that descended on all the young men who taunted Elisha, that should be a costume.
Marcus, #1,
Actually Tomas de Torquemada was never a Cardinal. His uncle, Juan de Torquemada, was, but the famous Torquemada was only the Prior of a Dominican house aside from his office of Grand Inquisitor.
There was a Medieval legend that St. Christopher was one of the Cynocephali -- the dog-headed men who lived on the fringes of the civilized world. You could re-purpose a werewolf mask for that, or stick your dog on your shoulders and cover up with a robe.
Or a really easy one would be St. Wilgefortis, a female saint with a huge beard whose special province was unburdening women of abusive husbands.
Or you could just be the young St. Augustine, during his riotous drinking, womanising, partying days.
Hey. My pumpkins always have smiling faces, and I don’t want these fools appropriating that. Sometimes they’re evil smiles, always toothy, occasionally just plain grimacing, but even a leering grin is still a grin, so I see nothing wrong with a smiling pumpkin for Halloween. In fact, I have the most wonderful idea.
rq:
Those kind of smiles are fine.
cartomancer@#6:
Or a really easy one would be St. Wilgefortis, a female saint with a huge beard whose special province was unburdening women of abusive husbands.
I know someone who will wear that costume next year. I am sure of it. (forwarding email now)
A neighbor on the next block always has vomiting pumpkins. Might be a good response to the happy sappy ones.
Hahaha. Ah, that’s proper disgusting.
@Caine
You were sayin’?
__________
I agree with the title. This sounds boring. Deadly boring with extreme prejudice. Or am I mixing up phrases again? Nevermind.
An event like this would probably turn me into an atheist as a child out of pure boredom. That is if I ever weren’t one.
Mind you, I find all religous customs and their derivates highly odd, including the ‘Merican Halloween. Trick or treat? What do you mean? Bugeroff you little scamp and geroff mylawn and do not try anything funny or else!!!
Our Halloween party has ended already. I took pictures. The kids looked a lot different than those in the pic here.
Giliell:
I would hope so!
I haven’t seen that many happy smiling kids since Sandy Hook.