Halloween Part 2

Here’s the basic flow of Halloween’s orgins:

2000 years ago -> harvest festival -> Line between living and dead is blurred and spirits roam the earth -> spirits inhabit mediums, fate is divined, dancing, sacrifice -> Church starts All Saints Day to offset these pagan rituals and honor martyrs and saints -> rituals continue anyway side by side -> Hallowsmas and Halloween (night before All Saints) -> Christians continue to displace the pagan and spiritual side with community events -> children began going around begging food and money and eventually became “trick or treating” -> churches start trunk or treats (do inner city churches use this term? or would it be a good idea to advertise that people are downtown getting candy from trunks of cars? -> Fall festivals ->

I met a dozen neighbors along the way as we trick or treated. Halloween is the best day of the year to meet neighbors you don’t yet know and begin getting acquainted. People are anxious to see childen in their costumes and many are excited to have people come to their door. Enjoyed watching our children trick or treat and have a great time.

Our friend, James Okumu, has been visiting from Uganda this weekend. I knew we’d have some explaining to do about Halloween. He went with us trick or treating . . . I’ll tell you later about some of his observations.