THE MOSAIC
SPOTLIGHT:
Distinguished Diocesan Benefactors
A Monthly Newsletter of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church
When Archbishop Michael became bishop of our diocese 7 years ago he instituted a fundraising initiative called The Distinguished Diocesan Benefactors (DDB). Raising funds from faithful of the diocese and some individuals outside of it, this fund has covered all budget shortfalls enabling the diocese to fund many of its departmental ministries such as Youth, Liturgical Music, Jacob’s Well (the diocesan magazine), and Missions and Evangelism. It is also the instrument by which the diocese supports its mission parishes, financially supports its seminarians, and disburses funds to help revitalize aging parishes that are in decline. Last year the fund broke a record and raised over $180,000. However, currently this fund is behind in its projected donations and is at the lowest level at this point year-to-date, that it has ever been in the its 7 years of existence. Archbishop Michael and the diocesan leadership is asking the faithful of our diocese to give to this important fund. Checks can be mailed to the Chancery offices at 33 Hewitt Ave., Bronxville, NY 10708.
November & December 2017
In response to a number of requests, the Diocese of NY & NJ has established a securities account to facilitate the contribution of financial stocks and other financial investments. To make a gift of stocks, please inform the Diocesan Treasurer of the company stock/mutual fund you intend to transfer and the approximate value of your gift as well as your stock broker’s name and telephone number, and purpose in the Diocese your gift should go toward. Diocesan Treasurer: Mary Breton, MatMaryB@gmail.com (732) 295-1000.
Tamburitzans Concert a Success!
Buy Grocery Cards and Support Your Church 5% of all Grocery Card Sales goes to Holy Apostles and you get 100% of what you purchase to go towards groceries at either Stop & Shop or Shop Rite. Stop by the candle desk on your way out of church or contact Sandra Stefanik to order by mail: sands105@gmail.com 1
On Saturday September 23rd the Tamburitzans performed a concert full of folk songs and dances from cultures across Europe to an audience of around 600. The concert was held at the Clifton High School auditorium and the feedback from those in attendance was overwhelmingly positive. Moreover, the parish raised a little over $5,000 from the event. It looks like Holy Apostles will be bringing the Tamburitzans back next year. Over a dozen parishioners volunteer a significant amount of their time during the event and prior to make the concert the success that it was. The parish council would like to extend its gratitude to all those who volunteered. It would not have been possible without their help and that of the committee chairs: Rebecca Fiorini, Larry Grasso, and Daria Miskiv. The concert proved to be an excellent fundraiser and wonderful exposure for the parish as a contributing member of the community. Look to next fall for another Tamburitzan concert hosted by Holy Apostles.
PRACTICING THE FAITH:
This Issue
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES & SACRAMENTS
Parish News & Events Calendar History of Christmas Fasting & Photos History of Halloween World News Sophia & Practicing the Faith Spotlight on DDB
Almsgiving The giving of alms has long been a central part of Christmas deriving chiefly from the traditions surrounding saint Nicholas and the wise men who presented their gifts to the Christ-child. The fasting season is also a primary reason the giving of alms are emphasized during the Christmas season. In ancient Christian practice the giving of alms was always linked with fasting. Traditionally the money one saved from fasting was to be given to the hungry. It might come as a surprise but Jesus speaks about money, how it is misused, and how it ought to be handled, more than any other topic in the gospels. Of all the moral concerns that Jesus addresses the misuse of material resources to oppress the less powerful is his chief concern. This is what would be The Lord said: Verily I say unto you, Inascalled issues of justice in our society and justice is nothing more than the public and communal expres- much as ye have done it unto one of the least sion of our love. Jesus was also concerned about the of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me damning effect the misuse of material resources has - Matthew 25:40 on the oppressors too. They are as much the victim as the poor. Therefore we give alms for two reasons, to help others and to help ourselves. We need to rid ourselves of our attachment to money as much as the poor need it for their basic needs. Our possessions and how we use them are central to the spiritual life. However, it is not uncommon to think that our faith and finances are two separate worlds and have little to do with each other. But the opposite is true. Our life cannot be so easily separated and isolated into sections. The mentally and spiritually healthy individual looks at his life as an organic whole not a compartmentalized one. The state of our checkbook reflects the state of our hearts. We give because we love, and we love because God first loved us. This Christmas season make the giving of alms a central part of your spiritual life or rather of your whole life and imitate our Lord Jesus Christ who gave everything to us, even when we didn’t deserve it.
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PARISH NEWS
Sophia Practical Wisdom for Everyday Life
In September the parish held a pet blessing for the 4th year near the ecclesiastical new year (September 1st). The parish also held its annual parish picnic at the very end of August. This year the Ward’s hosted the event at their home. There was grilling, great food, good conversations, and some lawn games. The day finished out with an outdoor vespers. Holy Apostles joined Saint John’s in Passaic for the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos and celebrated the feast of the Cross in its own temple. The cross was beautifully decorated by Peter Eagler and attendance was very good for the feast. The Tamburitzan concert was held towards the end of September and it was a great success. Father Matthew taught one of the PanOrthodox Bible Studies that is being held at St. Anthony’s in Bergenfield this fall on the topic of “What do we believe about Jesus”. In October a series of “Coffee Hour Talks” was organized. It featured speakers like our own deacon John, and several seminarians from Saint Vladimir’s including one from Nigeria who spoke on the Orthodox mission in that country. The faithful also listened to a presentation by attorney Michael Manna who spoke on end of life legal and financial issues. The talks were all very well received. Throughout the fall Father Matthew has been delivering a homily series on “spiritual disciplines” and a new family, the Feldman’s has joined the parish.
HE HAD COMPASSION
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. - Luke 10:33 Compassion is action. It is not a mere feeling. In the Gospels whenever Jesus is said to have ‘had compassion’ he immediately acts. He does something to help the person who is suffering. Take the widowed women in the funeral procession of her only son. “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’” (Luke 7:13). He then raised her son from the dead. Or consider the parable of the Prodigal Son. The Father upon seeing his son afar off ‘had compassion’ on him and proceeded to forgive him, accept him, and throw him a feast (Luke 15:20). The entire ministry of Jesus is certainly one of showing compassion on the broken, the suffering, and the hopeless. And he urges us to do the same. “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’” (Matthew 18:33).
deeds of compassion freely flow from us? St Augustine shows us: "What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like." We are not ‘moved to compassion’ because we do not see the one in need. Not that we do not physically see them, or notice their plight, but we do not see into them. Our heart does not resonate with them. It does not resonate because we have not brought the virtue of compassion to a maturity within us. But when we have fed this virtue and nurtured it we will see the world differently and we will truly see our suffering brother. Because love is unity and if we become love as God is love we will see and be connected with all the world, the world whom ‘God so loved’ (John 3:16).
Pity on the other hand is just a feeling. We feel sorry but we do not act. It is stunted compassion; cut off before it could grow into love in action. Our pity can be a nuisance. We feel bad and want to rid ourselves of that bad feeling. And if performing an act of charity removes the discomfort of pity then we act. Pity can also take on a condescending and judgmental character. We feel bad for our neighbor but we look down on them, and blame them for their lot. What we think is compassion is actually pity or worse when we perform deeds of charity and kindness only out of a bitter sense of duty, or to earn a good reputation. There are many ways our Christian compassion can be corrupted.
Albert Einstein saw this cosmic and divine connectedness when he wrote: "A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." This universal compassion has been most clearly seen in the ministry of Jesus Christ who came to ‘have compassion’ and to teach us to do the same. For ‘having St. John Chrysostom preaches on this very danger and the prop- compassion’ as Christ did is freedom as Albert Einstien so eloquently said. It is freedom from selfishness. It is what it truly er attitude of compassion: "Helping a person in need is good in itmeans to be alive. It is the secret to happiness. It is not a nice self. But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with and noble extra to our life; it is essential. Because "Love and which it is done. If you show resentment because you are helping the compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity canperson out of a reluctant sense of duty, then the person may receive your not survive" (Dalai Lama XIV). help but may feel awkward and embarrassed. This is because he will feel indebted to you. If on the other hand, you help the person in a spirit Let us have compassion and find what it means to be fully alive. of joy, then the help will be received joyfully. The person will feel neiBecause "You have not lived today until you have done something for ther demeaned nor humiliated by your help, but rather will feel glad to someone who can never repay you” (John Bunyan). True compashave caused you pleasure by receiving your help. And joy is the appro- sion seeks nothing in return and it is in that total selflessness, in priate attitude with which to help others because acts of generosity are our abandonment of our self that we find ourselves in the one we a source of blessing to the giver as well as the receiver." are helping. We can enlarge our hearts to embrace and contain the whole world. So that we can identify ourselves with every Mother Theresa, like St. John, also teaches us what true comhuman person and with all living things and then we will be passion looks like. "Love is not patronizing and charity isn't about able to “pray for the world as for our own selves” (Elder Sophrony pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same -- with charity you of Essex). And then when we see another suffering we see ourgive love, so don't just give money but reach out your hand inselves, and we see God. This vision is the root of compassion stead." Compassion is not just about solving the problem of the and its end. other but connecting with them. And this is truly love; oneness with the other. This then is what we know by practicing the virtue of compassion, and we know as a lover knows his beloved: ‘He had comHow then do we cultivate this virtue and make compassion part passion’ because he had enlarged his heart to embrace the whole of who we are as a person? How do we so become love that world.
UPCOMING EVENTS ❖ Diocesan Assembly: Saints Peter
❖ Parish Council Meeting: Saturday Nov. 11th at 4 PM, followed by Vespers. and Paul in Endicott , NY on Novem❖ Nativity Fast Begins on November ber 1-2. ❖ Girl’s Retreat: Saint Basil’s Acade- 15th. ❖ Christmas Eve Vigil: Sunday my in Garrison, NY on Nov. 10-12. Dec. 24th at 6 PM. ❖ Feast of the Entrance of Our Lady at Christ the Saviour in Paramus: ❖ Christmas Day Liturgy: Monday Vespers Monday Nov. 20th at 7 PM and Dec. 25th at 9 AM Liturgy Tuesday Nov. 21st at 9 AM ❖ 2nd Day of Christmas: Liturgy at 9 ❖ Pan-Orthodox Bible Study: AM at St. John’s in Passaic Mon. at 7 PM at Saint Anthony’s in Ber- ❖ St. Nicholas Day: Vespers & Visgenfield (385 Ivy Lane, Bergenfield, NJ) itation of St. Nicholas at 6 PM on Dec. ❖ Bake Sale: Sunday Dec. 10th 115th. Liturgy at 10 AM on Dec. 6th. 1PM 3
Orthodox World News
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Edited by Sub-Deacon Peter Eagler
125 Years of Orthodox Christianity in Chicago Seven Orthodox Christian hierarchs and dozens of clergy, led by altar servers and Church school children, processed into Lane Tech Auditorium here on Saturday, September 30, 2017, to celebrate a Pan-Orthodox Hierarchical Divine Liturgy commemorating 125 years of Orthodox Christian presence in Metropolitan Chicago. “Sponsored by Greater Chicago’s Orthodox Christian Clergy Association [OCCA], which represents nearly 80 parishes across the metropolitan region, the anniversary honored the pioneers of Orthodoxy in Chicago and remembered in prayer the founders who built our communities with great faith and personal sacrifice,” said Gordana Trbuhovich, who coordinated the celebration with Archpriest Nicholas Dahdal, Rector of Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Cicero, IL.
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Concelebrating with His Grace, Bishop Ilia of Philomelion of the Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America, Ecumenical Patriarchate, were His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas; His Eminence, Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia; His Eminence, Archbishop Daniel of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA; His Grace, Bishop Longin of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of New Gracanica and Midwestern America; His Grace, Bishop Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America; and His Grace, Bishop Paul of Chicago and the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America. Over 60 priests, deacons and servers from 10 jurisdictions across Greater Chicago and neighboring states also served. Choral responses, under direction of Ms. Trbuhovich, were gloriously sung by the well known Pan-Orthodox Choir of Greater Chicago, whose singers represent 23 parishes and eight jurisdictions.
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“Bishop Irinej delivered a most inspirational homily, titled ‘Saints and Sanctity: Orthodoxy in Chicago,’” explained Ms. Trbuhovich. “The congregation listened attentively as His Grace intertwined the beginnings of Orthodox Christianity in Greater Chicago with five of today’s saints whose impressions on our growth were marked by their footsteps in this city. The homily concluded with the most recent impression in this city—also marked with a memorial Trisagion at the conclusion of the Liturgy—His Eminence, the recently departed Metropolitan Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago. A tribute to him for being the ‘face of Orthodoxy’ for 38 years was also prominently dedicated in the 125th Commemorative Book.”
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The Liturgy was followed by a banquet at Chicago’s Marriot O’Hare Hotel, at which Bishop Ilia delivered an encouraging directive for unity and harmony rather than independent divisions among Orthodox Christians living in the same city. The altar iconography was graciously loaned by Chicago’s Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Parish, while the youth procession was organized by Presbytera Georgia Alikakos, Director of Education of Chicago’s Greek Orthodox Metropolis.
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The historic Liturgy concluded with the exclamation, “Grant O Lord, a prosperous and peaceful life, health, safety and furtherance in all good things to all Chicagoland Orthodox Christians who are celebrating 125 years of their faith in this great city; and in appreciation, O Lord, of our ancestors who, since the year 1892, founded and established nearly 80 Orthodox churches throughout Greater Chicago, and to all who worship in them, O Lord, bless and preserve them for many years!”
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History reveals that the Orthodox Christian presence in Chicago began in the late 1800s with the establishment of the “Greco Slavonic Brotherhood,” which included immigrants primarily from Sparta and Corfu, Greece; Montenegro and Hercegovina, in Serbia; and Carpatho-Russians and Galicians from what was then the AustroHungarian Empire. After petitioning the ecclesiastical centers in their respective homelands, priests were sent in 1892 to serve the faithful under the existing Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska. This marked the establishment of Saint Vladimir Church [today’s Holy Trinity OCA Cathedral], Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. Today, there are nearly 80 parishes in the greater Chicagoland area.
A Brief History of Christmas & Its Traditions
D ECEMBER 2017
The Christian ecclesiastical calendar contains many remnants of pre-Christian festivals. Christmas includes elements of the Roman feast of the Saturnalia and Solis Invicti. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn, held on December17th and later expanded with festivities through to December 23rd. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving (including gag gifts), continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves. In a practice that might be compared to modern greeting cards, verses sometimes accompanied the gifts. Many modern Christmas customs have been directly influenced by such festivals, including gift-giving and merrymaking from the Roman Saturnalia, greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year, and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic and Slavic feasts.
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Many of the customs and traditions of Christmas have both pagan origins and Christian symbolism. Decorating with greenery, especially the heart-shaped leaves of ivy were said to symbolize the coming to earth of Jesus, while holly with its thorns and red berries was held to represent the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus at the crucifixion and the blood he shed. The Christmas tree is considered by some as Christianization of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and pagan tree worship. Saint Boniface (634–709), who was a missionary in Germany, took an axe to an oak tree dedicated to Thor and pointed out a fir tree, which he stated was a more fitting object of reverence because it pointed to heaven and it had a triangular shape, which he said was symbolic of the Trinity. Since the 19th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas. The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. The Yule Log is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth around the period of Christmas. Similar folk practices are recorded in various areas of Europe, such has the Badnjak in Serbia. The festive kindling of the badnjak commemorates the fire that the shepherds of Bethlehem built in the cave where Jesus Christ was born, to warm the Baby Jesus and his mother throughout the night. In its pagan origins its was a celebration which fused both tree worship and fire worship.
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One theory to explain the choice of 25 December for the celebration of the birth of Jesus is that the purpose was to Christianize the pagan festival in Rome of the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means "the birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” According to this theory, during the reign of the emperor Constantine, Christian writers assimilated this feast as the birthday of Jesus, associating him with the 'sun of righteousness' mentioned in Malachi 4:2 (Sol Iustitiae). Another view on the origins of the date for Christmas based on an old tradition, states that the date of Christmas was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox, on which the Annunciation was celebrated. There is early evidence from the 4th century of the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus. This first occurred in Rome, while in Eastern Christianity the birth of Jesus was already celebrated in connection with Theophany (Epiphany) on January 6. The December 25 celebration was imported into the East later: in Constantinople by Gregory the Theologian in 379, in Antioch by John Chrysostom probably in 388, and in Alexandria only in the following century. The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday's inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages, to a tamer, family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation. Additionally, the celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain Protestant groups, such as the Puritans, due to concerns that it was too pagan or unbiblical. Merely because Christmas has practices that are non-Christian in origin does not mean Christmas is a ‘pagan’ holiday. Christians have always sought out what is good and lovely and true wherever it might reside and worked to incorporate it into the faith. The Church baptized the pagan customs it did not eradicate them. And we are all richer because of it.
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HALLOWEEN: AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE
What about the connection with satanism? This first entered the popular American imagination in the 1960's through urban mythology created by conservative fundamentalist Christians. These fundamentalist Protestants, already opposed to the Roman Catholic feast of All Saints, sought to demonize the holiday by basing their research on 19th century Celtic scholars. Through them Samhain became a pagan god, an alternative name for Satan, and that practices like trick or treating were originally established out of fear to appease dead spirits, which were really demons. They would hysterically say: "Those who oppose Christ are known to organize on Halloween to observe satanic rituals, to cast spells, to oppose churches and families, to perform sacrilegious acts, and to even offer blood sacrifices to Satan." It didn't help at the time that through Hollywood, 19th century monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein from Gothic literature were gaining in popularity and they became established costumes for children.
By John Sanidopoulos One of America's most beloved and fastest growing holidays is Halloween, and it is also the most demonized. Many of all ages, both young and old, celebrate it with innocence and a smile, yet some also condemn it with fury as an evil and violent day. The majority see Halloween as a fun children's holiday on which they dress up in costumes and go door to door to get candy, while others view it as a remnant of paganism and a subtle celebration of satanism. Amid this confusion and dichotomy, I will attempt to set the record straight in a short yet concise manner based on the most up-to-date studies, and examine whether or not the Church is called to demonize or sanctify Halloween based on the truth.
In the late 1960's Anton LaVey, the founder of existential Satanism and the Church of Satan in San Francisco, took advantage of this urban myth among fundamentalist Christians, whom he most wanted to provoke, and established Halloween as one of the three major holidays of the Church of Satan (along with the Satanist's own birthday, since LaVeyan Satanism is atheistic and about worship of one's self, and Walpurgisnacht on April 30, which was also promoted among fundamentalists as a "witch holiday"). This marketing maneuver by Anton LaVey was taken seriously by fundamentalists, who already feared the holiday, and fundamentalists began to take advantage of this new connection by eventually creating what has been called the "Satanic Panic" of the 1970's and 1980's. Urban myths about Halloween grew during this time to scare people away from celebrating Halloween, such as making up stories of crazed adults who sought to harm innocent trick or treaters by planting poison or razor blades in children's candy, and how pumpkins were carved to depict the facial expressions of the damned in hell. This fundamentalist literature, most popularly identified with people like Jack Chick, soon became the established opinion of just about every Christian Church in America, even among Roman Catholics who still celebrate Hallowmas between October 31 and November 2.
After many years of research, observation and participation in this holiday, if I were to give the simplest and most accurate one-sentence summary for the history of Halloween, it would be this: Halloween originated as a medieval Christian celebration that was part of the Triduum of All Hallows, or Hallowmas (All Hallows Eve, All Hallows Day and All Souls Day lasting from October 31 - November 2), and in the 19th and 20th centuries it acquired Western European and North American cultural traditions that established it as an annual celebration of these societies. Hence, from this summary we learn of Halloween's Christian origins and its evolution as an annual cultural celebration. What we don't learn from this summary is the negative perspective of the holiday, which demonizes it and condemns it as pagan and satanic. The reason for this is that from a Christian perspective, there is no reason to demonize it nor condemn it as a pagan or satanic holiday.
Since the days of the so-called Satanic Panic, Christians have generally viewed Halloween as pagan and satanic. What this has done is basically handed over the holiday to take on more of a pagan and satanic character, which it did not generally have prior to this time. This is an unfortunate lesson in what happens when the Church demonizes rather than sanctifies. Christians opened the door to the devil, and the devil has taken every advantage.
Here's why. If we were to trace the origins of Halloween to one specific event in history, it would be when Pope Gregory III (731-741) dedicated an oratory in the original Saint Peter's Basilica of Rome in honor of all the Saints on November 1st, which initiated a local Roman custom to celebrate the feast of All Saints on November 1st. Before this time the feast of All Saints, also known as All Hallows, was celebrated throughout the Christian world since the fourth century to mainly commemorate all the Martyrs either in April or May, including Ireland. The Franks then the English were the first to follow Rome in celebrating the feast of All Saints on November 1st, and this became official under Pope Gregory VII in the early ninth century. The word "Halloween" merely refers to October 31st being the day of All Hallows Eve, and later November 2nd also became part of the Triduum with the commemoration of All Souls Day on which prayers and philanthropic acts were done on behalf of the dead, which was also part of established Christian tradition since the early centuries.
Christians can continue to associate Halloween with paganism and satanism if one's perspective of the holiday is to demonize it in such a way, or if they choose to limit their observations to certain disagreeable elements that certain people may take advantage of on Halloween, but essentially Halloween is not pagan or satanic unless one chooses to make it so. Unfortunately this myth continues to be perpetuated by many leaders of the Church, choosing against the narrow way of researching the truth and transforming our cultural heritage for the easier path of egotistical condemnation which only extends the kingdom of the devil. As mentioned earlier, many have tried to similarly paganize Christmas and Easter as well, creating a mythology that their origins are pagan and thus anti-christian. At the forefront of such movements are Neo-pagans and Protestant fundamentalists. They not only base this on the supposed origins of the holiday, but make observations of their modern secular celebration as being essentially pagan in nature, which is also largely a false myth. This iconoclastic attitude of fundamentalists creates mythology to provide a basis for the demonization of something that need not be demonized, and they base this on an inapplicable condemnation from Holy Scripture, and some even dare cite the Holy Fathers. In the past this used to be called a "hysteria", popularly associated with the Inquisition and witch hunts. Some people are not satisfied with the saying of the Apostle Paul, that our enemies are not flesh and blood, but invisible enemies. Moralistic Christians segregate themselves from people or things they choose to associate with evil, instead of embracing all people and transforming rather than condemning. Hysteria dictates that it is easier to demonize something we can see and to fight against that, rather than to fight against our internal temptations and passions and transform ourselves.
This may come as a shock to some who believe the myth that Halloween has its origins or is associated with paganism or satanism. The truth is that Halloween never was and never has been associated with paganism or satanism, though some pagans and satanists may embrace it as part of the melting pot we call America. Instead what we find is that the Church established Hallowmas as original holy days, not to sanctify an old pagan celebration among the Celts as has been popularly and falsely believed, but to celebrate an already well-established feast dedicated to all the Saints. Up until the 19th century, Halloween in Western Europe and America was a firmly Roman Catholic feast day that acquired and developed various cultural traditions, as all major holidays did at the time and still do. The mythology that Halloween had pagan origins prior to Christian times arose for the first time in the 19th century among Celtic scholars, who had their own personal agendas in falsifying history. They came up with the idea that October 31November 2 were days when pagan Celtic peoples celebrated a feast of the dead known as Samhain, even though there is no historical record of such a feast among the ancient Celts. How did they come up with this? It was believed at the time that Christian feast days, such as Christmas and Easter, had pagan origins, and that the Church merely Christianized established pagan celebrations to win over converts. The way the Celtic scholars explained the origins for the feast of All Saints, which was popular among the Irish of the 19th century, was by tracing it back to the ancient Celts, without historical precedence. Though these false ideas are still popularly believed today, any honest historian can easily spot the agenda in these falsifications of history, and they have been firmly discredited.
While religious holidays in America tend to be personal or family holidays that are embraced at best by a small specific community, Halloween is one of few days open to the entire community, and its secular cultural purpose is meant to show good will among neighbors. The reason for this is because in the early 20th century, Halloween was still very much a Christian holiday, but it also became a day in which the melting pot of cultural traditions gathered to form a national family secular holiday. In the European Late Middle Ages it was a custom at Christmas and on All Souls Day for poor children to go door to door and beg for money and food. In 1605 Guy Fawkes' abortive effort to blow up the British Parliament on November 5th led to the creation of Guy Fawkes Day, which became associated with mischief and violence. In mid-19th century New 6
York poor children called "ragamuffins" combined these two traditions and began dressing up in costumes and begging for pennies on Thanksgiving Day. A tradition of vandalism among youthful boys began to spread throughout the country at this time, and with urbanization and poverty on the rise in the early 20th century, communities came to realize they needed to contain the violence and vandalism. It was decided at this time, beginning in the 1920's and throughout the 1930's, to make Halloween a secular family celebration of good will.
‌.Gothic fiction arose in the 18th and 19th century based on the stories surrounding medieval architecture and art, as well as old superstitions and tales. Horror stories from that time on have always had an atmospheric element that appeals to one's artistic sensibilities combined with imaginative fears. For people who enjoy horror stories and movies, this artistic and atmospheric element is realized tangibly at Halloween time not only through costumes, but in popular culture and especially the ever-popular haunted houses. .These things are not created merely to scare people, but are more like museums of the macabre imagination based on old tales and fears. If these things are only created to scare without the artistic element, then they usually fail their purpose. Modern Halloween is basically defined by these two natural and fictional elements
In the 1920's and 1930's, as Halloween became a secular celebration, it had little difference with Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. People would gather in the town square and take part in a parade and play various games. Halloween also had some Victorian elements that were popular at the time, such as divination and spiritualism, which almost everyone throughout America, Europe and Russia experimented with at the time throughout the year, even respected Orthodox Christians like Dostoevsky. Slowly also the traditional British ghost story of Christmas Eve told before a fire, the most popular of which was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, slowly transferred to Halloween. The plan seemed to work to change the autumn season from a time of vandalism and violence among youth, to a time of family, fun and games. In the late 1930's traditions such as trick or treating were established to ensure children would behave by being rewarded by neighbors with treats by dressing up in costumes and showing good behavior, rather than being mischievous tricksters who brought harm to the neighborhood. It was a clever distraction. With the rise in popularity and creativity of Comic Books and Horror Movies, these elements also became part of the costuming of children and adults alike. These elements also helped associate Halloween throughout the rest of the 20th century as a time of the macabre, though much less harmful than it was in the late 19th and early 20th century with the rise of violence and vandalism at that time. Only small elements of such mischievousness has survived in our times.
St. Photios the Great, in his Myriobiblion, reviews a fiction story he read, in which he concludes the following regarding fiction stories: "In the story, particularly, as in fabulous fictions of the same kind, there are two considerations most useful to notice. The first is that they show that evildoers, even if they seem to escape a thousand times, always get their punishment; the second, that they show many innocents placed in great danger often saved against all hope." The fictional stories told around Halloween, the great majority of the time, contain these same elements St. Photios praises in his review. This is most especially evident in old Gothic tales, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and even found quite often in modern horror fiction and movies. To offer a different perspective of horror fiction, below are a few of many quotes by noted creators of horror, the sensational and the macabre, both in literature and film, that show that horror fiction is more about ourselves and our response to negative realities than just creating the element of fear for fear's sake: The famous horror director Guillermo del Toro says: "Monsters are living, breathing metaphors." Horror stories, like most fiction, are usually metaphors for something deeper that teaches us about ourselves, our environment or our situations of either the past, present or future. Noted horror author Stephen King has famously written: "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.� He also wrote in his masterful survey of horror, Danse Macabre, that, "Traditional Horror has a morality that would make a Puritan preacher smile." Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote to a friend something similar about his story that is full of metaphors: "Jekyll is a dreadful thing, I own, but the only thing I feel dreadful about is this damned old business of the war in the members. This time it came out; I hope it will stay in, in future." The war against innate evil, says Stevenson, is more dreadful than his tale of horror. George Romero, the director of the highly metaphorical Night of the Living Dead and the creator of the modern Zombie phenomenon, has commented: "I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters."
Based on all this information, what should be the response of the Church today? Do we continue to demonize this holiday by way of influence from fundamentalist Protestants and Neo-pagans, or do we separate the agreeable and disagreeable elements, the honey and the hemlock, and allow it to be as it is? Like every holiday in America, Halloween certainly has many disagreeable elements, but is this enough justification to prevent children from dressing up in a costume and having innocent childish fun? I leave this up to the reader to decide based on an educated opinion of the facts. Just keep in mind the famous saying of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." My personal suggestion is for the Church in America to embrace Halloween as much as is permissible, like any other holiday. There are no rules how to celebrate Halloween, so any disagreeable element can be ruled out. One need not go to a psychic on Halloween or participate in any pagan ceremony. It is not a rule to take on a persona of evil or become over-sexualized, or to vandalize and attend drunken parties to have fun on Halloween. Halloween is about expressing one's self in whatever way one chooses, and costumes have come to reflect this. Christians, young and old alike, are not compelled to do what they don't want to do on Halloween if they want to have some participation in it. It is alright for Christians to go trick or treating and give out candy on Halloween, because such practices have no evil element. In fact, I would argue that it entirely falls in line with the Christian attitude of showing neighborly love and hospitality. All Christian homes should turn on their lights and welcome their neighbor's children on Halloween, and even more so should Christian churches. I've often thought that the darkest element of Halloween are those homes and churches that refuse to turn their lights on for trick or treaters. There is no need to hand out icons and have children light candles before icons to sanctify the holiday, because this is not only giving in to an element of fear, but it also can be perceived as rude by non-Orthodox Christians.
The great silent horror actor Lon Chaney once said of the roles he played: "I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice. The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since The Hunchback of Notre Dame, such as The Phantom of the Opera, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do." Tragedy often gives birth to horror, but it cannot be denied that the most horrible elements are what we carry within ourselves. As Oscar Wilde wrote in his tale The Picture of Dorian Gray: "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.� G.K. Chesterton defended the sensational novel as his favorite form of fictional tale, and in his essay "Fiction as Food" he wrote: "High or low, good or bad, clever or stupid, a moral story almost always meant a murderous story. For the old Greeks a moral play was one full of madness and slaying. For the great medievals a moral play was one which exhibited the dancing of the devil and the open jaws of hell. For the great Protestant moralists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a moral story meant a story in which a parricide was struck by lightning or a boy was drowned for fishing on a Sunday. For the more rationalistic moralists of the eighteenth century, such as Hogarth, Richardson, and the author of Sandford and Merton, all agreed that shocking calamities could properly be indicated as the result of evil doing; that the more shocking those calamities were the more moral they were. It is only in our exhausted and agnostic age that the idea has been started that if one is moral one must not be melodramatic."
What about the macabre element of Halloween today? The macabre element of Halloween, like many apparently disagreeable and dark elements of all holidays, is really just a matter of perspective and attitude. First of all, the macabre is a natural element of the autumn season. Not only are the nights getting longer, but the weather is getting colder and the trees are stripped bare of their leaves. The colors and fragrances of death surround the atmosphere, and all we tend to see are cloudy days with lots of oranges, browns and blacks. Secondly,...
Southern writer Flannery O'Connor once wrote that to reach the deaf sometimes you have to shout. Many horror and supernatural tales have the ability to shake us out of our materialistic and naturalistic stupor to help us look deeper within ourselves as well as what is beyond ourselves. The spiritual life revolves around how we respond to temptations and trials of all kinds, and horror and supernatural tales often compel us to think what our response would be in the face of evil, temptation and suffering. To conclude, Halloween is what we decide to make of it. Our decision is based on how we wish to perceive it and interpret it. This in itself is essentially a celebration of Halloween 7