The Sci Fi Catholic Yak Module
Thanks for the link.
I loved your article and your take on things.
I had to think to myself as I was reading the Mexico article, "Wait. You leave food. For dead people. That's not Catholic. That's Egyptian, my friends."
And they have a problem with my kid getting free candy?
(I know, I know. I respect the individual traditions of other countries, and I have no real problem with altars to the dead - but each time I think, "Wow! That particular belief or tradition is bizarre!" I try to also think of our weird customs and how they might be perceived by outsiders. The A. of Mexico City might want to try that sometime.)
Re food left to the dead: the cavemen were doing that. I think our modern system - giving food to the kids instead of to people who really aren't hungry - is better.
Fairies, unfortunately, are commonly viewed as Hallmark-card sorts of creatures nowadays, all sweetness and light and excessive femininity. Can't make much of a horror story with that kind of material.
Happy Hallowe'en,
Histor
P.S. I strongly recommend a Grim Reaper or Angel of Death costume for Hallowe'en. Very Catholic and Christian imagery. And since you mentioned "Beowulf" (another pagan thing Christianized by the Catholic Church) I would also recommend Grendel (complete with huge, removable arm) or his mother (perfect for the girls, right?).
"in the poem "The Fairies' Farewell," which Fuinseoig once printed in its entirety in a comment"
Why, D.G.D., what did you expect? I am Irish, you know! And so, for the time of year that's in it, another Hallowe'en poem:
The Aunt (by Patrick Galvin - this is was until quite recently, i.e. in my childhood, though that's going back to the early 70s and it was dying out even then, a real Irish custom of leaving out food and drink on the kitchen table for the dead of the family who would come back to visit their old home on All Soul's Night - the night of November 2nd)
On All Soul's Night
My father said the aunt was due.
We set a table near the fire
A glass of wine, a loaf of bread.
Was that the way to greet the dead?
My father said it was.
At three o'clock the aunt arrived
I heard her knocking at the door
And I went down to let her in.
Her eyes were wide and black as sloes
And she had clay upon her clothes
And she was thin.
Her breath was cold.
And as we sat beside the fire
I asked her if she'd like some wine.
She said she never touched the stuff
And honest bread was quite enough
When you were dead.
I watched her eating for an hour
And saw the grave beneath the skin
The moonlight through the bone.
Now and then she coughed and cried
And said she wished she hadn't died
The nights were chill.
At four o'clock she rose to go
But as she reached the kitchen door
She turned and kissed me on the lips
And then she smiled -
When you are not your father's child
We two shall wed.
Histor, J. R. R. Tolkien and many scholars after him will tell you Beowulf is inherently Christian, that Christianity is a core part of its story and worldview.
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