IN THEORY:How to treat Halloween?

What do you like best and hate most about Halloween?

I will be in Transylvania this Halloween. I am traveling to Romania with my son to visit some dying friends. We don’t hold Halloween in very high esteem. Hate is strong word, but I am very uncomfortable with the focus on death and destruction that dominates the celebration in costumes, house decorations, etc.

We focus on a great event in church history that happened on Oct. 31. Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the Church at Wittenburg. That day has become the day of independence for us. It is a day we celebrate as our freedom from religious ritual.

When I moved to Costa Mesa, I was excited about Halloween. I had always lived in areas where we didn’t get trick or treaters.

I was about to be enlightened.

It wasn’t my neighbors who came to my door but kids who had bused in from other communities. That was OK, but even their parents expected to get some candy in their bags. Then, as the night wore on, the kids got older and more aggressive. A group of teens showed up on our doorstep without costumes. When I asked them, they said they were dressed like skaters, snicker snicker. They came back twice. We decided to turn our lights off for the night as we had had enough. Another group of teens came to our door and knocked even though the light was out. We ignored the door and they kept knocking saying, “We know you’re in there; we can see your TV.”

Fortunately, congregations like Rock Harbor and the Crossing have combined forces to save us from these nights. They host the annual Hullabaloo at the Orange County Fairgrounds. The event is free and attracts thousands of kids. Of course, candy flows like water into the kids’ bags, but so do crafts.

In a country that struggles with childhood obesity and diabetes, I am uncomfortable with the tons of candy that are laid at my children’s feet in the days leading up to the event, even in the schools and churches. We just canceled an annual Trunk or Treat event that our congregation held annually because it focused on the kids getting tons of sugar from the decorated trunks of our cars. Instead, the kids will still be invited to wear their cute costumes to services.

Which leads me to what I like about Halloween. I love seeing the kids in their cute little princess and teddy bear costumes.

Halloween has become the iconic American holiday, and the celebrations and decorations are growing every year. I say it is iconic because it represents the growing expectation that we have a right to free stuff in America without working for it and without sacrifice. The kids at my door thought they deserved candy just because, but they learned it from our culture, where we have replaced our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with life, liberty and happiness.

LEAD PASTOR RIC OLSEN

The Beacon

Anaheim

There is nothing about Halloween that I like best or hate most. Having never participated in it, it flies (no doubt on a broom) beneath my celebratory radar. I do not denounce Halloween because of its pre-Christian pagan origins, nor urge avoidance because it became the Feast of All Saints. Do we imagine that children think they are mimicking Celtic observance or placating dead souls when holding open a bag for candy? The derivation of Halloween is so remote and its secularity so established that it is no longer a religious event, but simply a neighborhood occasion. Practices associated with Halloween seem to me fairly innocent, albeit somewhat annoying.

Halloween seems to be about superstition, and there is a tremendous history and lore in Judaism on this subject. The most familiar ritual of the Jewish wedding is breaking the glass upon conclusion of the ceremony. Since it is believed that demons and other mysterious troublemakers seek to upset our joy at happy occasions, and since they are frightened by noises, the groom crushes the glass to disperse the malignant forces that are poised to transform our happiness into sorrow.

Is this the reason Jewish grooms observe this ritual today? Hardly! Yet, it seems to work, since I have never officiated at a sad wedding.

Similarly, I do not respond “I am fine” to the question “How are you?” My confidence that all is in order is an invitation to forces seeking to undermine that health and stability. Instead, I answer, “Thank God.”

Pregnant women may avoid attending funerals; Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game, fielded precisely 150 ground balls in practice and drew the Hebrew word “chai” (life) in the batter’s box before facing the pitcher, though he is not Jewish; gamblers rub dice together; we wish each other God’s blessings upon hearing a sneeze; we give a bag filled with special ingredients to one moving into a new home; we dangle tchotchkes from our rearview mirrors; we reflexively knock wood. In Jewish cultural tradition, the practice has been to change the name of a seriously ill child to confound the Angel of Death who is unable to locate the bearer of the name listed on his roster.

All these efforts attempt to control a random, frightening universe and make causal connections.

Being the rational and sophisticated people we are, we regard superstition as pleasant nonsense. However, I am often plagued by nagging doubt.

A visitor to the great physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr noticed that above his laboratory he had affixed a horseshoe.

The visitor said, “Dr. Bohr, surely an eminent scientist such as you does not believe that stuff about a horseshoe.”

Bohr replied, “Of course not. But I understand that whether you believe in it or not, it brings you good luck.”

I look at Halloween, its superstitions, masks and costumes, as a bit of harmless fun. In this day and age, when real evil spirits abound, a little amusement is not so terrible!

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

I’m not directly involved in Halloween, since there isn’t much door-to-door trick-or-treating anymore. I think it is great fun for children and young adults to have costumes and parties, despite complaints about junk food, commercialization and paganism.

I do participate in the Day of the Dead observances. Each year I have a small altar with symbolic offerings to dead loved ones. I like the inexpensive hand-crafted Dia de los Muertos figures from Mexico — skeletons dressed as weight lifters, nurses, musicians and people involved in everyday activities. The murals of Diego Rivera portray these dancing skeletons in the midst of festivals and political uprisings. They remind us that death is a natural part of life. I enjoy seeing displays of Dia de los Muertos altars (ofrendas) in places like Olvera Street and would like to see the cemetery decorations in Mexico at Oaxaca or perhaps a less touristy place. The Day of the Dead is a time to remember and honor loved ones who have died and to reflect upon the joy of life.

In Buddhism, these commemorations are related to the summer Japanese Obon festivals, which include religious services and festivities to honor dead ancestors.

In Buddhism in the U.S., I think Halloween is a good time to talk about “the hungry spirits” or “ghosts.” This is a poetic expression of all who suffer, those who are consumed by desires they can never satisfy. They are usually depicted as ghostly figures with large stomachs and small mouths, hovering at the fringes of human life. We vow with all our love to release them. Of course, these hungry spirits are in all of us!

Halloween is the tip of the iceberg of fall holidays that invite us to appreciate our lives more by acknowledging their impermanence.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

Halloween is my least favorite celebration, but my wife loves it. She loves dressing up in costumes, decorating, creating creepylooking food and going to parties. And because I love my wife, I cooperate and get dressed up, eat the creepy food, look with amazement at the costumes people wear and wonder how all started.

Since I study religion and its origins going back 15,000 to 20,000 years, I would say that most of the celebrations are about reconciliation with our fears of death and the afterlife. To have a party and celebrate your ancestors and to dress up and become someone else — if only for an evening — all makes perfect sense when you consider the pressures and fears of modern society.

Consider Halloween an opportunity to thumb your nose at fear and put it into a proper perspective: an illusion commonly referred to as the acronym False Evidence Appearing Real.

SENIOR PASTOR JIM TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

Halloween — a.k.a. the Vigil of Hallowmas, All Hallow’s Eve — the evening before All Saints’ Day, begins two days, Nov. 1 and 2, when Christians remember all those who have preceded us to God’s heavenly banquet. This is a special time for remembering those who have been designated saints (and I love a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie’s, definition of saint as “a conspicuous Christian whose life has been insufficiently researched”).

It is also a time for remembrance of family members and friends. I love times of remembering and of glorifying God for memorable people in our collective and individual lives.

Hallowmas dates to 8th century Rome, and popular customs of our Halloween are similar to Roman harvest festivals, which used nuts and apples as traditional foods as well as figures of witches, black cats and skeletons as symbols.

Celtic influences in England introduced pranks and mischief; wandering groups of celebrants blocked doors of houses with carts, carried away gates and plows, tapped on windows and threw vegetables at doors.

In Ireland, groups went from house to house demanding food and other gifts in preparation for the evening’s festivities; prosperity was assured for liberal givers, and threats were made against stingy ones.

In the 20th century, Halloween pranks descended to vandalism.

In cities, “spooks” placed porch furniture on top of telephone poles, overturned garbage cans, opened water faucets and soaped windows in houses and stores. Episodes of poisoned candy and razors in fruit terrified.

As our contemporary lifestyles have emerged, material environments prioritized, vitality of folk beliefs and customs lessened and urbanization increased, public toleration for Halloween pranks has decreased. Who wants their property trashed or those they love threatened? Not me!

Tendencies to manipulate rather than to celebrate folk festivals such as Halloween are characteristic of our times. This reflects growing influence of empirical outlooks on life and the loss of imagination. The secular character of our culture is also reflected in public neglect of the religious remembrances of Halloween. This I lament.

Fortunately, children and childlike adults are least affected by this disenchantment and, consequently, the more important folk occasions tend to be appreciated and celebrated by the young and the young-at-heart.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar